January 21, 2021 11:45 AM, gil...@poolp.org wrote: > January 21, 2021 11:25 AM, "Claus Assmann" <ca+openbsd_t...@esmtp.org> wrote: > >> On Thu, Jan 21, 2021, Martin Vahlensieck wrote: >> >>> I think the backslash at the beginning of the line is an error. >> >> Why? Does it fail when used as described? >> >>> -\eeric, "|/usr/bin/vacation -a allman eric" >> >> Originally this was to avoid recursion, i.e., >> \eric >> will not be expanded again. >> >> Maybe that has been changed (with smtpd instead of sendmail) so it >> is not necessary anymore? > > It is unnecessary with smtpd. > > If you have an alias which points to itself, you end up in two cases: > > a- the alias key is not a user, in which case this is a cycle and the > expansion fails > b- the alias key is a user, in which case this ends the expansion
b- ... in which case this ends _this branch of_ the expansion
