Aliases File (Forwarding)

Aliases File
The aliases file provides powerful and flexible address forwarding which alters RCPT routing fields during mail routing in a manner similar to the Address Re-writing facility. The aliases file (with no extension) must be implemented as a plain ASCII file and stored in the \database\configuration folder.

Text Editor
We recommend Notepad++ which lets you set the file format and BOM (byte-order-mark).
Regular MS Notepad tends to add a BOM when it detects Unicode and Mailtraq supports Unicode.
You need to save the file without a BOM

There is no user interface for the Aliases file in the console.

Note
As there is no user interface to this file in the Console you need to take care to carefully document any changes you make as they will not be obvious to you, or a subsequent Mail Administrator, in the future.

Support for use of this Feature is not included in your normal Mailtraq Support service.

 

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Syntax
entry ::= key ":" aliaslist
key::= <local or full email address or wildcard>
aliaslist ::= alias { "," alias }
alias::= address | ":" include
address::= <an email address>
include::= <pathname for file of email addresses>

 

The "include" text file must contain a single email address on each line starting in column one. A line commencing with a space (ASCII 32) or tab (ASCII 9) character is interpreted as belonging to the previous line (i.e. line wrapping). Relative pathnames are interpreted as having the configuration directory as their root. For example, the filename "aliases.ext" translates to "c:\mailtraq\database\configuration\aliases.ext". Comments may be included, provided they begin with hash "#" (ASCII 35) in column one.

Examples
# All inbound mail addressed to root@abc is
# redirected to user@abc

root: user

# All inbound mail addressed to webmaster@abc is
# redirected to john and to postmaster

webmaster: john, postmaster

# Inbound mail addressed to mailtraq@example.com is
# redirected to the addresses contained
# in the file mailtraq-dev.list then a copy is
# redirected to each of the comma separated addresses.
# Note the second line with a leading space to
# denote continuation from the first line

mailtraq@example.com: :mailtraq-dev.list, archive@example.com,
  user@bar.co.uk, user@foo.co.uk

# Contents of text file mailtraq-dev.list

john@example.com
dan@example.com
alan@bar.co.uk
jim@foo.co.uk

 

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Notes
Inbound mail rewritten to aliaslist is not also forwarded to the original recipient. In the first example above, mail addressed to root@abc is not forwarded to root@abc, only to user@abc. The address to which inbound mail is being sent may, however, also be added to aliaslist. Thus, using the first example again - root: user, root - would redirect inbound mail addressed to root@abc to both root@abc and to user@abc. Alternatively, any entry of "root" (without quotes) may be added to the Aliases tab of any mailslot in the console in which a copy of inbound mail to root@ is required.

 

Unlike Address Re-writing, fully qualified addresses, e.g. user@example.com, or addresses which are surrounded in quote marks (ASCII 34), e.g. "user@example.net" are treated literally in the aliases file. That is, Mailtraq does not treat Domain Name and Domain Aliases as being interchangeable and does not canonicalise those entries to localhost during routing.

The asterisk (ASCII 42) and question mark (ASCII 63) wildcards may be used in the key elements. Thus a key of *@example.com matches all users at that domain. Wildcards are not permitted in aliaslist elements.

After creating or making changes to the aliases file, Mailtraq should be restarted to ensure that its internal cache of the aliases file contents is updated.