How to automatically forward mail with Postfix/Dovecot?

Question

I set up Postfix/Dovecot with MySQL on a Linode instance from this tutorial, and I am now trying to forward all email that comes to someaddress@mydomain.com to anotheraddress@anotherdomain.com automatically. For some reason, even after extensive Googling I can't find a guide on how to do that with that particular setup. Does anyone know how?

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 17 '13 at 14:15

6

You have to certify that you have an alias_map or alias_database entry in your main.cf:

alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases

then, inside that file set you alias as desired:

someaddress:    anotheraddress@anotherdomain.com

after that run newaliases and you are good to go.

answered Mar 17 '13 at 14:15

fboaventura

1,125
11
16

Thanks, but this didn't seem to work. Since I have Postfix set up with MySQL, aren't aliases set up through there? Nothing I changed in /etc/aliases seemed to work, even after restarting the Postfix service. – Davis Sorenson Mar 17 '13 at 19:43
Can you post your `postconf -n`? Have you tried with `alias_map`? – fboaventura Mar 17 '13 at 23:07
Here's my postconf -n: http://pastebin.com/a4VJ2PWR I tried with both `alias_database` and `alias_maps` – Davis Sorenson Mar 18 '13 at 07:34
Have you checked the file `mysql-virtual_email2email.cf` and the table associated with it? – fboaventura Mar 18 '13 at 09:28

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 15 '19 at 10:29

Maybe a bit late, but here's one really pleasant post on how to set mail forwarding with Postfix/Dovecot through the virtual_alias_map parameter:

https://geekpeek.net/configure-postfix-mail-forward/

where this article is tightly related to another one by the same author, which can be found here. I recommend checking them out both, because they refer each other too much anyway.

So it seems that the right way to do forwarding it through the virtual alias class and the virtual_alias_map parameter.

Full documentation on the virtual alias class can be found in the Postfix's docs reference here and here, and an example here.

So here's what Postfix say:

The virtual alias domain class.

Purpose: hosted domains where each recipient address is aliased to a local UNIX system account or to a remote address.

And finally the mail forwarding example:

Mail forwarding domains

Some providers host domains that have no (or only a few) local mailboxes. The main purpose of these domains is to forward mail elsewhere. The following example shows how to set up example.com as a mail forwarding domain:
 1 /etc/postfix/main.cf:
 2     virtual_alias_domains = example.com ...other hosted domains...
 3     virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual
 4 
 5 /etc/postfix/virtual:
 6     postmaster@example.com postmaster
 7     joe@example.com        joe@somewhere
 8     jane@example.com       jane@somewhere-else
 9     # Uncomment entry below to implement a catch-all address
10     # @example.com         jim@yet-another-site
11     ...virtual aliases for more domains...

Source: http://www.postfix.org/VIRTUAL_README.html#forwarding

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:16

0

Check this out if you have "virtual mailboxes" already setup and want to use forwarding in addition to them:

https://superuser.com/questions/721917/mixing-virtual-forwards-and-virtual-mailboxes-in-postfix

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:16

Community

1

answered Nov 11 '16 at 20:32

BuvinJ

399
3
11

How to automatically forward mail with Postfix/Dovecot?

3 Answers3

The virtual alias domain class.

Mail forwarding domains