aliases(4)

NAME
     aliases - aliases file for sendmail

SYNOPSIS
     /etc/aliases

DESCRIPTION
     This file describes user id aliases used by /usr/lib/sendmail. It is
     formatted as a series of lines of the form

          name: name_1, name2, name_3, . . .

     The name is the name to alias, and the name_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 messages forwarded to the
     list of users defined in that file.

     This is only the raw data file; the actual aliasing information is placed
     into a binary format in the files /etc/aliases.dir and /etc/aliases.pag
     using the program newaliases(1).  A newaliases command should be executed
     each time the aliases file is changed for the change to take effect.

INCLUSION
     Inclusion is specified in RFC733 syntax:

          :include: pathname

     An address of this form reads the file specified by pathname and sends to
     all users listed in that file.

     For example, an alias of the form:

          project: :include:/usr/project/userlist

     is a method of letting a project maintain a mailing list without
     interaction with the system administration, even if the alias file is
     protected.

     It is not necessary to rebuild the binary alias database (via the
     newaliases(1) program described above) when the contents of an :include:
     list is changed.  (You will, however, have to rebuild the binary alias
     database if the pathname changes.)
SEE ALSO
     newaliases(1), sendmail(1M)

BUGS
     Because of restrictions in dbm(3B) a single alias cannot contain more
     than about 1000 bytes of information.  The best solution is to use a
     include file as described above. You can also get longer aliases by
     ``chaining''; that is, make the last name in the alias be a dummy name
     which is a continuation alias.