1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
|
.TH dot-forward 1qmail
.SH NAME
dot-forward \- read a .forward file under qmail
.SH SYNOPSIS
in
.BR ~/.qmail :
.B | dot-forward
[
.B \-nN
]
.I file ...
.SH OVERVIEW
.B dot-forward
forwards incoming messages according to
sendmail-style
instructions in
.IR file ,
if
.I file
exists.
Normally
.I file
is
.BR .forward .
.B WARNING:
If you create a
.B .qmail
file to enable
.BR dot-forward ,
make sure to add a second line specifying delivery to your normal mailbox.
For example:
.EX
|dot-forward .forward
.br
./Mailbox
.EE
.B COMPATIBILITY WARNING:
.B dot-forward
does not support
.B :include:
or mbox deliveries.
You can use the delivery mechanism described in
.BR dot-qmail (5)
instead.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP 5
.B \-N
(Default.)
Read and forward a message.
.TP
.B \-n
Parse
.I file
and print the forwarding instructions in it, one per line;
do not follow the instructions.
You can use this option from the command line to see how your
.B .forward
file will be interpreted:
.EX
dot-forward -n .forward
.EE
.SH "FILE HANDLING"
When a message arrives,
.B dot-forward
opens
.I file
and handles it as discussed below.
It exits 99, so
.B qmail-local
will ignore further instructions in
.BR .qmail .
Exception: If
.I file
specifies delivery directly to you,
.B dot-forward
exits 0, so
.B qmail-local
will read further instructions in
.BR .qmail .
If
.I file
does not exist,
.B dot-forward
exits 0.
You can list several
.IR file s;
then
.B dot-forward
will try each one in turn,
using the first one that exists,
or exiting 0 if none exist.
.B COMPATIBILITY WARNING:
.B dot-forward
treats an empty
.I file
as if it did not exist.
Versions of
sendmail
before V8 would throw away the incoming message.
.B COMPATIBILITY WARNING:
If
.B dot-forward
encounters a temporary error opening
.IR file ,
it exits 111, so that
.B qmail-local
will try again later.
sendmail
assumes incorrectly that
.I file
does not exist.
.B COMPATIBILITY WARNING:
.I file
must be readable by
.BR dot-forward ,
which is normally running as the user.
sendmail
places different constraints on its
.B .forward
permissions,
since it is normally running as root.
.SH "FORWARDING"
Normally
.I file
contains an address.
.B dot-forward
forwards the message to that address.
The address is parsed as if it were in an RFC 822 message header.
Parenthesized comments and bracketed addresses are permitted:
.EX
bob (Bob, the postmaster) @heaven.af.mil
.EE
Addresses with special characters must be quoted:
.EX
"spaced out mailbox"@heaven.af.mil
.EE
Address groups are not permitted.
.I file
can contain any number of lines,
each line containing any number of addresses.
.B dot-forward
forwards the message to each address:
.EX
bob, fred, susan
.br
Joe Shmoe <shmoe@heaven.af.mil>
.EE
An address without a fully qualified domain name is handled
as described in
.BR qmail-header (5).
Exception: Certain addresses without domain names are handled specially,
as described below.
.SH "DIRECT DELIVERY"
If an address does not contain a domain name,
and matches the environment variable
.B $USER
(without regard to case),
it specifies delivery directly to you.
If an address matches
.B $USER@$HOST
(without regard to case),
it specifies delivery directly to you.
.B COMPATIBILITY WARNING:
sendmail's
handling of quotes and backslashes violates RFC 821 and RFC 822,
and is not supported by
.BR dot-forward .
.B dot-forward
treats
.B \ejoe
the same way as
.BR joe .
The
.B dot-qmail
delivery mechanism
lets each user manage several addresses,
so there is no need for a special syntax to get around forwarding.
.SH "COMMANDS"
If an address does not contain a domain name,
and begins with a vertical bar,
.B dot-forward
takes the rest of the address as a command to run:
.EX
bob, "|vacation bob"
.EE
.B dot-forward
feeds the message to the command,
preceded by the environment variables
.BR $UFLINE ,
.BR $RPLINE ,
and
.BR $DTLINE .
.B COMPATIBILITY WARNING:
Internet addresses can legitimately start with a slash or vertical bar.
.B dot-forward
treats anything with an unquoted @ as an address.
sendmail
appears to have various problems coping with these addresses,
and with commands that contain @ signs.
.SH "COMMENTS"
Any line in
.I file
that begins with # is ignored:
.EX
# this is a comment
.EE
.B COMPATIBILITY WARNING:
Versions of
sendmail
before V8 did not allow comments in
.B .forward
files.
.SH VERSION
This is
.B dot-forward
0.71.
The
.B dot-forward
home page is
.BR http://pobox.com/~djb/dot-forward.html .
.SH "SEE ALSO"
qmail-header(5),
dot-qmail(5)
|
