PMDF System Manager's Guide

The interpretation and usage of the daemon keyword depends upon the type of channel to which it is applied.

• DECUS UUCP channels The daemon keyword is used on DECUS UUCP channels (vn_) to specify the name of the remote host to which the channel connects. This in turn makes it possible to have multiple channels that connect to the same remote system. If no daemon is specified, the remote host is derived from the channel name.
  
• Local, DECnet MAIL-11, and MAIL channels The daemon keyword is used on VMS MAIL channels (l, d, or mail_) to control certain aspects of address rewriting. See, for instance, Section 18.1 where special handling of DECnet mail and PSIMail addresses is discussed.
  
• TCP/IP channels Finally, the daemon keyword is also used on SMTP channels to control the choice of target host. Normally such channels connect to whatever host is listed in the envelope address of the message being processed. The daemon keyword is used to tell the channel to instead connect to a specific remote system, generally a firewall or mailhub system, regardless of the envelope address. The actual remote system name should appear directly after the daemon keyword, e.g.,

  tcp_firewall smtp mx daemon firewall.example.com TCP-DAEMON

  If the argument after the daemon keyword is not a fully qualified domain name, the argument will be ignored and the channel will connect to the channel's official host. When specifying the firewall or gateway system name as the official host name, the argument given to the daemon keyword is typically specified as router, e.g.,

  tcp_firewall smtp mx daemon router firewall.example.com TCP-DAEMON