VIRTUAL(5)                                             VIRTUAL(5)


NAME
       virtual - format of Postfix virtual table

SYNOPSIS
       postmap /etc/postfix/virtual

DESCRIPTION
       The  optional  virtual  table  specifies  redirections for
       local and non-local recipients or  domains.  The  redirec-
       tions  are used by the cleanup(8) daemon. The redirections
       are recursive.

       The virtual redirection is applied only to  the  recipient
       envelope  address,  and  does  not affect message headers.
       Think Sendmail rule set S0, if you like. Use  canonical(5)
       mapping  to  rewrite header and envelope addresses in gen-
       eral.

       The file serves as input to the  postmap(1)  command.  The
       result,  an  indexed file in dbm or db format, is used for
       fast searching by the mail system. After an update it  may
       take  a  minute  or  so before the change becomes visible.
       Issue a postfix reload command to eliminate the delay.

       Typical support for a virtual domain looks like  the  fol-
       lowing:

           virtual.domain       anything (right-hand content does not matter)
           user1@virtual.domain address1
           user2@virtual.domain address2, address3

       With this, the SMTP server accepts mail for virtual.domain
       (provided that the relay_domains parameter includes  $vir-
       tual_maps), and mail for unknown@virtual.domain is bounced
       as undeliverable.

       The format of the virtual table is  as  follows,  mappings
       being tried in the order as listed in this manual page:

       blanks and comments
              Blank  lines  are  ignored,  as are lines beginning
              with `#'.

       user@domain address, address, ...
              Mail for  user@domain  is  redirected  to  address.
              This form has the highest precedence.

       user address, address, ...
              Mail  for  user@site  is redirected to address when
              site is equal to $myorigin, when site is listed  in
              $mydestination,   or   when   it   is   listed   in
              $inet_interfaces.

              This functionality overlaps with  functionality  of



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VIRTUAL(5)                                             VIRTUAL(5)


              the local alias(5) database. The difference is that
              virtual  mapping  can  be  applied   to   non-local
              addresses.

       @domain address, address, ...
              Mail  for  any  user  in  domain  is  redirected to
              address.  This form has the lowest precedence.

       In all the above forms, when address has the form  @other-
       domain,  the result is the same user in otherdomain.  This
       works for the first address in the expansion only.

ADDRESS EXTENSION
       When the search fails, and the address localpart  contains
       the  optional recipient delimiter (e.g., user+foo@domain),
       the search is repeated for the  unextended  address  (e.g.
       user@domain), and the unmatched address extension is prop-
       agated to the result of expansion. The matching order  is:
       user+foo@domain, user@domain, user+foo, user, and @domain.

BUGS
       The table format does not understand quoting  conventions.

CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
       The  following  main.cf parameters are especially relevant
       to this topic. See the Postfix  main.cf  file  for  syntax
       details  and  for  default  values. Use the postfix reload
       command after a configuration change.

       virtual_maps
              List of virtual mapping tables.

       Other parameters of interest:

       inet_interfaces
              The network interface addresses  that  this  system
              receives mail on.

       mydestination
              List  of  domains  that  this mail system considers
              local.

       myorigin
              The domain that is appended to locally-posted mail.

       owner_request_special
              Give special treatment to owner-xxx and xxx-request
              addresses.

SEE ALSO
       cleanup(8) canonicalize and enqueue mail
       postmap(1) create mapping table





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VIRTUAL(5)                                             VIRTUAL(5)


LICENSE
       The Secure Mailer license must be  distributed  with  this
       software.

AUTHOR(S)
       Wietse Venema
       IBM T.J. Watson Research
       P.O. Box 704
       Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
















































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