On Sat, 19 May 2001, Daniel de los Reyes wrote:
> Maybe I'm confused about this but, If the mail server is in fact
> authorative for several different domains, do they need to be set
> virtual at all? Wouldn't it just be a question of setting them all local
> and having a different alias file for each one?
Absolutely right. Exim has no built-in concept of "virtual domains".
There is no way you can "set a domain virtual". All Exim has is local
and non-local domains. "Virtual" is a concept in the mind of the
administrator.[*] I think a general way of thinking about the different
between what are commonly called "local" and "virtual" domains is this:
. A "local" domain is one where all the mailboxes are stored on the
local host - so not only is it authoritative, it has the mailboxes as
well.
. A "virtual" domain is one that does not have its own set of mailboxes
at all. All its valid local parts are aliases that get translated by
the local (authoritative) host into other addresses (possibly local,
possibly remote).
The use of the fancy terminology "virtual domain" has confused a lot of
people into thinking it is something complicated, when in fact it is
really simple.
-------------------------------
[*] Exim 4 is going to take things one step further. Exim 4 no longer
has any built-in concept of "local domains" or indeed of "relay
domains", come to that. All domains are the same - the configuration has
to specify how they are treated. All distinctions such as "local",
"remote", "relay" and "virtual" are now just convenient ways for the
admin to think about groups of domains.
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
