Delivery_options MTA option

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LDAP attribute interpretation and validity (delivery_options)

The delivery_options MTA option controls the effect of possible values of the attribute named by the ldap_delivery_option MTA option, (by default, the mailDeliveryOption attribute). As argument, it takes a list of up to twenty strings (comma-separated when specified in the option.dat file; space-separated when specified in XML). Each such string specifies the effect of a particular supported value for the mailDeliveryOption attribute. The syntax for an individual string (among the list of strings) is: Modifier'Value=Effect where Modifier consists of one or more of the optional modifier letters listed in Table of delivery_options modifiers, where Value is a supported value for the mailDeliveryOption attribute, and where Effect describes the intended effect of the corresponding mailDeliveryOption value.

The modifier letters have the meanings listed in Table of delivery_options modifiers; note that if neither * nor & is present, then the delivery option entry is taken to apply to both users and groups.

As mentioned above, each Value should be a supported value for the mailDeliveryOption LDAP attribute (more precisely, the attribute named by the ldap_delivery_option MTA option). And each such supported value for mailDeliveryOption must have exactly one corresponding string in delivery_options describing its intended effect.

Each Effect specifies what happens to an original address that has a specified mailDeliveryOption value. For instance, a mailDeliveryOption value of mailbox (which is intended to mean delivery to the message store) is implemented by forcing the address local-part onto the ims-ms channel (the message store delivery channel); a mailDeliveryOption value of native is implemented by routing the address local-part to the native channel (the UNIX native mailbox delivery channel). The Effect may use the LDAP URL substitution sequences described in Table of LDAP substitution sequences. In addition, an Effect of merely * means to simply substitute back in the original address specified; an Effect of ** means to substitute the value of the mailForwardingAddress attribute (more precisely, the attribute named by the ldap_forwarding_address MTA option).

The default for this option is (note that line breaks below are present merely for typographic reasons---the actual default value should be considered to appear all on one line):

DELIVERY_OPTIONS=\
*mailbox=$M%$\$2I$_+$2S@ims-ms-daemon,&members=*, 
*native=$M@native-daemon,/hold=@hold-daemon:$A, 
*unix=$M@native-daemon,&file=+$F@native-daemon, 
&@members_offline=*,program=$M%$P@pipe-daemon, 
#forward=**,^*!autoreply=$M+$D@bitbucket 

Since up to twenty comma-separated strings may be specified for this option, note that up to twenty different possible delivery option values can be supported.

If defining this option in the old-style configuration option file, be cautious regarding the syntax rules for line continuation and comment characters. If using line continuation while defining this (rather long) option, be careful that the following line does not begin with a comment character in column one: any line that begins in column one with one of the MTA option file's comment characters (!, ;, #) will be interpreted as a comment regardless of whether the line above ended with a backslash. This issue can be worked around using the fact that (in the old-style MTA option file) the MTA ignores leading spaces after the comma separating individual strings within delivery_option; so you can use a definition such as:

DELIVERY_OPTIONS=\
*mailbox=$M%$\$2I$_+$2S@ims-ms-daemon,&members=*,\
*native=$M@native-daemon,hold=$M?$I@hold-daemon,\
*unix=$M@native-daemon,&file=+$F@native-daemon,\
&@members_offline=*,program=$M%$P@pipe-daemon,\
 #forward=**,^*!autoreply=$M+$D@bitbucket 
  where note the critical initial space on the line that does the  forward value definition. 

See also: MTA options, Option value syntax, Getting option changes to take effect, MTA options, listed alphabetically, MTA options, listed by functional groups, LDAP and URL lookup general options, Direct LDAP attribute validity and interpretation options, ldap_delivery_option MTA option, ldap_forwarding_address MTA option, Direct LDAP alias expansion, Old-style configuration option file.