[CentOS] sendmail alias

[Stephen Harris]

On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 02:39:37PM +0100, G?tz Reinicke - IT-Koordinator wrote:
> how are mails forwarded, if I do have the same alias pointing to two
> different users like this (two entries, two lines):
> 
> bon.aqua: coke
> bon.aqua: pepsi

That will not work.

> Will coke and pepsi get the mail adressed to bon.aqua or will only the
> first entry get the mail?

You'll get a warning message

  $ grep testme /etc/aliases
  testme: user1
  testme: user2
  $ newaliases
  /etc/aliases: line 105: testme... Warning: duplicate alias name testme
  /etc/aliases: 80 aliases, longest 10 bytes, 812 bytes total

I think the second entry will get the mail; aliases are stored as db
or dbm files, and so only have one value per key.  Sendmail doesn't
merge keys.  (At least looking at the resulting DB file I only see
"user2" in the file).

> I know, that "bon.aqua: coke, pepsi" will forward the mails to coke and
> pepsi,

That is the correct format.  Use it :-)

-- 

rgds
Stephen