Avalonia MailRouter Error actions

All messages that are forwarded to MailRouter, that cannot be resolved - that is they do not match any of the patterns - will normally be put into a waiting queue that will be rechecked the next time the contents of the alias file is changed. MailRouter will also allow you to either forward such messages to a specific address, or bounce them back to the sender and send a report to the postmaster on the local mail server.
MailRouter will redirect all messages with addresses that cannot be resolved to one or more predefined addresses by adding a single redirect line with "*" as <pattern1>:

redirect * peter@server.dk postmaster

redirect * oldmail.server.dk

The first example redirects all messages with unresolved addresses to both "peter@server.dk" and the postmaster at the domain the message was addressed to, while the second example redirects all messages with unresolved addresses to accounts on the server "oldmail.server.dk".
If you choose to include a redirect * line, it should be the last line in the alias file. All lines after this line will be ignored.
Also if you overrule the default handling of unresolved addresses, you have to make sure the mail server dosn't route any messages to a new domain to MailRouter, before you have set up that domain. You can ensure this by first changing the alias file, and only then making the changes in the mail server to route the mail to MailRouter.

It is also possible to use a redirect line with only <pattern1>, to bounce mail to specific addresses:

redirect peter@server.dk
redirect abuse
redirect oldmail.server.dk
redirect *

The first line bounces all messages to "peter@server.dk", while the second line bounces all messages addresses beginning with "abuse". The next line bounces all message to the domain "oldmail.server.dk", while the last line bounces all messages with unresolved addresses.

A message to a "postmaster" or "error-copy" account on any domain should never be bounced. MailRouter will therefore automatically forward all messages with unresolved addresses to those accounts to the "postmaster" account om the local mail server. This ensures that mail to the postmaster on any domain always gets delivered, and that the mailserver doesn't get into a loop, where it exchanges error messages with another mail server.
If needed this can be overruled by simply adding alias and/or redirect lines bouncing the relevant accounts.



Bo Holst-Christensen (holst@cutisan.dk)