Route local emails to another email address using Postfix on Linux

When I set up new servers, I like to make sure any system messages like cron failures, server issues, or emails that are routed to [email protected] (where 'example.com' is the hostname of the server—meaning emails to that domain will get routed through the server itself and not hit an external MX server unless postfix/sendmail is configured correctly) are sent to my own email address.

It's relatively straightforward to route emails to internal users (like webmaster, root, etc.) to an external email address; you simply need to edit the /etc/aliases file, adding a rule like the one below, then run the command sudo newaliases:

By default, most internal users are routed to root as well (including webmaster), so setting an external email address (or a list of addresses, separated by comma) for the root account will allow you to more easily see what's happening on your server. Don't forget to run sudo newaliases to pick up the changes!