FORWARD(5)                NetBSD File Formats Manual                FORWARD(5)

NAME
     forward -- mail forwarding instructions

DESCRIPTION
     The .forward file contains a list of mail addresses or programs that the
     user's mail should be redirected to.  If the file is not present, then no
     mail forwarding will be done.  Mail may also be forwarded as the standard
     input to a program by prefixing the line with the normal shell pipe sym-
     bol (|).  If arguments are to be passed to the command, then the entire
     line should be enclosed in quotes.  For security reasons, the .forward
     file must be owned by the user the mail is being sent to, or by root, and
     the user's shell must be listed in /etc/shells.

     For example, if a .forward file contained the following lines:

           nobody@FreeBSD.org
           "|/usr/bin/vacation nobody"

     Mail would be forwarded to <nobody@FreeBSD.org> and to the program
     /usr/bin/vacation with the single argument nobody.

     If a local user address is prefixed with a backslash character, mail is
     delivered directly to the user's mail spool file, bypassing further redi-
     rection.

     For example, if user chris had a .forward file containing the following
     lines:

           chris@otherhost
           \chris

     One copy of mail would be forwarded to chris@otherhost and another copy
     would be retained as mail for local user chris.

FILES
     $HOME/.forward  The user's forwarding instructions.

SEE ALSO
     aliases(5), mailaddr(7), sendmail(8)

NetBSD 5.0_STABLE                July 2, 1996                NetBSD 5.0_STABLE
