xref: /freebsd/share/man/man5/forward.5 (revision 6990ffd8a95caaba6858ad44ff1b3157d1efba8f)
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.  If the
45file is not present, then no mail forwarding will be done.
46Mail may also be forwarded as the standard input to a program
47by prefixing the line
48with the normal shell pipe symbol (|).  If arguments
49are to be passed to the command, then the entire line
50should be enclosed in quotes.  For security reasons, the
51.Nm .forward
52file must be owned by the user the mail is being sent to,
53or by root, and the user's shell must be listed in
54.Pa /etc/shells .
55.Pp
56For example, if a
57.Nm .forward
58file contained the following lines:
59.Bd -literal -offset indent
60nobody@FreeBSD.org
61"|/usr/bin/vacation nobody"
62.Ed
63.Pp
64Mail would be forwarded to
65.Aq nobody@FreeBSD.org
66and to the program
67.Pa /usr/bin/vacation
68with the single argument
69.Ar nobody .
70.Pp
71If a local user address is prefixed with a backslash
72character, mail is delivered directly to the user's
73mail spool file, bypassing further redirection.
74.Pp
75For example, if user chris had a
76.Nm .forward
77file containing the following lines:
78.Bd -literal -offset indent
79chris@otherhost
80\echris
81.Ed
82.Pp
83One copy of mail would be forwarded to
84.Ar chris@otherhost
85and another copy would be retained as mail for local user chris.
86.Sh FILES
87.Bl -tag -width $HOME/.forward -compact
88.It Pa $HOME/.forward
89The user's forwarding instructions.
90.El
91.Sh SEE ALSO
92.Xr aliases 5 ,
93.Xr mailaddr 7 ,
94.Xr sendmail 8
95