why do I have 2 aliases.db files?

[Sahil Tandon]

Michael P. Soulier <msoulier at digitaltorque.ca> wrote:

> I just noticed that I have one in /etc/mail and one in /etc, and
> postfix is reading the one in /etc which the newaliases command hasn't
> touched in ages 'cause it's been updating the one in /etc/mail.

That is not the default behavior.  From sendmail(1), which is the
Postfix to Sendmail compatibility interface:

newaliases
  Initialize the alias database.  If no input  file  is  specified
  (with  the  -oA  option,  see  below), the program processes the
  file(s) specified with the alias_database configuration  parame-
  ter.   If  no alias database type is specified, the program uses
  the type specified with the default_database_type  configuration
  parameter.  This mode of operation is implemented by running the
  postalias(1) command.

% postconf -d | grep '^alias_'
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases

So, the newaliases command should be modifying the alias database in
/etc unless you changed this in your main.cf.  But if that were the
case, Postfix would also *read* for aliases in that non-default
location.  What is the output of the following command on your machine?

% man sendmail | grep Postfix | head -1

-- 
Sahil Tandon <sahil at tandon.net>