E-Mail Aliases
An E-Mail alias is simply a forwarding e-mail address. Each e-mail alias you create simply forwards e-mail on to any e-mail address that you specify. E-Mail aliases are often used to create handy replacements for long or difficult-to-remember e-mail addresses. They can also be used to create generic e-mail addresses such as webmaster@yourcompany.com and info@yourcompany.com.

For example, say you want to create a webmaster e-mail alias on the yourcompany.com Virtual Private Server that automatically forwards to your local ISP e-mail account, you@your-isp.com. On the yourcompany.com Virtual Private Server, you would create an e-mail alias like this:

webmaster: you@your-isp.com

It's that easy! And you can create as many e-mail aliases as you want on your Virtual Private Server: there's no limit!

An alias can have multiple recipients. For example:

webmaster: you@your-isp.com, someone@YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME

If you have a long list of recipients for an alias, you can use the include option to look at a list. This also comes in handy if you need to change the list frequently, since changing the list won't require you to run vnewaliases. To include a list, use the following format:

listname: :include: /path/to/file

The list file is simply a text file containing one recipient's address per line.

There are a number of other things you can do with the aliases file. More information can be found in the man page:

% man aliases

Creating Aliases
There are several methods you can use to create e-mail aliases on your Virtual Private Servers.

• iManager
  iManager Tools and Wizards allow you to use your own web browser to easily create e-mail aliases on your Virtual Private Servers.

• Telnet/SSH
  You can create e-mail aliases during a Telnet/SSH session with your Virtual Private Server. Connect to your Virtual Private Server via SSH or Telnet and do the following.

  1. Add the e-mail alias to your ~/etc/aliases file. Use an online file editor like pico, or transfer the file to your PC in order to add the alias. Be sure to download and upload the ~/etc/aliases file in ASCII mode.

     The e-mail alias you create in your ~/etc/aliases file should look something like this:

     alias: e-mail_address

     
     

  2. Run the vnewaliases command.

     % vnewaliases

     
     

Removing Aliases Use the same methods to remove e-mail aliases from your Virtual Private Servers.

• iManager
  iManager Tools and Wizards allow you to use your own web browser to easily remove e-mail aliases from your Virtual Private Server.

• Telnet/SSH
  You can remove e-mail aliases during a Telnet/SSH session with your Virtual Private Server. Connect to your Virtual Private Server via Telnet or SSH and do the following.

  1. Remove the e-mail alias from your ~/etc/aliases file. Use an online file editor like pico, or transfer the file to your PC in order to remove the alias. Be sure to download and upload the ~/etc/aliases file in ASCII mode.

  2. Run the vnewaliases command.

     % vnewaliases