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NAME

       virtual - Postfix virtual alias table format

SYNOPSIS

       postmap /etc/postfix/virtual

       postmap -q "string" /etc/postfix/virtual

       postmap -q - /etc/postfix/virtual <inputfile

DESCRIPTION

       The  optional  virtual(5)  alias table rewrites recipient addresses for
       all local, all virtual, and all  remote  mail  destinations.   This  is
       unlike  the  aliases(5) table which is used only for local(8) delivery.
       Virtual aliasing is  recursive,  and  is  implemented  by  the  Postfix
       cleanup(8) daemon before mail is queued.

       The main applications of virtual aliasing are:

       ·      To redirect mail for one address to one or more addresses.

       ·      To  implement  virtual  alias  domains  where  all addresses are
              aliased to addresses in other domains.

              Virtual alias domains are not to be confused  with  the  virtual
              mailbox domains that are implemented with the Postfix virtual(8)
              mail  delivery  agent.  With  virtual  mailbox   domains,   each
              recipient address can have its own mailbox.

       Virtual  aliasing  is applied only to recipient envelope addresses, and
       does not affect message headers.  Use canonical(5) mapping  to  rewrite
       header and envelope addresses in general.

       Normally,  the  virtual(5) alias table is specified as a text file that
       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.
       Execute  the  command  "postmap  /etc/postfix/virtual"  to  rebuild  an
       indexed file after changing the corresponding text file.

       When  the  table  is provided via other means such as NIS, LDAP or SQL,
       the same lookups are done as for ordinary indexed files.

       Alternatively, the table can be provided as  a  regular-expression  map
       where  patterns  are  given  as  regular expressions, or lookups can be
       directed to TCP-based server. In those case, the lookups are done in  a
       slightly  different  way  as  described below under "REGULAR EXPRESSION
       TABLES" or "TCP-BASED TABLES".

CASE FOLDING

       The search string is folded to lowercase before database lookup. As  of
       Postfix  2.3,  the search string is not case folded with database types
       such as regexp: or pcre: whose lookup fields can match both  upper  and
       lower case.

TABLE FORMAT

       The input format for the postmap(1) command is as follows:

       pattern result
              When   pattern  matches  a  mail  address,  replace  it  by  the
              corresponding result.

       blank lines and comments
              Empty lines and whitespace-only lines are ignored, as are  lines
              whose first non-whitespace character is a ‘#’.

       multi-line text
              A  logical  line  starts  with  non-whitespace text. A line that
              starts with whitespace continues a logical line.

TABLE SEARCH ORDER

       With lookups from indexed files such as DB or DBM,  or  from  networked
       tables  such  as  NIS,  LDAP or SQL, patterns are tried in the order as
       listed below:

       user@domain address, address, ...
              Redirect mail for user@domain to address.   This  form  has  the
              highest precedence.

       user address, address, ...
              Redirect  mail  for  user@site  to address when site is equal to
              $myorigin, when site is listed in $mydestination, or when it  is
              listed in $inet_interfaces or $proxy_interfaces.

              This  functionality  overlaps  with  functionality  of the local
              aliases(5) database. The difference is that  virtual(5)  mapping
              can be applied to non-local addresses.

       @domain address, address, ...
              Redirect  mail  for other users in domain to address.  This form
              has the lowest precedence.

              Note: @domain is a wild-card. With this form, the  Postfix  SMTP
              server  accepts  mail for any recipient in domain, regardless of
              whether that recipient exists.  This may turn your  mail  system
              into  a  backscatter source: Postfix first accepts mail for non-
              existent recipients and  then  tries  to  return  that  mail  as
              "undeliverable" to the often forged sender address.

RESULT ADDRESS REWRITING

       The lookup result is subject to address rewriting:

       ·      When  the  result  has the form @otherdomain, the result becomes
              the same user in otherdomain.  This works  only  for  the  first
              address in a multi-address lookup result.

       ·      When  "append_at_myorigin=yes", append "@$myorigin" to addresses
              without "@domain".

       ·      When "append_dot_mydomain=yes", append ".$mydomain" to addresses
              without ".domain".

ADDRESS EXTENSION

       When a mail address localpart contains the optional recipient delimiter
       (e.g., user+foo@domain), the  lookup  order  becomes:  user+foo@domain,
       user@domain, user+foo, user, and @domain.

       The   propagate_unmatched_extensions   parameter  controls  whether  an
       unmatched address extension (+foo) is propagated to the result of table
       lookup.

VIRTUAL ALIAS DOMAINS

       Besides  virtual  aliases,  the virtual alias table can also be used to
       implement virtual alias domains.  With  a  virtual  alias  domain,  all
       recipient addresses are aliased to addresses in other domains.

       Virtual  alias  domains are not to be confused with the virtual mailbox
       domains that are implemented with the Postfix virtual(8) mail  delivery
       agent.  With  virtual  mailbox domains, each recipient address can have
       its own mailbox.

       With a virtual alias domain, the virtual domain has its own  user  name
       space.  Local (i.e. non-virtual) usernames are not visible in a virtual
       alias domain. In particular, local aliases(5) and local  mailing  lists
       are not visible as localname@virtual-alias.domain.

       Support for a virtual alias domain looks like:

       /etc/postfix/main.cf:
           virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual

       Note:  some  systems use dbm databases instead of hash.  See the output
       from "postconf -m" for available database types.

       /etc/postfix/virtual:
           virtual-alias.domain     anything (right-hand content does not matter)
           postmaster@virtual-alias.domain  postmaster
           user1@virtual-alias.domain       address1
           user2@virtual-alias.domain       address2, address3

       The virtual-alias.domain anything entry is required for a virtual alias
       domain.  Without  this  entry,  mail  is  rejected  with  "relay access
       denied", or bounces with "mail loops back to myself".

       Do not specify virtual alias domain names in the main.cf  mydestination
       or relay_domains configuration parameters.

       With  a  virtual alias domain, the Postfix SMTP server accepts mail for
       known-user@virtual-alias.domain,  and   rejects   mail   for   unknown-
       user@virtual-alias.domain as undeliverable.

       Instead   of   specifying   the  virtual  alias  domain  name  via  the
       virtual_alias_maps table, you may  also  specify  it  via  the  main.cf
       virtual_alias_domains  configuration  parameter.  This latter parameter
       uses  the  same  syntax  as  the  main.cf  mydestination  configuration
       parameter.

REGULAR EXPRESSION TABLES

       This  section  describes how the table lookups change when the table is
       given in the form of regular expressions. For a description of  regular
       expression lookup table syntax, see regexp_table(5) or pcre_table(5).

       Each  pattern  is  a  regular  expression that is applied to the entire
       address being looked up.  Thus,  user@domain  mail  addresses  are  not
       broken  up  into  their  user  and  @domain  constituent  parts, nor is
       user+foo broken up into user and foo.

       Patterns are applied in the order as specified in the  table,  until  a
       pattern is found that matches the search string.

       Results  are the same as with indexed file lookups, with the additional
       feature  that  parenthesized  substrings  from  the  pattern   can   be
       interpolated as $1, $2 and so on.

TCP-BASED TABLES

       This  section  describes  how the table lookups change when lookups are
       directed  to  a  TCP-based  server.  For  a  description  of  the   TCP
       client/server  lookup  protocol, see tcp_table(5).  This feature is not
       available up to and including Postfix version 2.4.

       Each lookup operation uses the entire address once.  Thus,  user@domain
       mail   addresses  are  not  broken  up  into  their  user  and  @domain
       constituent parts, nor is user+foo broken up into user and foo.

       Results are the same as with indexed file lookups.

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_alias_maps
              List of virtual aliasing tables.

       virtual_alias_domains
              List of virtual alias domains. This uses the same syntax as  the
              mydestination parameter.

       propagate_unmatched_extensions
              A  list  of  address  rewriting  or  forwarding  mechanisms that
              propagate an address extension from the original address to  the
              result.   Specify  zero  or  more  of canonical, virtual, alias,
              forward, include, or generic.

       Other parameters of interest:

       inet_interfaces
              The network interface addresses that this system  receives  mail
              on.   You  need  to  stop  and start Postfix when this parameter
              changes.

       mydestination
              List of domains that this mail system considers local.

       myorigin
              The domain that is appended to any address that does not have  a
              domain.

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

       proxy_interfaces
              Other  interfaces that this machine receives mail on by way of a
              proxy agent or network address translator.

SEE ALSO

       cleanup(8), canonicalize and enqueue mail
       postmap(1), Postfix lookup table manager
       postconf(5), configuration parameters
       canonical(5), canonical address mapping

README FILES

       Use "postconf readme_directory" or "postconf html_directory" to  locate
       this information.
       ADDRESS_REWRITING_README, address rewriting guide
       DATABASE_README, Postfix lookup table overview
       VIRTUAL_README, domain hosting guide

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