mailalias(1)                                                   mailalias(1)

NAME
     mailalias - translate mail alias names

SYNOPSIS
     mailalias [option ...] name ...

DESCRIPTION
     Since mail addresses for electronic messages are often long and
     cumbersome, simple alias names may be defined for complex addresses.

     The mailalias command helps to determine the original mail addresses
     which correspond to simplified aliases.

     mailalias is called by mail.

OPTIONS
     No option specified:
          A list of mail addresses corresponding to the specified alias
          name is written to standard output.

     -s   (silent) Normally, if more than one name is being translated,
          each line of output will be prefixed with the name being
          translated. The -s option causes this prefix to be omitted.

     -v   (verbose) Causes debugging information to be written to standard
          output. This allows the user to trace program execution.

     name One or more mail aliases.

   Mode of operation

     mailalias finds mail addresses by performing the following steps:

     -  It looks for the file /var/mail/name. If it finds it, it prints
        name and exits.

     -  It looks for matching mail addresses in the user's local alias file
        $HOME/lib/names. If it finds a line beginning with the word name,
        it writes the rest of the line to standard output and exits.

     -  It looks for matching mail addresses in the system-wide alias
        files, which are listed in

        /etc/mail/namefiles. If it finds a line beginning with the word
        name, it writes the rest of the line to standard output and exits.

        By default, the system file /etc/mail/namefiles lists the directory
        /etc/mail/lists and the file /etc/mail/names.

        If the specified alias file is a directory name dir, mailalias
        looks for a file dir/name.




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mailalias(1)                                                   mailalias(1)

     -  If no mail addresses are found in any of the preceding steps (for
        example, if you have mistyped the alias or there is no such alias),
        mailalias simply prints the alias name and exits.

   Format of alias files

     The alias files contain lines in the following format:

     aliasname list-of-addresses

     Individual addresses on these lines are separated by white space.
     Lines may be continued by placing a backslash (\) at the end of the
     line. Lines beginning with a hash character (#) are comments.

EXAMPLES
     Example 1

     Finding the original mail address for the alias zaphod:

     $ mailalias zaphod
     phil@ap343steve

     Example 2

     Finding the original mail address for the alias zaphod, with program
     execution being traced on the screen:

     $ mailalias -v zaphod
     translatename(zaphod, /etc/mail/lists /etc/mail/names , )
     lookup(zaphod, /home3/gast/lib/names, )
     lookup(zaphod, /etc/mail/lists, )
     lookup(zaphod, /etc/mail/names, )
     phil@ap343steve

FILES
     $HOME/lib/names
          File containing private aliases.

     /etc/mail/namefiles
          List of files to be searched.

     /etc/mail/names
          Standard file to be searched.

SEE ALSO
     mail(1), uucp(1), smtp(1M), smtpd(1M), smtpqer(1M), smtpsched(1M),
     tosmtp(1M).







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