MAKEACCEPTMAILFOR(8)

✨ MAKEACCEPTMAILFOR ✨

okay bestie, so you know the vibe — this is a section 8 manual page, MAKEACCEPTMAILFOR(8), and it's here to help you make your Courier mail server's domain list glow up. it's literally only one command, no flags, no drama. let's get into it 💖

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🌸 NAME 🌸

makeacceptmailfor — create /etc/courier/esmtpacceptmailfor.dat

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

makeacceptmailfor

that's it. that's the whole synopsis. iconic, honestly. no options, no args, just vibes and a single command. 👑

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💫 DESCRIPTION 💫

okay so here's the tea, bestie 🍓 — makeacceptmailfor reads the directory /etc/courier/esmtpacceptmailfor.dir and creates /etc/courier/esmtpacceptmailfor.dat, which is a binary database file. no cap.

and what IS /etc/courier/esmtpacceptmailfor.dat? it's the list of domains that the Courier mail server accepts mail for, via ESMTP. like, THE list. the whole point. 🫶

meanwhile /etc/courier/esmtpacceptmailfor.dir is a subdirectory holding one or more files. each file in there is a plain text file with a list of mail domains — one per line, all in lowercase. that part matters, lowercase only, don't be out here being chaotic with your caps lock 😭

the way it works: all files in the subdirectory get concatenated, and then the binary database file gets created from the result. basically the dir is the draft, the .dat is the final post. slay. 💅

✨ cute fact: you can run makeacceptmailfor while the Courier mail server is running, and any changes take effect immediately. no restart, no downtime, no stress.

⚠️ but like… only one instance of makeacceptmailfor can be executed at the same time. so don't be running it twice, bestie. it's giving only child energy. 🙈

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🦋 SUBDIRECTORY CHECKS 🦋

here's the vibe check that gets run on the contents of /etc/courier/esmtpacceptmailfor.dir:

• tilde files get ghosted — files whose names contain a tilde, ~, are skipped over. not it, moving on. 💀
• backup file suffixes = error message — files whose names end with these suffixes result in an error message: .rpmsave, .rpmnew, and .dpkg-suffix. these are backup files created by a package manager when updating to a newer version of the package, and they contain the old or the new version of a configuration file whose settings may be new or obsolete.

so what do you do? you check the contents of the file whose name does not have the suffix against the backup. then the backup file should be deleted after you make any needed manual changes to the configuration file. clean it up, bestie, we don't leave clutter 🧹

• the .dist special case — files whose names end with the .dist suffix are also treated as a configuration file backup or template, but with this one exception: the .dist file gets ignored and automatically skipped over, with no error message at all, if the suffix-less file exists and its modification time is more recent than the .dist file's modification time. newer timestamp, no problem, we don't even look. ✨

otherwise? an error message gets reported. 😭 and the way you resolve that error message is by either copying the .dist file or editing and saving the file without the suffix — which results in a newer timestamp. either way, you're making the suffix-less file the freshest one in the room. main character energy fr fr. 👑

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• esmtpd(8) [1]

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

Sam Varshavchik

Author

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⭐ NOTES ⭐

1. esmtpd(8) https://www.courier-mta.org/esmtpd.html

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and that's the whole page, bestie, you ate that 🫶 this masterpiece is brought to you by Courier Mail Server, dated 01/10/2026, and written by S. Varshavchik — no cap, that's literally the header and footer of MAKEACCEPTMAILFOR(8) and I had to get them in here somewhere. periodt. 💅🎀