my .forward is not working

I have placed a .forward in a users home directory but it does not forward, I have tried
/var/mail/spool/bill
and
bill@xxxxxxxx.com
neither work

Any help would be appricated

Bill

Which mailserver are you using?
Me my self are using Postfix, and it works like a charm without any extra parameters when I create the .forward file.

Anyhow, in a standard configuration it is up to the local-mail-deliver process that handles this $HOME/.forward file. And in a Postfix/Sendmail system it is sendmail command that utilies this file

I am also using the Postfix/Sendmail combo on Redhat

Strange, should work like a charm.
However, it is not so that you have your postfix running as a special user that is not SUID?? Just to check the rights, try to decrease the security temprarly by cmod 666 .forward please, do not leave it afterwards at this, it should in fact have rw- --- --- (i.e. 600)

Btw, the .forward shall only be like:

Code:

---

donald.duck@duck-tales.com

---

nothin more nothing less, and it wont work with directories.

still no go, I even tried setting the owner to postfix

Really strange, hmm! What version of Postfix do you have installed at your system?

Code:

---

postconf -v | grep version

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Btw, after you have added the file, just to make sure, have you tried to restart postfix server? (You should not be needed to, but just in case)

While you are on to it, do this as well

Code:

---

postconf -v | grep 'forward_path'

---

[root@glacier root]# postconf -v | grep version
disable_mime_output_conversion = no
mail_version = 2.0.16
[root@glacier root]# postconf -v | grep 'forward_path'
forward_path = $home/.forward${recipient_delimiter}${extension},$home/.forward
[root@glacier root]#

Ok looks good enough!
Hmm!

Code:

---

postconf -v| grep 'forward'

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should give you

Code:

---

allow_mail_to_commands = alias,forward
allow_mail_to_files = alias,forward
forward_expansion_filter = 1234567890!@%-_=+:,./abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
forward_path = $home/.forward${recipient_delimiter}${extension},$home/.forward
prepend_delivered_header = command, file, forward

---

The essential part is allow_mail_to_commands
This is important!