forward(5)

NAME

     forward --- email forwarding information file

DESCRIPTION

     Users may put a .forward file in their home directory.  If this file
     exists, smtpd(8) forwards email to the destinations specified therein.

     A .forward file contains a list of expansion values, as described in
     aliases(5).  Each expansion value should be on a line by itself.
     However, the .forward mechanism differs from the aliases mechanism in
     that it disallows file inclusion (:include:) and it performs expansion
     under the user ID of the .forward file owner.

     Permissions on the .forward file are very strict and expansion is
     rejected if the file is group or world-writable; if the home directory is
     group writeable; or if the file is not owned by the user.

     Users should avoid editing directly the .forward file to prevent delivery
     failures from occurring if a message arrives while the file is not fully
     written.  The best option is to use a temporary file and use the mv(1)
     command to atomically overwrite the former .forward.  Alternatively,
     setting the sticky(8) bit on the home directory will cause the .forward
     lookup to return a temporary failure, causing mails to be deferred.

FILES

     ~/.forward     Email forwarding information.

EXAMPLES

     The following file forwards mail to "user@example.com", and pipes the
     same mail to "examplemda".

       # empty lines are ignored

       user@example.com        # anything after # is ignored
       "|/path/to/examplemda"

SEE ALSO

     aliases(5), smtpd(8)

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