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Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!yale!ox.com!lokkur!scs
From: scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons)
Newsgroups: alt.sources,comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Alias Lister For Users
Message-ID: <1990Nov18.055118.28281@lokkur.dexter.mi.us>
Date: 18 Nov 90 05:51:18 GMT
References: <1990Nov17.023351.16824@lokkur.dexter.mi.us> <1990Nov18.020554.17860@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Organization: Inland Sea
Lines: 33


In article <1990Nov17.023351.16824@lokkur.dexter.mi.us> I wrote:

>Install it as 'printalias' (or the name of your choice) on a
>sendmail-based system, and it'll give you nice listings of who is in
>any given alias.  It's slow, but what the hell.

rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
> You might want to check out the IDA sendmail kit, available at several
>ftp sites (uxc.cso.uiuc.edu for example).  It includes a neat little
>command 'dbm' which can be used for the same purpose.  You would
>just say:  dbm fetch aliasname alias-file-name
>and get your listing.  It's fast, but what the hell.

I live and die by IDA, and strongly recommend it to anyone dealing with
sendmail on a regular basis.

But its dbm utility doesn't do the job.  We (and many other sites)
often have heirarchical aliases -- mail to `all' is aliased to
departments, departmental mail is aliased to groups, group mail is
aliased to people, some of whom have their secretaries copied on
everything.  Doing 'dbm fetch all /usr/lib/aliases' would only list the
first level.  Even doing multiple probes would not get a full answer,
as it would not interpret aliases of the form "include filename".
Using the printalias scripot script to drive sendmail and get the
complete interpretation is the only full correct answer I know of
without requiring a suid program.

Plus the slow correct answer is better that fast wrong one.  :-)
-- 
"When your neighbour loses his job, it's a slowdown; when you lose your own
 job, it's a recession; when an economist loses his job it's a depression."
	-- "Six Ways To Define A Recession", The Economist, Nov. 3 1990.