Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!eci386!clewis
From: clewis@eci386.uucp (Chris Lewis)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: replies to news Path: header
Message-ID: <1989Aug1.145235.3809@eci386.uucp>
Date: 1 Aug 89 14:52:35 GMT
References: <1062@aber-cs.UUCP> <59767@uunet.UU.NET> <3648@ncar.ucar.edu> <KARL.89Jul13215059@dinosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu> <2141@itivax.iti.org> <8984@chinet.chi.il.us> <AMBAR.89Jul30161342@binkley.mit.edu> <3466@epimass.EPI.COM>
Reply-To: clewis@eci386.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Organization: R. H. Lathwell Associates: Elegant Communications, Inc.
Lines: 26

In article <3466@epimass.EPI.COM> jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck) writes:

>>   Did anyone think that people typed those 20-hop paths by hand?

>Yes, this is probably true.  But the problem is that the Path: header
>was never designed to be the return address; the Reply-To: header
>should be used, and if that header isn't present, the From: header
>should be used.  When building and installing news, INTERNET should
>always be defined.  Even on dumb systems, the "mailpaths" file may be
>used to cause replies to articles to be routed to a smart host for routing.

If you have a smart mailer to begin with, you can also use rn's INTERNET
configuration option.  Or, even hand-cruft a mod to Rnmail that does
path lookups and replaces the "To:" line (it's a pretty minor mod).
The path lookups can be as simple as finding out whether the machine is
mentioned in uuname's output, and if not, replacing the whole shebang
with <pathtosmartmailer>!<destinationsite>!user.

The facilities exist to avoid the 20 hop syndrome: SA's should
make sure that they read the associated documentation when installing
news.
-- 
Chris Lewis, R.H. Lathwell & Associates: Elegant Communications Inc.
UUCP: {uunet!mnetor, utcsri!utzoo}!lsuc!eci386!clewis
Phone: (416)-595-5425