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Managing mail with MMDF

Alias and mailing list tables

System-wide alias and mailing list database tables are created by default in the /usr/mmdf/table directory (or the directory specified by the MTBLDIR parameter in the mmdftailor file.)

SCO OpenServer systems include one channel table called alias.n in /usr/mmdf/table.

Three common types of alias definitions include:

See also:

How alias tables are created

When you use the Alias Administration Manager to add an alias, you specify whether you want it to be a public address and whether you want to allow bypass. In addition, you can use an alias to redirect or pipe mail to another file or program. Your specifications when defining the alias determine which alias table will contain the alias entry.

These alias tables may be created:

Alias table Alias description
alias allow bypass, not public, not redirected
alias.n no bypass, not public, not redirected
alias.p allow bypass, public, not redirected
alias.t no bypass, not public, redirected or piped
alias.np no bypass, public, not redirected
alias.nt no bypass, not public, redirected or piped
alias.pt allow bypass, public, redirected or piped
alias.npt no bypass, public, redirected or piped

How MMDF uses alias tables

When mail is addressed to postmaster, MMDF routes the mail by first searching the alias tables to expand the postmaster alias to the associated user name. For example, the postmaster entry in the alias table:

   postmaster:	david
Each time MMDF expands an alias successfully, it goes back to the first alias table and begins another search. In a later search, it might find another alias associating david (from the example above) with a local machine name.

MMDF then uses this information when searching the various domain (.dom) tables, which map the local machine name to a fully qualified host name, and the channel (.chn) tables, which map the fully qualified host name to information on how to route the message. ``How MMDF routes mail'' further explains the process for searching configuration files.


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© 2003 Caldera International, Inc. All rights reserved.
SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 -- 11 February 2003