[BALUG-Talk] Recommendations for email resender/"forwarder"? (infrastructure: Debian oldstable amd64, MTA exim4)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli@cal.berkeley.edu):

> So, ... I'm looking for recommendations.
> 
> The basic context:
> 
> using /etc/aliases (or equivalent) to simply and directly forward/alias
> email out onto The Internet at large, is in general a bad idea
> (particularly in the days of spam, and anti-spam, etc., among other
> factors).
> 
> Our existing old hosting on DreamHost.com uses a fair bit of that.  8-O
> Need to migrate that functionality off of DreamHost.com.
> I'm looking for a way to make that migration that at least
> partially fixes the issues with such overly simplistic aliases.
> Notably such "aliased"/forwarded email ought be sent out with
> appropriate Sender: or similar header(s) (Resent-From: ?) and envelope
> FROM showing (re)origination from domain of the forwarding host (@balug.org
> or subdomain thereof).

At the risk of being useless in this matter:  I got nuttin'.  
In hopes this will render my comment more usefuL:  Basically the 
only thing I've ever found that is a functionally superior alternative
to overly complex /etc/aliases tables is MLMs (mailing list managers).

On the minus side, those are a bit of overkill.  On the plus side, 
they don't screw up envelope headers the way use of /etc/aliases or
~/.forward for redirecting mail intersystem does.

What do I do?  I use /etc/aliases freely for redirecting mail
intra-system, and with reservations to a _minor_ extent for redirecting
mail cross-system.  The latter are mostly legacy, old entries from the
days before the spam war escalated to the insane extent it's reached
currently.  So, for example, around 1998 I set up an entry in
/etc/aliases so that 'don@linuxmafia.com' reaches Don Marti -- but 
in 2017 any mail actually transiting that alias is likely to arrive
looking pretty spammy to receiving MTAs.

I seriously doubt you're going to find a credible middle option. 
However, if you find one, I'm going to be fascinated to hear about it.

(Greetings from Helsinki.)