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Re: forward files not in $HOME



> Hi,
> 
> in order to avoid mounting each an every homedirectory (they are widely
> distributed in our environment) on every mail delivery, we have forward
> files in /var/spool/mail/forward/username, not in ~/.forward. To make it 
> a bit easier to configure this, I've made a patch for aliases.cf. This
> does correct some other errors, too.
> 
> The patch is attached, hope you find it useful.

	I did find it interesting, but not QUITE flexible enough
	to make into the main source as is.

	How about a scheme of style:

# (in initialization phase)
if [ -d $MAILBOX/forward ] ; then
	fwdbydir=1
else
	fwdbydir=0
fi

# --- in processing phase
if [ $fwdbydir ] ; then
	forward="$MAILBOX/forward/$lcuser"
else
	forward="$homedir/.forward"
fi


	This could make more sense...

	Your scheme has another shortcoming.  If the users are
	using some programs to process their incoming email,
	they will get surprises when their  $HOME/  is not
	available to those programs (like for  .procmailrc),
	never mind where the ".forward" file resides.

	But yes, as long as the deliveries are done without such
	trickery, the idea of  $MAILBOX/forward/  directory is
	neat -- until you have user whose userid is "forward" :-/
	( Start the name with a dot ?  $MAILBOX/.forward/ ? )

> Greetings, Swen

/Matti Aarnio <mea@nic.funet.fi>