Set up a forwarding mailbox in qmail?

Question

setting up a simple mailserver to forward all messages sent to one address to gmail.

So far I have a file /var/qmail/mailnames/myserver.com/username/.qmail with a single line:

&recepient@gmail.com

I also have file /var/qmail/users/assign with:

=username:localuser:2525:48:/var/qmail/mailnames/servername.com/username:::

test email bounces with error "Sorry, no mailbox here by that name."

Thanks!

People still use qmail? I had to use it once, seemed very awkward to use. I'd suggest postfix or exim. — davr, Jul 28 '09 at 22:20
I ended up using postfix, it was pretty easy to get going after I found location of the log file — Evgeny, Jul 30 '09 at 17:01

David Smith · Answer 1 · 2009-07-28T22:41:28.963

1

Did you run qmail-newu? Did you include the "." as the last line of the file? Is /var/qmail/mailnames/myserver.com/username/ owned by localuser?

It might be simpler for you to just use the alias directory. Messages that don't match a user on the system get passed to the alias user (/var/qmail/alias) where they are handled as if the message were addressed to alias-localpart. In your case I think you would create this file:

/var/qmail/alias/.qmail-username

And that file would contain your forwarding instructions:

&recipient@gmail.com

edited Jul 28 '09 at 22:41

answered Jul 28 '09 at 22:35

David Smith

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thanks for the tip about newu tried all that. still no luck – Evgeny Jul 28 '09 at 23:10
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You may need to restart qmail-send after creating the cdb file in /var/qmail/users/. I know you can replace a file while it's running, but if you create the file new while it's running you might have to restart. – David Smith Jul 28 '09 at 23:29
You don't need to restart when a cdb file is changed. Qmail reads it on the next pass. – Scott Lundberg Sep 21 '09 at 18:55
How would I create an alias for joining a Mailman mailing list? – Danijel Mar 20 '15 at 15:27

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 28 '09 at 22:39

I believe if you do that it will only do one domain whichever is default in /var/qmail/control, if you have multiple domains you should use vpopmail and on top I suggest you install QmailAdmin it'll help you with your forwarding among other useful things and it will be easier for you to manage through web gui.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 04 '09 at 23:17

Can't adda comment (not enough reputation) but just want to confirm your paths -- I'm suspecting you've just swapped out the real-server name, but a sanity check is always a good thing :-)

Your users/assign file has a path of: /var/qmail/mailnames/servername.com/username

Whilst you say the .qmail file lives in: /var/qmail/mailnames/myserver.com/username

i.e., myserver.com vs. servername.com.

The other thing to check is that the target directory and .qmail file are chown'd by uid:gid 2525:48 as configured in the assign file, and that the file is chmod'd 644.

qmail will generally setuid() to the target user's account. When you've configured users up in the users/assign file, qmail will setuid to the uid specified in there. So if perms aren't right, the user won't exist.

Set up a forwarding mailbox in qmail?

3 Answers3