THE VIRTUAL SERVER HANDBOOK

To create wildcard mappings

1.

From your virtual server  

~/etc/virtmaps

 file, enter

hostname recipient

(where "hostname" is replaced with the hostname you want to create the

wildcard for and "recipient" is replaced with the recipient address)

2.

From the command prompt, enter 

vnewvirtmaps

. This action

recreates the 

~/etc/virtmaps.db

 file so the changes take effect.

Sample virtmaps file with wildcard mappings

#abc.com mappings

bob@abc.com

bob@aol.com

webmaster@abc.com

carol

abc.com

carol

#xyz.com mappings

bob@xyz.com

bob

webmaster@xyz.com

john

xyz.com

bob

Note:  Place wildcard mappings anywhere in the 

~/etc/virtmaps

 file,

however, you should place them at the end of the section to emphasize

their nature as a default recipient (if none of the previous mappings

match).

Combining Mappings and Aliases

When a piece of new mail arrives, address mappings are processed first,

before aliases are checked. Once the address mapping process is complete

and a local recipient has been determined, the aliases database is checked

next to see if the recipient exists as an alias. If so, the message is routed to

the target of the alias. If not, the recipient must exist as a local username

and a delivery attempt is made to place the message in his or her incoming

mailbox.

Differences between virtmaps and

aliases

One difference between the 

~/etc/virtmaps

 and 

~/etc/aliases

files is that multiple recipients must not be listed in a single address

mapping.

A related difference lies in the fact that the right hand portion of an

~/etc/virtmaps

 line should consist of solely of a recipient address and

must not contain any of the more advanced features.  Items such as :include:

statements, delivery to a file (signaled by 

a /

 character), or delivery to a

program (signaled by 

a / 

character) may not be used in the virtmaps file.

COPYRIGHT 

 1999  DIGITAL TOOLS  LLC.

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