ALIASES(5)	    UNIX Programmer's Manual	       ALIASES(5)



NAME
     aliases - aliases file for sendmail

SYNOPSIS
     /etc/aliases

DESCRIPTION
     This file describes user id aliases used by
     /_u_s_r/_s_b_i_n/_s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l. It is formatted as a series of lines of
     the form
	  name: name_1, name2, name_3, . . .
     The _n_a_m_e is the name to alias, and the _n_a_m_e__n are the
     aliases for that name.  Lines beginning with white space are
     continuation lines.  Lines beginning with `#' are comments.

     Aliasing occurs only on local names.  Loops can not occur,
     since no message will be sent to any person more than once.

     After aliasing has been done, local and valid recipients who
     have a ``.forward'' file in their home directory have mes-
     sages forwarded to the list of users defined in that file.

     This is only the raw data file; the actual aliasing informa-
     tion is placed into a binary format in the files
     /_e_t_c/_a_l_i_a_s_e_s._d_i_r and /_e_t_c/_a_l_i_a_s_e_s._p_a_g using the program
     _n_e_w_a_l_i_a_s_e_s(1).  A _n_e_w_a_l_i_a_s_e_s command should be executed each
     time the aliases file is changed for the change to take
     effect.

SEE  ALSO
     newaliases(1), dbm(3X), sendmail(8)
     SENDMAIL Installation and Operation Guide.
     SENDMAIL An Internetwork Mail Router.

BUGS
     Because of restrictions in _d_b_m(3X) a single alias cannot
     contain more than about 1000 bytes of information.  You can
     get longer aliases by ``chaining''; that is, make the last
     name in the alias be a dummy name which is a continuation
     alias.















Printed 11/26/99	October 22, 1996			1