1MAILADDR(7)                   Linux User's Manual                  MAILADDR(7)
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NAME

6       mailaddr - mail addressing description
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DESCRIPTION

9       This  manual page gives a brief introduction to SMTP mail addresses, as
10       used on the Internet.  These addresses are in the general format
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12            user@domain
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14       where a domain is a  hierarchical  dot-separated  list  of  subdomains.
15       These examples are valid forms of the same address:
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17            john.doe@monet.example.com
18            John Doe <john.doe@monet.example.com>
19            john.doe@monet.example.com (John Doe)
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21       The  domain  part ("monet.example.com") is a mail-accepting domain.  It
22       can be a host and in the past it usually was, but it  doesn't  have  to
23       be.  The domain part is not case sensitive.
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25       The  local  part  ("john.doe")  is often a username, but its meaning is
26       defined by  the  local  software.   Sometimes  it  is  case  sensitive,
27       although  that  is  unusual.   If  you see a local-part that looks like
28       garbage, it is usually because of a gateway between an internal  e-mail
29       system and the net, here are some examples:
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31            "surname/admd=telemail/c=us/o=hp/prmd=hp"@some.where
32            USER%SOMETHING@some.where
33            machine!machine!name@some.where
34            I2461572@some.where
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36       (These  are,  respectively, an X.400 gateway, a gateway to an arbitrary
37       internal mail system  that  lacks  proper  internet  support,  an  UUCP
38       gateway, and the last one is just boring username policy.)
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40       The  real-name  part ("John Doe") can either be placed before <>, or in
41       () at the end.  (Strictly speaking the two aren't  the  same,  but  the
42       difference  is beyond the scope of this page.)  The name may have to be
43       quoted using "", for example, if it contains ".":
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45            "John Q. Doe" <john.doe@monet.example.com>
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47   Abbreviation
48       Some mail systems let users abbreviate the domain name.  For  instance,
49       users at example.com may get away with "john.doe@monet" to send mail to
50       John Doe.  This behavior is deprecated.  Sometimes it  works,  but  you
51       should not depend on it.
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53   Route-addrs
54       In the past, sometimes one had to route a message through several hosts
55       to get it to its final destination.  Addresses which show these  relays
56       are termed "route-addrs".  These use the syntax:
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58            <@hosta,@hostb:user@hostc>
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60       This  specifies that the message should be sent to hosta, from there to
61       hostb, and finally to hostc.  Many hosts disregard route-addrs and send
62       directly to hostc.
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64       Route-addrs  are  very  unusual  now.  They occur sometimes in old mail
65       archives.  It is generally possible to ignore all but the  "user@hostc"
66       part of the address to determine the actual address.
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68   Postmaster
69       Every  site  is  required  to  have  a  user  or  user alias designated
70       "postmaster" to which problems with the mail system may  be  addressed.
71       The "postmaster" address is not case sensitive.
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FILES

74       /etc/aliases
75       ~/.forward
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SEE ALSO

78       mail(1), aliases(5), forward(5), sendmail(8)
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80       IETF RFC 5322 ⟨http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5322.txt⟩
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COLOPHON

83       This  page  is  part of release 4.15 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
84       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
85       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
86       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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904.2 Berkeley Distribution         2017-05-03                       MAILADDR(7)
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