Sendmail, 3rd Edition

Name

ForwardPath

Synopsis

When mail is being delivered to a local user, sendmail normally attempts to open and read a file in the user’s home directory called .forward. If that file exists and is readable, the addresses in that file replace the local username for delivery.^[33]

Under V8 sendmail the ForwardPath option is used to define alternative names and locations for the user’s ~/.forward file.

The forms of the ForwardPath option are as follows:

O ForwardPath=path            ← configuration file (V8.7 and later) 
-OForwardPath=path            ← command line (V8.7 and later) 
define(`confFORWARD_PATH',path)   ← mc configuration (V8.7 and later) 
OJpath                        ← configuration file (V8.6 deprecated) 
-oJpath← command line (V8.6 deprecated) 

The path is a colon-separated list of files. An attempt is made to open and read each in turn, from left to right, until one is successfully read:

define(`confFORWARD_PATH',`/var/forward/$u:$z/.forward')

Macros can, and should, be used in the path file locations. In this example, sendmail first looks in the file /var/forward/$u (where the macro $u contains the user’s login name, $u). If that file can’t be opened for reading, sendmail tries reading $z/.forward (where the $z macro contains the user’s home directory, $z). Other macros of interest are $w (the local hostname, $w), $f (the user’s full name, $f), $h (the user’s +detail, Section 12.4.4), $r (the sending protocol, $r), and $s (the sending host, $s). The recommended declaration is to use the name of the local host. Thus: ...