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| Hosting > VPS > Linux VPS > Getting Started Guide > | Sunday, July 20, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Linux VPS3 Getting Started Guide: Configuring E-mailAll user email boxes reside in the /var/spool/mail directory. The system automatically creates email boxes for server users. If no other email routing settings (such as aliases or virtual user tables) are configured, by default the username of each user functions as a valid email for all domains that resolve to the server. For example, if domain1.com and domain2.com resolve to the server, for the user bob, both bob@domain1.com and bob@domain2.com would deliver email to the /var/spool/mail/bob email box. The system checks for matches in email routing and addresses in the following order and delivers to the first match it finds:
Note: To edit the virtusertable and aliases files, you must be the root user. You can become the root user by typing su at the command line and supplying the root user password. Virtual User TablesVirtual user tables (or virtusertable) route the full email address (both sides of the "@") to a local user, alias, or remote email address, but cannot direct to files or programs. Only aliases can route email to a file or program. A virtusertable consists of the virtusertable and its destination, or direction. For example, a virtusertable for bob@domain1.com could be directed to the user bob with the following virtusertable entry:bob@domain1.com bob Virtusertable enable you to create email addresses without the need to create a corresponding user. For example, a virtusertable for bob@domain2.com could be directed to bob@remotedomain.com with the following virtusertable entry: bob@domain2.com bob@remotedomain.com In this example, remotedomain.com would indicate a remote domain which does not resolve to your Linux VPS account. Specify virtusertable in the /etc/mail/virtusertable file, with one virtusertable entry per line. The virtusertable.sample file provided with each server contains example virtusertable. You can change virtusertable settings by editing the virtusertable file and then executing the vnewvirtusertable command from the command prompt to load the virtusertable into the system. Any time you make a change to the /etc/mail/virtusertable text file, you will need to create a db file that sendmail can read. The following command will create the /etc/mail/virtusertable.db file when run by a root user: # makemap hash /etc/mail/virtusertable < /etc/mail/virtusertable CatchallsCatchall virtusertable should be used sparingly. Spammers often send many emails to every conceivable address for a domain, often numbering in the thousands. A catchall virtusertable would cause the system to receive all of these emails and direct them to the recipient.A catchall virtusertable directs all email not otherwise configured with a virtusertable for a given domain to a single recipient. For example, the following catchall virtusertable would direct all email not configured with another virtusertable for the domain company.com to the joe user: @company.com joe If no virtusertable exists for an email address, and a catchall virtusertable is configured for the domain, the system would route all email sent to that address to the catchall virtusertable. AliasesEmail aliases simply forward email to a user, another alias, email address, list of addresses, file, or program. Aliases enable you to create email addresses without the need to create a corresponding user. For example, the following alias would forward email sent to webmaster@domain.com to the stan user:webmaster: stan Aliases also enable you to send email to a list or to a program. For example, the following alias would forward email sent to sales@corporation.com to the bob, joe, and stan users: sales: bob,joe,stan For long email lists, place the emails in a file, one address per line, and use the include option. For example, the following alias would forward email sent to promotion@website.com to all addresses in the /lists/promotion file: promotion: :include: /lists/promotion Specify aliases in the /etc/aliases file, with one alias per line. You configure the aliases by editing the aliases file according to your needs. After making changes to the file, execute the newaliases command from the command prompt to load the aliases into the system. The system only considers the first portion of the email address (before @) for aliases. To direct an entire email address to a certain recipient, use a virtusertable. |
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