In alias lines both <pattern1> and <pattern2> are email addresses, as shown in this example:
alias peter@cust1.dk cust1.02@avalonia.dk
alias paul@cust1.dk cust1.03@avalonia.dk
alias peter@cust2.dk cust2.01@avalonia.dk
alias service@cust1.dk cust1.01 cust1.02
alias info@mail.avalonia.dk info
In the example messages to "peter@cust1.dk" are forwarded
to "cust1.02@avalonia.dk", messages to "paul@cust1.dk"
are forwarded to "cust1.03@avalonia.dk", messages to "peter@cust2.dk"
are forwarded to "cust2.01@avalonia.dk".
Also messages to "service@cust1.dk" are forwarded to both "cust1.01"
and "cust1.02", and messages to "info@mail.avalonia.dk"
are forwarded to "info".
As you may have noticed from the last two lines in the example, you can omit
the server name on local addresses. If the server used is "avalonia.dk"
mail to "service@cust1.dk" will be forwarded to "cust1.01@avalonia.dk" and
"cust1.02@avalonia.dk", and mail to "info@mail.avalonia.dk" will be
forwarded to "info@avalonia.dk".
An alias line can also contain some special addresses as <pattern2>. An address with a missing account or domain (marked by beginning or ending the address with "@") can be used for broadcasts. Furthermore all messages to addresses resolving to the special address "-" are deleted, without sending a message back to the sender. This comes in handy, if you want to broadcast to all but a few domains.
alias broadcast@cust1.dk @cust1.dk
alias broadcast@server.dk postmaster@
alias nobody@cust2.dk -
alias fool@cust2.dk
The first line shows how to forward all messages sent to "broadcast@cust1.dk" to all accounts that have an alias line where <pattern1> has the domain "cust1.dk". To prevent mail loops MailRouter will exclude "broadcast@cust1.dk" from the list of addresses the message will be forwarded to. The second line shows how to forward all messages sent to "broadcast@server.dk" to the "postmaster" account at all domains that are used in <pattern1> in an alias line. The last line shows how to delete all messages sent to "nobody@cust2.dk". If an alias keyword is only followed by <pattern1>, all messages to that account will be bounced back to the original sender, as shown in the last line of the sample above.