Level 1

15 points

.forward and aliases do not work

Hi,

I am new in Network Admin. I have just configured a XServe as a gateway between my local network and the Internet. The Internet connection works well, as the Mail Service.
My problem is the following, when I create a user account with an imap mailbox and I put in a .forward another address, the user mailbox receives mails while the forwarded address doesn't.
I have tried by creating a forwarded address directly in Server Admin or by filling /etc/aliases and /etc/postfix/aliases, then postalias /etc/(postfix/)aliases and newaliases. The problem is always the same.

Some idea ?

Thank you very much,
joe

MacPro Quad-Xeon 2,6GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Dec 13, 2007 12:34 PM

26 replies

joe-farka Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 18, 2007 8:54 AM in response to pterobyte

I depend of genopole.fr (it is my Institution, like a University if you prefer, we are a lab) where there are DNS servers and Internet router.
At the beginning, I had not enabled virtual domains and I had an error at each mail sent to epigenomique.genopole.fr -> "relay access denied". Since I have enabled virtual domains with epigenomique.genopole.fr, it has worked.

joe

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Dec 18, 2007 8:56 AM in response to joe-farka

That doesn't mean this is correct 😉

So you only need one domain then.

The correct configuration would be to add epigenomique.genopole.fr to local host aliases and take it out of virtual domains. Otherwise you will never get aliases and forwarders to work correctly.

joe-farka Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 18, 2007 9:09 AM in response to pterobyte

Ok,

it seems to work because mails come in and out. BUT, I have tried this command sendmail -bv <username> (the username that I have tried to configured a forwarding) and this that I obtain (it is forwarded while I deleted all forms of forwarding config, I don't understand where it comes from) :

This is the mail system at host ns.epigenomique.genopole.fr.

+<username@gmail.com> (expanded from <username>): delivery via local:+
+forwards to username@gmail.com+
+Reporting-MTA: dns; ns.epigenomique.genopole.fr+
+X-Postfix-Queue-ID: B6C5CE3CEC+
+X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; root@ns.epigenomique.genopole.fr+
+Arrival-Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:00:54 +0100 (CET)+

+Final-Recipient: rfc822; username@gmail.com+
+Original-Recipient: rfc822; username+
+Action: deliverable+
+Status: 2.0.0+
+Diagnostic-Code: X-Postfix; delivery via local: forwards to+
joan.herisson@gmail.com
+Received: by ns.epigenomique.genopole.fr (Postfix, from userid 0)+
+ id B6C5CE3CEC; Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:00:54 +0100 (CET)+
+From: root@ns.epigenomique.genopole.fr+
+Subject: probe+
+To: username@ns.epigenomique.genopole.fr+
+Message-Id: <20071218170054.B6C5CE3CEC@ns.epigenomique.genopole.fr>+
+Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:00:54 +0100 (CET)+

Thanks a lot,
joe

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Dec 18, 2007 10:20 AM in response to joe-farka

Check if there is a .forward file in the users home directory (it is invisible unless you are root).
Also check /etc/postfix/aliases

joe-farka Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 19, 2007 3:32 AM in response to pterobyte

.forward was filled !

Thank you very much even if I do not understand why epigenomique.genopole.fr is in aliases hosts while it is a sub-domain.

joe

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Dec 19, 2007 3:36 AM in response to joe-farka

Glad you got it sorted.

A virtual mail domain and a sub-domain are 2 different and unrelated things. What counts is which domain or subdomain your server is catering to. In your case you handle only one domain/subdomain and as such it is a local domain. The fact that you need to add it to local host aliases as well, is because of a "deficiency" of Server Admin.

Salut,
Alex

Feb 6, 2008 4:56 PM in response to joe-farka

Here's what I did to "fix" the 550 error and forwarding issue.

change the following line in /etc/postfix/main.cf from

mydestination = $myhostname,localhost.$mydomain,localhost

to

mydestination = $myhostname,localhost.$mydomain,localhost,$virtual mailboxdomains

This gives an error in mail.log but the sender doesn't get a 550 error and the mail is forwarded. Don't forget to sudo postfix reload

BTW, this is having the virtual domains set up in Server Admin.

Message was edited by: Andy Fragen

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Feb 7, 2008 2:55 AM in response to Andy Fragen

@Andy Fragen

Forwarding for virtual domains should be done via /etc/postfix/virtual and not .forward.

You are basically listing your virtual domains as local domains as well. Not a good idea.

Feb 7, 2008 8:28 AM in response to pterobyte

@pterobyte

I know it's a kludge. Here's what I've got. Several users defined in WGM with mail set to forward. Under 10.5 it seemed to work where mail would get forwarded if sent to the virtual email address and no new mailbox was created. It seems under 10.5.1 a new mailbox is created mail is forwarded but the sender is sent a message with a 550 error saying mailbox not defined or no permissions etc.

So my question is, without having to resort to redefining aliases according to your absolutely foolproof directions but staying within Server Admin, how to I accomplish this? Do I just add 'vdomain1.com' and 'vdomain2.com' each on its own line to the end of /etc/postfix/virtual? Or do I hope that Apple has fixed this with the 10.5.2 release that hopefully will appear soon?

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Feb 7, 2008 8:33 AM in response to Andy Fragen

@Andy Fragen

Only 2 proper solutions. Use my tutorial or wait for a fix in 10.5.x. Sad but true.

Feb 7, 2008 9:03 AM in response to pterobyte

@pterobyte

Thanks, that's what I thought. ::keeping fingers crossed for fix in 10.5.2::

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.forward and aliases do not work