Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!CAC.WASHINGTON.EDU!MRC
From: MRC@CAC.WASHINGTON.EDU (Mark Crispin)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: re: Mail/sendmail/RFC822 Question
Message-ID: <MailManager.615680059.5474.mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU>
Date: 5 Jul 89 22:14:19 GMT
References: <8906291656.AA03318@WLV.IMSD.CONTEL.COM>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 45

In <8906291656.AA03318@WLV.IMSD.CONTEL.COM>, mcc@wlv.imsd.contel.com writes:
>This is a question concerning the use of an embedded space within a recipient
>name.  RFC822 states on page 11 that the following is a legal address construct
>		"first last"@domain
>and I would assume that
>		"first last"%demesne@domain
>is also a valid construct.  The problem that I am having is that either Mail
>or sendmail complains about an unbalanced quoted string when the above construct
>is used and then attempts to deliver the message to
>		first, last%demesne@domain
>which is not the intended action.  Is this action a "feature" of the 4.3bsd
>Mail or sendmail?

You neglected to read the BNF on the final pages of RFC 822.  The string
	first last%demesne
is the local-part of an addr-spec in a mailbox.  A local part is a sequence of
one or more words delimited by "." (the stuff with "." being a word delimiter in
this case is a compromise between an ancient and now abandoned syntax in MMDF
that used period as the "%-hack" character and those folks who considered period
to be an ordinary character in a mailbox).  A word is either an atom or a quoted
string.

So, your string
	"first last"%demesne
violates this rule; it would have to be
	"first last".%demesne
but I seriously doubt if it would have the effect you desire.  Sendmail's
behavior was bizarre, but typical of Garbage In, Garbage Out compounded with
the Unix-ish syntax of space as a mailbox delimiter.

What you have to do, therefore, is quote the entire local part if you have any
special characters, that is,
	"first last%demesne"
or one of these alternates:
	\"first\ last\"%demesne
	"\"first last\"%demesne"
if you want the %-hack parser to see explicit quotes.

Note that the phrase which preceeds a broketed route-addr is simply a sequence
of words, so you could have:
	"first last"%demesne <"first last%demesne"@domain>

-- Mark --

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