What is a .forward file?

The commonly referred to as "dot forward" file is most often used to forward messages in Unix or Linux email servers. It contains the address of the account you wish to forward your incoming mail to. If the file does not exist, all mail is saved in your inbox.

How do I forward my email to another account using a .forward file?

To forward your email to another account, you must create a .forward file in your home directory containing the address to forward your email to.

To create a .forward file, follow these instructions:

1.) Log into your account through either Telnet or SSH.

2.)Type the command: echo newaddress@isp.com > .forward

Be sure to replace newaddress@isp.com with the address you want to forward your mail to.

3.)Type the command: chmod 600 .forward This command will set the permissions on the .forward file appropriately.

4.)Log out.

Now you will no longer receive mail at this account. All of your mail will now be sent to the specified address.  

When mail comes in, the .forward file is checked. If it exists, the email is sent to the address listed in the file. This is helpful if you have multiple accounts on the Internet and want all the email to come to one location. An example of .forward shows another feature of the file—instead of an email address, you can have a command. The vacation program, which isn't available in Red Hat (but is on the CD-ROM), allows you to put a program in the .forward file. Each time email comes in, the program is run. The vacation program stores the email and then sends a custom message back to the email sender, notifying them that you're on vacation (or out of town, out of the office, out of your mind, etc.). The sender then knows that the email got through.