Re: Remote .forward lookups

[Edwin Allum <edwin@cs.toronto.edu>]

> 
> Our site has two main servers: one strictly for mail and one the users log
> into.  Their home directories are housed on their home machine.  Is there
> a way (other than NFS mounting the partitions) to query the users machine
> for their .forward file information?  My guess is that someone has run
> into this problem before and I wouldn't want to "re-invent the wheel". 
> 
> The reason why NFS mounting is not a viable alternative is not easily
> explained and not particularly relevant to the problem, anyway. 
> 
> If it is relevant, we are running SunOS 4.1.4 and Rayan's zmailer.
> 
> Thanks for your time and any hints or pointers.

The method of .forward processing is dependant on what your environment is like
and what you're willing to live with.

If you want full .forward processing capabilites to take place transparently to
the user then the machine processing the .forward file must have the same
environment that the user expects.

That is, it should have a home directory and any local programs (filters, etc.)
that the user can use in his .forward file. Of course you can put restrictions
on what users can do but this is just more of any annoyance to the user.

There are different ways of accomplishing this. The method that is used here is
that our NFS user fileservers all run a mailer specifically to process .forward
files. There is a seperate mail server that handles all incoming and outgoing
mail.

The point is that just knowing what the contents of the .forward file, isn't
sufficient to process it, unless you tell users what they can't do.

Edwin.