The route mail takes when it gets to a XyNexT Server

This is a discussion of the circuitous but logical route that your mail takes once it reaches XyNexT.
Hopefully it will allow you to accomplish many things with a few simple configurations.

First, someone sends mail! The address on the mail is foo@bar.com. The user foo and the domain bar.com physically exist on our number X server. Because of how DNS routing works (completely different discussion), the mail message is routed to the appropriate server, good old number X. Our configuration files then decipher that the mail for domain bar.com goes to local user foo. In the truest sense, this user is foo@wwwX.xynext.com, but because of the virtual domain configuration, it can appear as foo@bar.com. Just make sure to use your domain name as the SMTP server.

Next, our server checks the home directory for the user foo. What it is looking for is further instructions on routing the mail message. The first thing it will look for is a clever construct of one our technicians, Sam. He created the .domains file as a means of having 'virtual users' for your domain. It is not elaborate by any means; it is just effective.

Sample .domains file:

info@bar.com #
list-request@bar.com #
foo@bar.com foo
root@bar.com root@xynext.com
questions@bar.com joe@somewhereelse.com
other@bar.com jim@other.net
bar.com jim@other.net

This is a simple text file. It is formatted with a real or imaginary address FLUSH TO THE LEFT MARGIN OF THE FILE, a space, and then a real address on the right. You should not leave blank lines or spaces at the left margin (unless you want to effectively "comment out" an address line). The lines that end with the # sign are routed to your mreply configuration . Two lines that should always exist are 1) the line that addresses your primary address, foo@bar.com. It can go to your local account or to another off-site account. 2) The line that is at the bottom (and must be the last line of the file) is the catch-all for the domain; the forwarding address MUST be valid, either locally or elsewhere. Please don't put a line with an imaginary address on the left and an imaginary address on the right. It can cause a mail loop - Yuck, yuck, phooey, phooey!! It can cause many problems with our mail system.

After the .domains file, if the line that deals with foo@bar.com has directed the message to the local account foo@wwwX.xynext.com, then you can use the standard sendmail convention, .forward. This is another simple text file that can contain one or more addresses to which all mail for foo@wwwX.xynext.com will be forwarded. In effect, your mail account could be made to not retain any messages and forward them to your ISP mailbox or whatever other mailbox you may wish.