WHAT IS AN ALIAS?
The Nameserver contains entries for all staff, faculty, and students at
the University.  Each one of these people is identified by a special
name, the alias.  No two people have the same alias; therefore, a
person's alias uniquely identifies him or her.  This is the most
important thing to remember about aliases:  an alias is always enough
information to identify a person in the Nameserver database.

A person's alias is usually formed by combining his or her first initial,
a hyphen, and complete last name.  For example, "Paul B. Pomes" has an
alias of "p-pomes".  Some people share the same first initial and last
name; these people typically have a number added to the ends of their
aliases, so that their aliases remain unique.  For example, "John Doe"
might have an alias of "j-doe1", and "Jane Doe" might have an alias of
"j-doe2".  It is possible for the owner of a ph entry to change his or
her alias by logging into ph and using the "edit" or "make" command;
thus, some people have aliases that do not follow the conventions just
described, such as the alias "SueG".

WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF AN ALIAS?
Aliases serve two functions.  First, they are used as "login names" for
the Nameserver.  If you wish to make changes to your Nameserver entry,
you must first tell ph your alias so that it knows who is trying to log
in.  Second, they can be used as a convenient means of sending a person
electronic mail.  Instead of sending mail to a person's specific e-mail
address, you can send mail to "ph-alias@uiuc.edu", where ph-alias is
the person's alias.  For example, you could send mail to "p-pomes@uiuc.edu",
and the mail would be delivered to Paul Pomes.

Using alias-based addresses to send mail has a couple of advantages over
using specific e-mail addresses: 1) alias-based addresses are often
shorter and much easier to remember than specific e-mail addresses; and
2) the alias of a user never changes (unless the owner of the ph entry
deliberately modifies his or her alias), whereas it is quite common for
the specific address at which a person receives electronic mail to
change.  By keeping the "email" field in your ph entry up to date and
encouraging friends and colleagues to use your alias-based address rather
than your specific e-mail address, your electronic mail will always be
delivered to your current address, eliminating the need to notify people
if your specific e-mail address should change.  For this reason, its a
good idea to use your alias-based address on business cards and other
printed or electronic media that advertise your e-mail address.  See
the ph help for "email" and "e-mail" for further information on the
Nameserver and e-mail addresses.

HOW DO I FIND AN ALIAS?
Ph prints aliases by default when you do a lookup.  The manner in
which it prints them is somewhat confusing, however, and bears
some explanation.  Here is an sample ph query that will help:

% ph john doe
----------------------------------------
           name: doe john
   office_phone: 333-3333
 office_address: 194 DCL, MC 256
     department: computing services office
       email to: j-doe@uiuc.edu (doe@garcon.cso.uiuc.edu)
----------------------------------------

By default, ph combines the contents of the "alias" and "email" fields
into a single line or pseudo-field called "email to".  The alias is the
first thing in the "email to" line, before the "@uiuc.edu".  In the
above example, the alias is "j-doe".

A more direct way to find an alias is to specify the fields you want to
see by using a "return clause" in the query.  Only fields that follow
the word "return" will be displayed, as shown below:

% ph john doe return name alias
----------------------------------------
           name: doe john
          alias: j-doe
----------------------------------------

SEE ALSO: login, email, e-mail, introduction, edit, make, alias