"Born, Ken" wrote:
>
> Greetings,
> I am having trouble determining how to setup the naming conventions for my
> users email on the HP3000.
> My Goal for user email naming convention would be [log in to unmask]
> where BORN is USER-ID and 201 is DEPARTMENT-ID.
>
> To establish user uniqueness in my database is composed of a USER-ID and
> DEPARTMENT-ID.  The data in USER-ID can be 1 to 6 characters long and can
> contain all numbers.  DEPARTMENT-ID contains all numbers.
>
> Since USER-ID can contain all numbers, I cannot create a newuser under MPE
> because it would violate the "First character needs to be alphabetic" rule.
>
> Since DEPARTMENT-ID contains only numbers, I cannot create a new account
> under MPE because it would violate the "First character needs to be
> alphabetic" rule.
>
> So, I was wondering two things:
> First, can I create a user email under UNIX where I could side step the
> above restrictions?  or

Yes and no.

If sendmail is delivering to a local *mailbox*, the destination userid must be
an existing MPE USER.ACCOUNT.

However, by using the sendmail alias file, you can create your own arbitrary
destination userids that can point to real MPE USER.ACCOUNT mailboxes or to
other entries in the alias file.  You can also write to a program via pipe, or
write to a file.

> Second, can I somehow use aliases to side step the above like BORN.201 is
> actually  a username that works with the above restrictions?

Some sample alias file entries:

Delivering to real MPE USER.ACCOUNT mailboxes:

postmaster : MANAGER.SYS
BORN.201 : BORN.DEPT201

Delivering to a file:

SMITH.202 : /some/file/path

Delivering to a program via a pipe:

JONES.203 : "| /some/program/file some parameters"

> I like to keep everything in the SENDMAIL account and not create hundreds of
> separate department accounts.

I recommend against putting large amounts of local data (other than aliases)
into the SENDMAIL account.  That will potentially complicate things if a newer
version of sendmail becomes available and you want to upgrade.
--
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