[TriLUG] Another Stupid Sendmail Trick revisited

[Aaron S. Joyner]

Brian Henning wrote:

>Hi All,
>  People seem to wonder why I want to do such a thing, so I'll try to
>explain my intents a little better..  So here goes:
><snipped>
>So does that make more sense?  Here's the catch:
>A couple people have already suggested making an entry in
>/etc/mail/mailertable.  Unfortunately, I don't have access to the REAL
>/etc/mail/mailertable (the server's root) and there is no mail directory at
>all in ~/etc (where our domain-specific configuration seems to reside).
>This means there's no make in ~/etc/mail to rebuild the mailertable hash.
>So, um..  Now what?  Should I start asking more questions to the CompanyX
>support team?
>
>Thanks as always,
>~Brian, gradually becoming a peak in the TriLUG activity...
>
Okay, if I understand this correctly, CompanyX has setup an aliases file 
for you, or a virtusertable file, in a local ~/etc directory for you - 
and some how given you the ability to add users.  Perhaps via virtual 
hosting with something like Cyrus IMAPd.  If I understand that much 
correctly, you do not have the ability to reconfigure the way mail is 
actually handled for your domain, but only the local delivery aspects of 
it.  This *probably* (if my assumptions above are correct) prohibits you 
from directing all mail off site.  The only exception being that you 
might be able to trash what ever user entries you have in a 
virtusertable, and replace them with "@strutmasters.com  
incoming at yourfc2box.strutmasters.com".  Then you have to deal with that 
incoming mail that's addressed to incoming at yourfc2box.strutmasters.com 
and sort it based on the "To:" header of the message (or perhaps by 
analyzing the header appended as it hit CompanyX's mail server).  
Procmail should be capable of doing this, but it's a bit of a tall 
order.  Being as I'm not a Procmail Guru, I'll leave this hanging out 
here and hope someone takes an interest and fills in the hole.  I'm sure 
I could figure it out but it would probably take the better part of an 
hour and some testing.

All things considered, this is a first rate Hack-Job way of doing it.  
:)  But it might work, and it ought to be relatively reliable 
(negligibly less so than actually doing domain-level forwarding) - the 
only catch is adding users may still a two step process.  Depending on 
how intricate your /etc/procmail recipe becomes, you may need to add a 
user to your machine, as well as to that recipe.

Best of luck,
Aaron J.