xref: /freebsd/share/man/man5/forward.5 (revision 3c4ba5f55438f7afd4f4b0b56f88f2bb505fd6a6)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1996
2.\"	Mike Pritchard <mpp@FreeBSD.org>.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
13.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
14.\"	This product includes software developed by Mike Pritchard and
15.\"	contributors.
16.\" 4. Neither the name of the author nor the names of its contributors
17.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\"    without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\" $FreeBSD$
33.\"
34.Dd July 2, 1996
35.Dt FORWARD 5
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm forward
39.Nd mail forwarding instructions
40.Sh DESCRIPTION
41The
42.Nm .forward
43file contains a list of mail addresses or programs
44that the user's mail should be redirected to.
45If the
46file is not present, then no mail forwarding will be done.
47Mail may also be forwarded as the standard input to a program
48by prefixing the line
49with the normal shell pipe symbol (|).
50If arguments
51are to be passed to the command, then the entire line
52should be enclosed in quotes.
53For security reasons, the
54.Nm .forward
55file must be owned by the user the mail is being sent to,
56or by root, and the user's shell must be listed in
57.Pa /etc/shells .
58.Pp
59For example, if a
60.Nm .forward
61file contained the following lines:
62.Bd -literal -offset indent
63nobody@FreeBSD.org
64"|/usr/bin/vacation nobody"
65.Ed
66.Pp
67Mail would be forwarded to
68.Aq nobody@FreeBSD.org
69and to the program
70.Pa /usr/bin/vacation
71with the single argument
72.Ar nobody .
73.Pp
74If a local user address is prefixed with a backslash
75character, mail is delivered directly to the user's
76mail spool file, bypassing further redirection.
77.Pp
78For example, if user chris had a
79.Nm .forward
80file containing the following lines:
81.Bd -literal -offset indent
82chris@otherhost
83\echris
84.Ed
85.Pp
86One copy of mail would be forwarded to
87.Ar chris@otherhost
88and another copy would be retained as mail for local user chris.
89.Sh FILES
90.Bl -tag -width $HOME/.forward -compact
91.It Pa $HOME/.forward
92The user's forwarding instructions.
93.El
94.Sh SEE ALSO
95.Xr aliases 5 ,
96.Xr sendmail 8
97