ali [-alias aliasfile] [-list | -nolist] [-normalize | -nonormalize] [-user | -nouser] [-version] [-help] [aliases ...]

searches the named mail alias files for each of the given aliases. It creates a list of addresses for those aliases, and writes that list on standard output. If no arguments are given, ali outputs all alias entries.

By default, when an aliases expands to multiple addresses, the addresses are separated by commas and printed on as few lines as possible. If the -list option is specified, then when an address expands to multiple addresses, each address will appear on a separate line.

The switch -user directs ali to perform its processing in an inverted fashion: instead of listing the addresses that each given alias expands to, ali will list the aliases that expand to each given address. If the -normalize switch is given, ali will try to track down the official hostname of the address.

The files specified by the profile entry ``Aliasfile'' and any additional alias files given by the -alias aliasfile switch will be read. Each alias is processed as described in (5).

^$HOME/.mh_profile~^The user profile
^/etc/passwd~^List of users
^/etc/group~^List of groups

^Path:~^To determine the user's nmh directory
^Aliasfile:~^For a default alias file

`aliasfiles' defaults to /etc/nmh/MailAliases
`-nolist'
`-nonormalize'
`-nouser'