NAME
expand_alias — recursively expands the sendmail aliases
SYNOPSIS
expand_alias
[-r
max_recursion]
[-t]
[-tt]
alias
DESCRIPTION
Expand_alias
is a shell script that recursively expands the
sendmail
aliases.
Through use of
telnet host 25
and the
expn
command, each alias is recursively expanded into its
destination(s). Indentation is used to show each level of recursion.
Because of the recursive use of
telnet,
expand_alias
is slow.
If the local
telnet
cannot directly connect to a remote system,
due to a firewall configuration,
expand_alias
will not be able to succeed. If the local
telnet
is to transparently connect across the firewall,
expand_alias
will be able to contact sendmail daemons outside the firewall,
allowing the alias to be more fully expanded. (For example, some local
telnet clients use a
socksd
located on the firewall to permit the
local
telnet
client to transparently connect to Internet hosts.
If the local default
telnet
uses a
socksd
in such a manner,
expand_alias
will use that
telnet
functionality to more fully expand an alias.)
max_recursion
defaults to 10. After
max_recursion
expansions,
no further expansion is attempted.
If
-t
is specified, only the terminal aliases will be displayed.
-tt
is similar to
-t
except that if a terminal line has a pipe, its
printing is suppressed and the previous level of expansion is printed
instead.
EXAMPLES
expand_alias root
expand_alias root@cat
expand_alias root@cat.cup.hp.com
expand_alias root@cup.hp.com
AUTHOR
expand_alias
was developed by the Hewlett-Packard Company.
