Now you created the extra account, you got the mail address - and/or the DNS entry & forwarding to your account ... As well installed Procmail & Fetchmail so we can rock the place ! :) .. here we go !
You will need to create a .fetchmailrc file, what will contain the information (username & password, as well the Mail Delivery Agent (mda) to proces the mail to). Here is some example file ...
(*** < file > *** text ***) .fetchmailrc
server my.mail.server.com
proto pop3
user myaccountthere
pass deepestsecrets
flush
mda /usr/bin/procmail
This file will be used to fetch your mail. Please test it by using the fetchmail program "fetchmail -vv" - and see your mail is being transferred right ... There will be some errors - since the procmail control file hasn't been created yet. You can wait by testing AFTER making the procmailrc file, but - i'll warn ya - IF there is something fault :) it CAN be this file :) It needs to be owned by the user account itself - in my case "mailservice" and needs to be "user readable" but NOT group/world readable - since it contains the "main password" :)). (chmod 600 .fetchmailrc will do).
This control file will forward all mail to the users in it. There are 2 ways as described before - the "to:" (header) way - and the "subject" (sloppy) way. The file will contain the usernames to transport to. All the "#" are comments and are absolutely not needed when not wanted - it's only so you know what i am doing ... - you can as well best chmod it 600 - so the rest of the world or group doesn't need those private addresses eh :) ... It needs also to be owned by the user (like "mailservice") :)). The "nosuchuserfile" is a "bounce" to the writer - if the user isn't found (so mail not delivered) in the procmailrc file ... - so the writer knows the mail isn't delivered well.
(*** < file > *** text ***) .procmailrc
# this line is for debugging purposes only ! it should be removed for
# ethical purposes - since you can read all mail passed trough your mail-
# server ... - all mail will be copied to the file "passtrough" before
# going to the users ... herein you can look what went wrong ...
:0 c
passtrough
# the mail with header "to: [email protected]" will be forwarded directly
# to me, the other mail will pass this option ...
:0
* ^To:.*[email protected]
! freaker
# the mail to [email protected] will be forwarded to root ... as well postmaster!
:0
* ^To:.*[email protected]
! root
:0
* ^To:.*[email protected]
! postmaster
# the mail to [email protected] will be forwarded to barbara AND will be
# forwarded to her private email address !
:0 c
* ^To:.*[email protected]
! [email protected]
:0
* ^To:.*[email protected]
! barbara
# the mail to [email protected] and [email protected] will be forwarded to johnny
:0
* (^To:.*[email protected])|(^To:.*[email protected])
! freaker
# the mail to [email protected] and all carbon copys will be forwarded to hans
:0
* (^To:.*[email protected])|(^CC:.*[email protected])
! hans
# this lines will BOUNCE the mail to the sender - when it is not delivered to
# one of above users ... it will send the file "nosuchuser" into the mail
# body as reply ... be aware ! you need to make such file ! - mine contains
# "well, the user you wanted to reach does not exist on this server, please
# try again, it could be the user is not present anymore".
#
:0
|(/usr/bin/formail -r -k \
-A"X-loop: [email protected] "| \
/usr/bin/gawk '{print }\
/^/ && !HEADER \
{ system("/bin/cat nosuchuser"); \
print"--" ;\
HEADER=1 }' ) |\
/usr/bin/sendmail -t
exit
(*** < file > *** text ***) .procmailrc
# this line is for debugging purposes only ! it should be removed for
# ethical purposes - since you can read all mail passed trough your mail-
# server ... - all mail will be copied to the file "passtrough" before
# going to the users ... herein you can look what went wrong ...
:0 c
passtrough
# the mail with header "to: [email protected]" will be forwarded directly
# to me, the other mail will pass this option ... When you got a "dedicated"
# email address to receive your "mailservice thingy's" on - you don't need
# to use this line :)
:0
* ^To:.*[email protected]
! freaker
# all mail with as subject "root" will be forwarded to root !
:0
* ^Subject:.root
! root
# all mail to "subject: barbara" will be forwarded to barbara ...
:0
* ^Subject:.barbara
! barbara
# all mail to "subject: paul" will be forwarded to his external email addr.
:0
* ^Subject:.paul
! [email protected]
# all mail to "subject: john" will be forwarded to his account at your server
# and a copy will go to his private email address ...
:0 c
* ^Subject:.john
! [email protected]
:0
* ^Subject:.john
! john
# All the mail from ibm, with their updates and information, will go to
# freaker, as he is the one who will administrate the mailservice, and
# as ibm doesn't want to get the bounce putten below !! ... this is
# neccesary if your mail provider sends "newsletters" etc...
:0
* ^From:.*[email protected]
! freaker
# All messages from the daemon should been thrown away, or in my case, will
# be saved to a file ... (use /dev/null to throw to endless pits of The Abyss)
:0
* ^FROM_DAEMON
throwaway
# this lines will BOUNCE the mail to the sender - when it is not delivered to
# one of above users ... it will send the file "nosuchuser" into the mail
# body as reply ... be aware ! you need to make such file ! - mine contains
# some text like "user not found in subject line, please use "Subject: user"
# to write a mail to the user, like example "subject: freaker" would send a
# mail to freaker." The file can be long, but also small :) ... the
# "[email protected]" will prevent to loop between your server and
# the other server - it needs to have the EXACT email address used !.
# Else you could create an endless loop with a server what sends mail
# to "your email address" with as subject something like "don't spend 500$
# at your ..." etc...
:0
|(/usr/bin/formail -r -k \
-A"X-loop: [email protected] "| \
/usr/bin/gawk '{print }\
/^/ && !HEADER \
{ system("/bin/cat nosuchuser"); \
print"--" ;\
HEADER=1 }' ) |\
/usr/bin/sendmail -t
exit
(*** < file > *** text ***) nosuchuser
The user you wanted to contact is not present at this system.
Please use the subject line as recipient - example "subject: freaker" would
send mail to freaker on this system.
If you don't know how crontab works :) better read the manual :) ... You need to create a "checkmail" file - what will see if the link is up, as well the cronfile itself ... - i am using a ppp link :) so - this is an example how to look when the ppp link is up - and to poll every 10 minutes using cron. Looks sloppy - but isn't !.
the .checkformail file will be called (needs to be executable as well) - and will look if the ppp link is up. If it is up - then it will fetch for mail. Crontab will use this file when you are using the below cronentry ...
(*** < file > *** code ***) .checkformail
#!/bin/sh
#
cd /home/mailservice
if [ -f /var/run/ppp0.pid ]; then
/usr/local/bin/fetchmail -s > /dev/null 2>&1
fi
This cronentry file needs to been loaded into crontab, and will call the .checkformail - every 10 minutes. It won't write any mail or give any info to the console - since i'm redirecting everything to null.
(*** < file > *** text ***) cronentry
0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * /home/mailservice/.checkformail 1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null
Well, this should be done when using the "A method" ... at the admin's site, so the email goes all from a complete domain, to one username. It is pretty simple, and once you've done it - it works like hell. this is NOT neccesary if your system administrator (the uplink) got another method, and is NOT neccesary at YOUR side !!!!
When using a newer version of sendmail, the "old sendmail" trick probably won't work, so please refer to the "new sendmail" topics to let your mailrouting work.
add the following lines to your /etc/sendmail.cf file, so the domains file will be read. please be noted that the "ruleset 98" is added as underhere, since - once you got errors :) it's a hell to find 'm out ! (and i can know it :) DuH).
(*** < file > *** add ***) /etc/sendmail.cf
# Database of handled domains
Kmaildomains btree /etc/maildomains.db
# Add these lines *IN* Ruleset 98 ! (under Ruleset 98).
R$+ < @ $+ . > $: $1 < @ $2 > .
R$+ < @ $+ > $* $: $(maildomains $1@$2 $: $1 < @ $2 > $3 $)
R$+ < @ $+ > $* $: $(maildomains $2 $: $1 < # $2 > $3 $)
R$+ < @ $* > . $: $1 < @ $2 . >
With the newer sendmail releases (tested with sendmail v8.8.7, 8.8.8). Ignore method A, and add the next lines ...
(*** < file > *** add ***) /etc/sendmail.cf
# Database of handled domains
Fw/etc/sendmail.cw
Kvirtuser btree /etc/maildomains.db
*OR*
Fw/yourhomedir/sendmail.cw
Kvirtuser btree /yourhomedir/maildomains.db
If you are using another "location" for the sendmail.cw file, then please replace the "/etc/sendmail.cw" to "/yourhomedirectory/sendmail.cw". The pro points of putting this sendmail.cw file into your homedirectory is that you don't need root to change the domains to receive on. tough - this can give security risks if not used properly !
This file can already exist, or needs to be created, if it already exists be sure you don't overwrite the older data - or i need to refer you to my fine disclaimer :)
First create a /etc/sendmail.cw file, what will be used to "send" a domain to a specific user ... here is an example ... (as you already knew, the name "mailservice" can be anything you want - it can even be your loginname (like mine is freaker).
(*** < file > *** text ***) /etc/sendmail.cw
mydomain.dom mailservice
First create a /etc/maildomains file, what will be used to "send" a domain to a specific user ... here is an example ... (as you already knew, the name "mailservice" can be anything you want - it can even be your loginname (like mine is freaker). (you could have this /etc/maildomains in /yourhomedir/maildomains as mentioned before, just change the paths :)
With the OLDER sendmail versions:
(*** < file > *** text ***) /etc/maildomains
mydomain.dom mailservice
With the NEWER sendmail versions:
(*** < file > *** text ***) /etc/maildomains
@mydomain.dom mailservice
With the old & new sendmail versionsyou need to generate the btree (database) files, you'll need to do the following:
cd /etc (or /yourhomedir) makemap btree maildomains < maildomains
after that, kill the sendmail daemon, and restart it. it should now WORK! good luck :)