On 2004-02-17, Paul Johnson penned: > > On Tue, Feb 17, 2004 at 10:37:36AM -0700, Monique Y. Herman wrote: >> Is it possible to configure the /etc/aliases file such that any alias >> that is not explicitly correlated to a local user is sent to some >> user by default? If so, how, or where is it documented? > > Not easily, and this is a Good Thing(tm). > >> In other words, if someone emails a non-existent user on the system, >> I want that mail to go to a specific place every time. > > Trust me when I say this: You don't. You will only see an increase > in spam and virus reception if you do this. Why? Well, both spammers > and the worms coming from members of the Bug of the Week Club will > tend to just guess email addresses or try sending to message-IDs it > finds in mailing list and news archives. So all that junk for > nonexistent users will get through. Judging by my mail server logs, > these run between 2:1 to 3:1 on the junk:mail ratio. >
Trust me when I say this: I do. Believe me, I'm well aware of all of these points. But after using a provider's email system in precisely this way for a few years, I have a plethora of undocumented usernames floating around, and I don't want to lose email just because I can't remember them. Should I have been documenting the various usernames I've published? Yes. But no use crying over spilled milk. In any case, I didn't ask if this was a good idea =P I asked if it could be done, as it clearly could be on my provider's end. -- monique -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
