Setting up mail aliases

The following mail aliases must be placed in the file `/etc/aliases' on the same machine where the GNATS tools are installed. You may need root access to add these aliases.

• Create an alias for the GNATS administrator. This address should point to the address of the person in charge of administrating GNATS:

  gnats-admin:  address
  

• Create an alias to redirect incoming Problem Reports. This alias should redirect incoming mail via a pipe to the program `queue-pr -q'. For example, if Problem Reports coming to your site are to arrive at the address `bugs@your.company.com', create an alias to the effect of:

  bugs:  "| exec-prefix/lib/gnats/queue-pr -q
  

  This places incoming Problem Reports in `GNATS_ROOT/gnats-queue'.
• Create an alias for your site. This alias should be the same nametag indicated by the variable `GNATS_SITE' in the file `GNATS_ROOT/gnats-adm/config' (see section The config file), with an added suffix `-gnats'. This alias, `GNATS_SITE-gnats', should point toward the local submission address. For instance, if your site is Tofu Technologies, the presence of GNATS on your site would be aliased as the following (the previous example is also shown):

  bugs:  "| exec-prefix/lib/gnats/queue-pr -q
  tofu-gnats: bugs
  

  The report submission utility send-pr automatically appends the `-gnats' to any arguments you specify (see section Submitting Problem Reports). The send-pr which was installed when you typed make install has a default argument of GNATS_SITE, your site, so that when your local users simply type send-pr mail is sent to your local GNATS. Part of the installation process a Submitter Site follows when installing send-pr is to set up an alias for the Support Site from whom this submitter received send-pr. In other words, anyone you distribute send-pr to is instructed to make an alias

  tofu-gnats: bugs@tofu.com
  

• You may also wish to forward a copy of each incoming Problem Report to a log. This can be accomplished with something like:

  bug-q: "| exec-prefix/lib/gnats/queue-pr -q
  bug-log:  GNATS_ROOT/gnats-adm/bugs.log
  bugs:      bug-q, bug-log
  

  This configuration archives incoming Problem Reports in the file `GNATS_ROOT/gnats-adm/bug.log', and also feeds them to the program queue-pr. (Remember, `bug.log' needs to be world-writable, and should be pruned regularly; see section GNATS Administration.)
• If you want your users to be able to query the database by mail, use the following alias:

  query-pr: "| exec-prefix/lib/gnats/mail-query
  

  The mail-query program uses `--restricted' to search on the database, and by default only searches for PRs that aren't closed (see section Querying the database).

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