Hi Doug, Fired things up this morning and found your note. I'll try it later today. Thanks.
Jim On 2006-03-01 [EMAIL PROTECTED], said: NOk, You are ready for the one and only lesson that is necessary to Nresolve this mail alias question. NFirst of all, I can see how you can be confused by the idea of a Nmail alias. In my search last night to prepare for this, I found Nthat at least three things call themselves mail aliases. NThe first of these is given in an example from the University of NHawaii, where one can create what looks like a listserve without the Nassociated archive. All he has to do is to log into a Unix server Non the campus and get permission from the administrator to set up Nwhat they call a mail alias, which is no more than a limited, Nscaled-down, version of a private listserve. This is, obviously, Nnot what you want. NThe second thing that calls itself a mail alias comes from an Nexample from the University of New Hampshire where they have a Nsystem set up to forward a message to any mail address you want Nfrom an on-campus-sounding address which is no more than a Nforwarding service. This is not what you want either. NNow, having eliminated the two culprets in the confusion case, we Ncan get on with the real thing. What you want is a regular NBSD-style mail alias in which you can just enter a name or other Nreference code, send a mail to this and it will go to whatever Npoint on the globe it should ultimately reach. NHere's how you do it. You can try one on me. I will give you the Ninformation you will need to get a message to me if you get the Nalias file to work. NHere's what you do. Just construct a file in your home directory Ncalled .mailrc. Please make sure that the dot is in front of the Nword mailrc. Just in case you want to know, mailrc stands for mail Nrun commands. These are things that need to be done before a mail Nsession can really get going. They can range from minor Nhousekeeping tasks to what we want to do here. NNow, all I want you to do is this, for the time being, until we can Nsee if it all works right. In this mail run command file, just put Nthis line. Nalias Doug [EMAIL PROTECTED] NNow, we can analyze the three components of the line. The first Nword, alias, in all small letters, tells the mail software, in this Ncase, the mail mode of emacs, that this is to be a mail alias, or Nreference to an address you don't want to always have to remember Nor keep written down somewhere. NThe second component of the line is my name, Doug. This tells the Nmail mode software that, if this is in the to line of a message, it Nis to "expand" this into the right mail address, just as though you Nwrote it on the line yourself. NThe third part of the line is my actual e-mail address. This tells Nthe software where to actually send the mail when you write it and Nfinish with it. NNow, let's look at the expansion process. It is what is actually Nreferred to as a string substitution. My address is substituted for Nmy name if you just put my name on the to line of the message. When Nthe mailer gets ready to deliver the program to the MTA or Mail NTransport Agent on your machine, it substitutes the address for the Nname and the mail transporter, whatever program it might be, is not Neven aware of all the behind-the-scenes hocus pocus, it just sees a Nmessage ready to go out with the right address on it. NNow, to construct this file, all you need to do is this. control-x Ncontrol-f and when the system tells you that it is ready to "find" a Nfile, and gives the ~/ directory in which it is to construct the Nfile, just enter .mailrc and put in that line. Then save the file Nand open vm. NNow, on the to line of a new mail message, just put my name, Doug Nand that's all. If all works as I believe it should, the message Nwill go out with my address on it just as though you put it there Nand I should get the message. I will be sitting here at my lab Nmachine for a while, reading my Bible and finishing up some more Nmail for a little while. I will check my mail to see if I got the Nmessage, and, if I did, reply to it. You will not be communicating Non the list, the message will come directly to my oralux.org Nmailing address and my mail system will pick it up. NHope this helps. N-- NDoug Smith: C.S.F.C. NComputer Scientist For CHRIST! NOralux: http://oralux.org N_______________________________________________ NOralux mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Nhttp://lists.freearchive.org/mailman/listinfo/oralux Net-Tamer V 1.12.0 - Registered _______________________________________________ Oralux mailing list [email protected] http://lists.freearchive.org/mailman/listinfo/oralux
