.TH newalias "" "" "Command"
.PC "Install new elm aliases for user or system"
.B newalias [\-g]
.PP
The command
.B newalias
reads a text file of aliases, and hashes them into a DBM-style data base
that can be read by the mailer
.BR elm .
.PP
If you invoke it with the option
.BR \-g ,
it updates the system's alias files.
Otherwise, it seeks a file named
.BR $HOME/.elm/aliases.text ,
and, upon finding it, creates files
.B $HOME/.elm/aliases.hash
and
.BR $HOME/.elm/aliases.data .
.PP
.B newalias
expects alias entries to be in either of the following formats:
.DS
	\fIalias\^\fB, \fIalias\fB, .. = \fIcomment \fB= \fIaddress\fR
.DE
.PP
or:
.DS
	\fIalias\^\fB, \fIalias\^\fB, .. = \fIcomment = \fIalias\^\fB, \fIalias^\fB, ...\fR
.DE
.PP
The first form is for an individual user, e.g.
.DM
	dave, taylor = Dave Taylor = veeger!hpcnou!dat
.DE
.PP
or:
.DM
	dave, taylor = Taylor; Dave = veeger!hpcnou!dat
.DE
.PP
This allow the aliases to be sorted properly by last name.
.PP
The second form defines an alias for a group of users.
For example:
.DM
	gurus = Unix Gurus = alan, john, dave, mike, richard,
				larry, t_richardson
.DE
.PP
Aliases are case insensitive; therefore, ``dave''
and ``Dave'' are both the same alias.
.PP
Note that lines can be continued at will and blank lines are accepted
without error.
Also note that any line that begins with `#' is considered a
comment and is not processed.
.PP
If the
.I comment
or
.I address
fields must contain `=' characters,
those characters must either be escaped using a backslash character,
or the address must be within quotation marks.
.PP
Finally, an alias can contain other aliases or groups.
For example:
.DM
	unix = Unix people = gurus, taylor, jonboy
.DE
.SH Files
.nf
\fB$HOME/.elm/aliases.text\fR \(em Alias source for user 
\fB$HOME/.elm/aliases.hash\fR \(em Alias hash table for user
\fB$HOME/.elm/aliases.data\fR \(em Alias data file for user
.fi
.SH "See Also"
.B
commands,
elm,
mail (overview)
.R
.SH Notes
It is worth noting that you can use the program
.B checkalias
to ensure that the aliases are in the proper order and are available for
.BR elm .
.PP
Please note that the aliases used by
.BR elm ,
and the format of the alias file, is completely different from that used by
.BR smail .
This, unfortunately, requires that you maintain separate alias files for
the mailer and the mail-router.
If you mail a message to an
.B smail
user,
.B elm
will pass it through to
.B smail
unmodified, but it will not expand the alias within the mailer.
Thus, the message will be sent to the correct user (assuming you entered the
.B smail
alias correctly), but
.B elm
will not expand for you the name of the person to whom the message is being
sent.
For details on how to set aliases for the mailer
.BR smail ,
see the Lexicon entry for
.BR aliases .
.PP
Release 2.4 of
.B elm
is copyright \(co 1988-1992 by The USENET Community Trust.
It is derived from
.B elm
release 2.0, which is copyright \(co 1986, 1987 by Dave Taylor.
.PP
.B newalias
was ported to \*(CO by Mark Williams Company.
Please send bug reports concerning the \*(CO version of
.B newalias
to support@mwc.com.
.B newalias
in general is maintained by the Elm Development Group.
.II "Weinstein, Syd"
Please send messages concerning the general design of
.B newalias
to Syd Weinstein (elm@DSI.COM).
