[J65nko]

In the following Makefile _aliases is a patch script for the /etc/mail/aliases file created and discussed in the previous post.

The file _newaliases:

# -----------------
cat <<END
Running NEWALIASES to rebuild the aliases database ....
$(newaliases)

END
# --

The _existing-root-mail installs or moves the existing /var/mail/root to /var/mail/${USER}. If done as first thing after an install, this will usually do no harm, because the user's /var/mail file will not exist yet or will be empty.

If you don't want this , read the install(1) man page for the correct option to create a backup of an existing /var/mail/${USER} first.

# -------------------------------------------
USER=j65nko
echo --- move existing root email to $USER
install -o ${USER} -g ${USER} -m u=rw /var/mail/root /var/mail/${USER}

The Makefile itself:

# Makefile to divert root mail to user account

FILE    = _rootmail-to-j65nko

${FILE}:    _aliases _newaliases _existing-root-mail
        cat ${.ALLSRC} >${.TARGET}

clean:
        rm -f ${FILE}

You run the Makefile with the make command:

$ make
cat _aliases _newaliases _existing-root-mail >_rootmail-to-j65nko

All components are concatenated to a single file. The resulting file name can be changed easily by editing the FILE variable.
After editing one of the components run make again to create an updated version.

A commonly encountered issue with Makefiles:

"Makefile", line 6: Need an operator
Fatal errors encountered -- cannot continue

You probably got this error by copying and pasting the Makefile instead of downloading and unpacking the attached tgz file.

The Makefile requires a tab before the commands, which (re)create the target. Here the cat command in line 6. By pasting, you lost this tab and it was replaced by a couple of spaces.

You can diagnose this easily with:

 cat -ten Makefile                                 
     1  # Makefile to divert root mail to user account$
     2  $
     3  FILE     = _rootmail-to-j65nko$
     4  $
     5  ${FILE}:    _aliases _newaliases _existing-root-mail$
     6          cat ${.ALLSRC} >${.TARGET}$

The "operator" line 6, has no tab, a ^I, but a series of spaces.

The correct version

$ cat -ten Makefile

     1  # Makefile to divert root mail to user account$
     2  $
     3  FILE^I= _rootmail-to-j65nko$
     4  $
     5  ${FILE}:    _aliases _newaliases _existing-root-mail$
     6  ^Icat ${.ALLSRC} >${.TARGET}$

Here line 6 has a tab character