OS X Server: Enabling and disabling email auto-forwarding

OS X Server's Mail server feature can automatically forward email for users.

OS X Server (Mountain Lion) instructions

1. In Server.app, go to Users and select a user.

2. Click the gear icon (or Control-click the user name) and choose "Edit Mail Options..."

3. From the "Mail should be:" pop-up menu, select "forwarded".

4. Enter the forwarding email address in the "to email address:" field.

Lion Server instructions

Enabling auto-forwarding for an account

To enable an account for auto-forwarding, run the following commands in Terminal on the server. The first command puts you in interactive mode.

sudo serveradmin command mail:command = setAutoForward mail:userID = (the_users_shortname) mail:fwdAddress = (the_emailaddress_to_forward_to_)

Press Control-D to complete the command.

After completing the command by pressing Control-D, it should return the userID, GUID and the newly set auto-forward address. For example:

mail:userID = " mailuser1"

mail:userGUID = "A961DAFE-2FE5-4EEC-A2CB-CB6511E9B28D"

mail:fwdAddress = "my-user-ID@example.com"

If the user does not exist, the following message will be returned:

mail:error = "user not found"

To disable auto-forwarding for an account

Use the same commands as above, but with an empty address value:

sudo serveradmin command mail:command = setAutoForward mail:userID = mailuser1 mail:fwdAddress = ""

Press Control-D to complete the command.

The response will be the same as above but the mail:fwdAddress will be empty. Example:

mail:userID = " mailuser1"

mail:userGUID = "A961DAFE-2FE5-4EEC-A2CB-CB6511E9B28D"

mail:fwdAddress = ""

If an incorrect ID was used or does not exist, the following message will be returned:

mail:error = "user not found"

To see which accounts currently are being auto-forwarded

Execute this command:

sudo serveradmin command mail:command = getAutoForward

The command returns a list of user GUIDs and the auto-forward addresses. For Example:

$ sudo serveradmin command mail:command = getAutoForward

mail:1080C8CF-5432-4302-B3B7-0EEFB79106AD:fwdAddress = "my-userID-1@example.net"

mail:2DD1FB33-340F-408F-8C2A-D77B0A2431C7:fwdAddress = "my-userID-2@example.net"

Learn more

As an alternative, you can also use the set_user_mail_opts command. See man set_user_mail_opts for usage and options.