ali Command

Purpose

Lists mail aliases and their addresses.

Syntax

ali [ -alias File ] [ -list | -nolist ] [ -normalize | -nonormalize ] [ -user User | -nouser ] [ Alias ... ]

Description

The ali command lists mail aliases and their addresses. By default, this command searches the /etc/mh/MailAliases file and writes to standard output each alias and its address defined in the file. To specify an alternate mail aliases file, use the -alias File flag.

If you specify the -user flag, the ali command searches the alias files for the user name and writes to standard output the aliases that contain this user name.

Flags

Item Description
-alias File Specifies the mail alias file to be searched. The default is the /etc/mh/MailAliases file.
-help Lists the command syntax, available switches (toggles), and version information.
Note: For MH, the name of this flag must be fully spelled out.
-list Displays each address on a separate line.
-nolist Displays addresses on as few lines as possible. This flag is the default.
-nonormalize Prevents conversion of local host nicknames to official host names. This is the default.
-normalize Converts local host nicknames to their official host names.
-nouser Lists the address for an alias. This flag is the default.
-user User Lists the aliases that contain the specified user. When the -user and -nonormalize flags are used together, the result may be a partial list of aliases that contain the specified user.

Examples

  1. To display a list of all aliases and their addresses in the /etc/mh/MailAliases file, enter:
    ali
  2. To list the names and addresses of the mygroup alias, enter:
    ali   mygroup
    A list similar to the following is displayed on your local system:
    mike@mercury   george@helium   vicky@venus

Files

Item Description
$HOME/.mh_profile Contains the MH user profile.
/etc/group Contains a list of groups.
/etc/passwd Contains a list of users.
/etc/mh/MailAliases Contains the default mail alias file.
/usr/bin/ali Contains the ali command.