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# Fix postfix "fatal: open database /etc/aliases.db: No such file or directory" error
- URL: https://www.binarysludge.com/2012/06/25/fix-postfix-fatal-open-database-etcaliases-db-no-such-file-or-directory-error/
- Published: 2012-06-25T11:13:38.000Z
- Updated: 2012-06-25T11:13:38.000Z
- Author: Andrew Martin
- Tags: error, bash, postfix, system adminstration, #Import 2026-10-22 12:56

As there was no email coming from a VM, I checked `/var/log/maillog`:

Jun 25 10:59:13 localhost postfix/local[20793]: fatal: open database /etc/aliases.db: No such file or directory

As the missing file is some form of (Berkley?) DB, a simple `touch` doesn't create any structure for a suitable "empty database".

To fix, update the `/etc/aliases` database with `newaliases`:

newaliases

From the man page:

> This is a link to the ssmtp binary. It invokes /usr/sbin/sendmail with the -bi option. It is provided for compatibility with the sendmail program. 
> 
> ```
>   In this case it does absolutely nothing since sSMTP does not support /etc/aliases and is just there to avoid programs returning error messages.
> 
> ```