Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!mephisto!prism!rh26 From: rh26@prism.gatech.EDU (Robert L. Howard) Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail Subject: .forward question Keywords: sendmail Message-ID: <6241@hydra.gatech.EDU> Date: 21 Feb 90 18:38:38 GMT Reply-To: rh26@prism.gatech.EDU (Robert L. Howard) Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology Lines: 30 This is probably a simple minded sendmail question, but here goes... How does sendmail (on machine A) determine if a particular user exists on that machine (when receiving mail for delivery)? There are two considerations here: 1. Will it just (blindly) write the message to /var/spool/mail without consulting anything? Or, what does it consult? 2. How (assuming it accepts the message) does it determine the location of the home directory for that user in order to consult the .forward file? Here is the scenario. SunOS 4.x running YP, so that there are no local passwd or aliases files. We want all mail to go to mailhost and then mount /var/spool/mail on the clients. The problem I imagine here is that home directories not on mailhost won't be searched for .forward. (We do run the automounter.) Is any of this possible? (or is this a stupid question?) Thanks for your attention, Robert (reply via mail is adequate) ---- -- Robert L. Howard (GTRI/STL/MSD) (404) 528-7165 Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!rh26 Internet: rh26@prism.gatech.edu