On Sat, 19 May 2001, Philip Hazel wrote:
> . 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).
Just to add to this: Another definition of "virtual" domains could be that
the users don't correspond to regular system (or /etc/passwd) users and
their mailboxes aren't in a standard (maybe /var/mail) location.
For example, my virtual domain email accounts are not aliases -- they use
additional authentication files and separate mailbox directories (for each
virtual domain) and the do not have unique UIDs for each mailbox. [1]
> [*] 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.
Interesting.
Jeremy C. Reed
http://www.reedmedia.net/
http://bsd.reedmedia.net/ -- BSD news and resources
http://www.isp-faq.com/ -- find answers to your questions
[1] By the way, I use vm-pop3d so my users can retrieve their mail.
