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   1 .TH MH-ALIAS 5 RAND
   2 .SH NAME
   3 mh-alias \- alias file for mh message system
   4 .SH DESCRIPTION
   5 The Alias file for mail delivery is the file
   6
   7         /etc/MailAliases
   8
   9 Each line of the alias file has the format:
  10
  11 match : alias
  12
  13 Where:
  14
  15         alias       :=  simple-list
  16 .br
  17                     |   "<" alias-file
  18 .br
  19                     |   "=" UNIX-group
  20 .br
  21                     |   "*"
  22
  23 .br
  24         simple-list :=  simple-name
  25 .br
  26                     |   simple-list, simple-name
  27
  28 .PP
  29 Alias-file is a fully qualified UNIX file name.  UNIX-group is a
  30 group name from /etc/group.  A simple-name is a local user login
  31 name, including only alphanumerics, `.' and `\-'.  Throughout this
  32 file, case is ignored, except for alias-file names.
  33 .PP
  34 In match, a trailing * on a name will match anything. (See example
  35 below.)
  36 .PP
  37 The procedure for mail aliasing is:
  38 .br
  39 .HP 3
  40 1) Build a list of all addresses from the message to be
  41 delivered, eliminating duplicates.
  42 .br
  43 .HP 3
  44 2) For each line in the alias file, compare "match" against all
  45 of the existing addresses.  If a match, remove the matched
  46 name from the address list, and add each new alias name to the
  47 address list if it is not already on the list.
  48 .PP
  49 Since the alias file is read line by line, forward references
  50 work, but backward references are not recognized, thus, there is
  51 no recursion.
  52 .PP
  53 \fBExample:\fR
  54 .br
  55         Borden: bruce
  56 .br
  57         Bruce: bsb
  58 .br
  59         Wahrman: mike
  60 .br
  61         ASRL: bsb, mike, obrien, giarla
  62 .br
  63         UNIX-committee: < /usr/people/unix-committee
  64 .br
  65         System: = sys
  66 .br
  67         Everyone: *
  68 .br
  69         news.*: news
  70            ...
  71 .PP
  72 In the "unix-committee" example, the file "/usr/people/unix-
  73 committee" contains one simple-name, or a list of comma separated
  74 simple-names.  A new-line will be treated as a blank in this
  75 file, s.a.
  76 .br
  77         foo, fie,
  78 .br
  79         fum, fiddle
  80 .PP
  81 In the "system" case, the names from the group "sys" will be used
  82 as the expanded name list.
  83 .PP
  84 In the "news.*" case, all names of the form "news.<anything>" will
  85 be mapped to "news".  This is used for the MH news facility.
  86 .SH FILES
  87 /etc/MailAliases
  88 .SH SEE ALSO
  89 deliver(8),group(5),ali(1),