mail and .forward

[Sachin Soni_1]

Hi ,

we are using .forward to forward incoming mails.
it used to work properly but suddenly stopped working.
now it only works for user "root" , for any other user it doesnt work.
mail goes to users mail box, and can be read by mail / mailx, but .forward doesnt works.

any idea , what the problem can be ?


thanks.

[someone_4]

what are your permissions on the .forward? They should be 766. Also check if you can send an email to the email you have in the .forward file.
#echo test | sendmail -v email@forwardaddress.com

[Alex Glennie · Accepted solution]

Each user and root can have a ".forward" file in their home
directory. However, if the owner and permissions on this file is not
set correctly sendmail will disallow execution of ".forward" file.

Also, Sendmail can run programs or write to files using the
".forward" file. This is controlled by the /etc/shells file. If the owner
of the ".forward" file lacks a valid shell as listed in /etc/shells
file, the execution of such programs will be disallowed.

Check the permissions on the ".forward" file. E.g. if the user
"mailman" has a ".forward" file in /home/mailman this user should
have the following permissions on the ".forward" file:

# ll -a /home/mailman/.forward

-rw------- 1 mailman users 20 Aug 4 1999 /home/mailman/.forward

Make sure the owner of the ".forward" file has the valid shell from
/etc/passwd listed in the /etc/shells file. E.g.:


# more /etc/passwd | grep mailman

mailmail:XcsSHS:126:20:TheMailMan,Sendmail
Group,:/home/mailman:/usr/bin/ksh


# vi /etc/shells
/usr/bin/ksh
:wq!

ps also SendMail checks the $HOME directory - as defined in /etc/passwd - for
proper permissions PRIOR to checking for a .forward file. If the
$HOME directory has incorrect 'group writable' permissions that could be your problem also ? -> # chmod 755 /home/ ?

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Hi Sachin,

Check your mail.log. It will give you a good hint about what's happening with your .forward files.

-Sri

[Sachin Soni_1]

Hi alex,

i checked , permissions, shells .
everything looks ok.

it used to work properly , suddenly it stopped sending mails.
now it is working only for root user, but not for any other user.

i can send mail out using command line.
i can also read using mailx / mail.


thanks

[Sachin Soni_1]

Its done,
problem was with home directory permissions.

Thanks to all .