Re: [Exim] How to get local mail from a headless system?

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Author: Kevin Reed
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: Re: [Exim] How to get local mail from a headless system?
Mike said:
> I have a Debian headless server running and occasionaly various services
> will send email to root. Root is aliased to a user I had set up to receive
> mail. When I remember, I ssh into the server and use mutt to read the
> mail.
>
> What is the best way to read this mail from another system? I suppose I
> could setup a pop or imap server up as well on this system? Or I could
> configure exim to somehow send the mail to another server instead of
> local?


Many of our mail servers are not user servers. So there is not much
reason to have mail stored there. In our aliases file setup for that
domain, we then have entries like:

root: root-SERVERNAME@???

So, if we have a server called mailman1, mail sent to the root of that
box is redirected to root-mailman1@???

root: root-mailman1@???

On the Central server, there may be different groups that can see this
mail, or it might all be redirected by alias to a single user account
where it is all collected together.

I also change the GEOS field of the root account in the password file so
that it identifies the server as well...

root:x:0:1:Root on Mailman1:/root:/sbin/sh

This makes system generated mail have a From: address that identifies the
root it is actually from. You could find the info in the headers, but
this makes it easier...

From: "Root on Mailman1" <root@???>

This way, when a number of different servers root mail is sent to a single
box it is easier to see who came from what.

...

Just one way of many I'm sure you will hear about...

--
Kevin W. Reed - TNET Services, Inc.
Unoffical Exim MTA Info Forums - http://exim.got-there.com/forums