ARCHIVED: In Unix, how do I forward my mail to more than one address?

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To forward your mail to more than one address, on most Unix systems, follow the steps below:

  1. Check to see whether you already have forwarding set in your account. To do so, at the Unix prompt, enter:
      more ~/.forward
    If you see a message similar to "No such file or directory", then you don't have forwarding set yet. If you see an email address, then you have already set the forwarding on this account, and you should proceed to step 3.
  2. If you do not have forwarding set, at the Unix prompt, enter the following:
      echo username1@host1, username2@host2 > .forward
    Replace username1@host1 with the first email address to which you want to forward your mail, and username2@host2 with the other email address. You can have your mail forwarded to more than two addresses by adding more addresses, separated by a comma and a space.

    For example, if you are user dvader and you want to forward your mail to vader@empire.gov, anakin@darkside.com, and darth@sithlord.org, you would enter:

      echo vader@empire.gov, anakin@darkside.com, darth@sithlord.org > .forward

  3. If you already have forwarding set, edit your .forward file with a Unix editor (e.g., Pico or Emacs) so that it looks like the following:
      username1@host1, username2@host2
    Replace username1@host1 with the first email address to which you want to forward your mail, and username2@host2 with the other email address. You can have your mail forwarded to more than two addresses by adding more addresses, separated by a comma and a space. Using the example above, dvader's .forward file would look like this:
      vader@empire.gov, anakin@darkside.com, darth@sithlord.org

At Indiana University, for personal or departmental Linux or Unix systems support, see Get help for Linux or Unix at IU.

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Last modified on 2018-01-18 10:37:51.