Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!ucsd!ames!think!barmar
From: barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Internet address syntax (and semantics, for that matter)
Keywords: internet address
Message-ID: <29725@news.Think.COM>
Date: 20 Sep 89 06:29:41 GMT
References: <2274@ttardis.UUCP>
Sender: news@Think.COM
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Lines: 25

In article <2274@ttardis.UUCP> jcf3703@ttardis.UUCP (chap flack) writes:
>OK.  So the smart routers (I'm told sharkey has one) can interpret
>Internet addresses and help me out.  I recently received snail mail from a
>man I worked with 4 years ago, saying that his address is chenry@carleton.edu.
>So as a test drive, I tried sending something to
>cfctech!sharkey!chenry@carleton.edu.
>Those of you who know how to do this probably don't need me to tell you that
>didn't work.  Sharkey's daemon complained that there's no chenry on sharkey.

The problem is that you are mixing UUCP (host!user) addressing and
Internet (user@host) addressing.  There's no standard precedence for
the two syntaxes; it's up to the mailer configuration on any
particular system to decide.  I suspect that it is ending up being
interpreted as

	cfctech! ((sharkey!chenry) @carlton.edu)

If this is so, then it indicates that cfctech also has a "smart
router", so you should try "cfctech!chenry@carlton.edu".

Barry Margolin
Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
{uunet,harvard}!think!barmar