Possible to manually update the non-account forward file?

[pjfagen]

Hi.
Still searching for an answer, but I'll post my question(s) here, too...

I am currently using cpanel to forward a set of email addresses to a pipe program - works fine. These email addresses do NOT have actual accounts on my site, so definedUserName@mysite.com gets piped to my program and processed just fine.

What I want to do is add many definedUserNames to this same forward-to-pipe scenario without using cpanel to add an entry for each definedUserName, and I'd like to do it programatically. So...

a. Is this possible?
b. I assume this forwarding information is contained in a file somewhere. What and where is it?
c. Is this file a text file that I can append to?

Thanks much!

[cPanelDavidG]

I can show you the APIs you can use. However, to use the APIs you need a minimum of reseller access to the server. Do you have reseller or root-level access to the server?

[pjfagen]

No reseller access at this time. I'll look into it.
What language are the APIs?
I'm using perl for everything right at the moment.

[cPanelDavidG]

No reseller access at this time. I'll look into it.
What language are the APIs?
I'm using perl for everything right at the moment.

The APIs are XML-based. However, reseller access is required to make use of these APIs.

[rrwh]

Hi.
Still searching for an answer, but I'll post my question(s) here, too...

I am currently using cpanel to forward a set of email addresses to a pipe program - works fine. These email addresses do NOT have actual accounts on my site, so definedUserName@mysite.com gets piped to my program and processed just fine.

What I want to do is add many definedUserNames to this same forward-to-pipe scenario without using cpanel to add an entry for each definedUserName, and I'd like to do it programatically. So...

a. Is this possible?
b. I assume this forwarding information is contained in a file somewhere. What and where is it?
c. Is this file a text file that I can append to?

Thanks much!

a Yes it is possible.
b your assumption is correct
c if you don't have root access to the server you are not going to be able to do it.

d If your host is willing there is a simple work-around that will allow you to update the file.


Firstly, the actual file you are wanting to update is the /etc/valiases/domain.com file

What you need to get your host to do is the following:

1 mkdir /home/youraccount/etc/valiases
2 mv /etc/valiases/domain.com /home/youraccount/etc/valiases
3 cd /etc/valiases
4 ln -s /home/youraccount/etc/valiases
5 cd /home/youraccount/etc/
6 chown youraccount:youraccount valiases
7 chown youraccount:mail domain.com

Then you will have the file in your directory structure and you will be able to modify it.

I have done this for a few accounts because the API is just a real pain when dealing with the forwarders and I have never managed to find the time to make it work. My solution was far easier and allowed user-level control of the valiases file and it works a treat.

Maybe there is an enhancement somewhere for cpanel in this to make it an option to push the file to the users directory like I have done here.