aliases.text(4)                     CLIX                     aliases.text(4)



  NAME

    aliases.text - Alias file for the Elm mail system

  DESCRIPTION

    The aliases.text file contains user-defined aliases for other users'
    addresses.  These aliases, in turn, may be placed in lists and defined by
    another alias, called a group alias.  Once the user creates this alias
    file, the newalias command must be run to install the new aliases.

    The format of aliases in the file has two forms.

    alias, alias, ... = comment = address


    alias, alias, ... = comment = alias, alias, ...

    The first form defines an alias for an individual user such as the
    following:

    john, smith = John Smith = abcdef!smithco!johns

    The second is for defining a group alias such as the following:

    gurus = Unix Gurus = alan, john, dave, mike, richard, larry

    A group alias can only contain aliases and users on the local machine.  It
    cannot contain a pathname such as joenode!joe.

    Note that an alias can be continued indefinitely as long as a space or tab
    begins each additional line.  Blank lines are accepted without error, and
    any line starting with a number sign (#) is a comment and is not
    processed.

    Finally, aliases can contain other aliases, and/or groups as in the
    following:

    unix = Unix people = gurus, taylor, jonboy


  EXAMPLES

    The following is a sample alias file.

    # alias file for John Smith
    #
    # user aliases are defined first
    joe     = Joe Samoa          = cs!rit!joe
    maoa    = Maoa Samoa         = hawaii!csuh!maoa
    mary    = Mary Jones         = office!mary



  2/94 - Intergraph Corporation                                              1

  aliases.text(4)                     CLIX                     aliases.text(4)



    jane    = Jane Doe           = local!school!jane
    butch   = Butch O'Hara       = home2!place!butch
    #
    # group aliases are defined next
    hawaii  = The Hawaiian Twins = joe, maoa
    tennis  = The Tennis Team    = mary, jane
    gang    = The Whole Crew     = mary, maoa, jane, joe, butch
    carpool = Carpoolers         = tennis, butch

    The user aliases must be defined first.  Notice that user aliases joe,
    maoa, mary, jane, and butch are separately defined.  Each line of the file
    contains one alias, a comment (which in this case is the person's full
    name), and address.

    Group aliases are defined next.  The previously-defined user aliases are
    now grouped in different ways under each alias.  Each line of the group
    alias contains an alias, a comment (in this case, a title for the group),
    and a list of user aliases.  Pathnames cannot be specified in the list of
    users; each user must be first defined with a user alias.  As the last
    group alias carpool shows, a previously-defined group alias (the alias
    tennis) may be in the list of aliases.

    Group aliases may continue indefinitely as long as each new line starts
    with a tab or space.

  FILES

    $HOME/.elm/aliases.text   The user's alias file.

  CAUTIONS

    User aliases must be defined before group aliases in the aliases.text
    file, or the following error message will appear:

    ** Alias alias in group group is bad!

    ** Not saving tables!  Please fix and re-run newalias!


  RELATED INFORMATION

    Commands:  newalias(1), elm(1), checkalias(1)

    ``The Elm Alias System User's Guide'' in the User's Guide.










  2                                              Intergraph Corporation - 2/94