Chapter 13. Mailing Lists and ~/.forward
As was shown in the previous chapter, the
sendmail program is able to obtain its list of
recipients from the aliases file. It can also
obtain lists of recipients from external files. In this chapter we
will examine the two forms that those external files take: the
:include: form (accessed from the
aliases file) and the individual
user's
~/.forward
file. Because the chief use of the
:include: form of alias is to create
mailing lists, we will first discuss mailing
lists in general, then their creation and management, and then the
user's ~/.forward file.
A mailing list is the name of a single recipient that,
when expanded by sendmail aliasing, becomes a
list of many recipients. Mailing lists can be internal (in which all
recipients are listed in the aliases file),
external (in which all recipients are listed in external files), or a
combination of the two. The list of recipients that forms a mailing
list can include users, programs, and files.
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