Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!bu-cs!buengc!bph
From: bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Internet address syntax (and semantics, for that matter)
Message-ID: <4270@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: 20 Sep 89 19:51:03 GMT
References: <2274@ttardis.UUCP> <29725@news.Think.COM>
Reply-To: bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton)
Followup-To: comp.unix.questions
Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng.
Lines: 40

In article <29725@news.Think.COM> barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin) writes:
>In article <2274@ttardis.UUCP> jcf3703@ttardis.UUCP (chap flack) writes:
>>chenry@carleton.edu.
>>So as a test drive, I tried sending something to
>>cfctech!sharkey!chenry@carleton.edu.
[...describes bounce from sharkey...]
>
>  I suspect that it is ending up being
>interpreted as
>
>	cfctech! ((sharkey!chenry) @carlton.edu)

You say:  cfctech to carleton to sharkey to chenry	[Triple play! :-)]

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

Huh?

The way a bang-at address is interpreted (is it really undefined)
is to send to the at-machine, then start down the bang-path.

It would look like

	carleton to cfctech to sharkey to chenry

and the guy's address would have to be chenry@sharkey for that to work.

It's obvious that our friend only has to use the address "chenry@carleton",
since the mail got through carleton to cfctech, and then to sharkey,
which bounced it.

What I'd like to know is, why not just fix mailers to accept the address as

	"carleton to cfctech to..."

instead of all this !%@.

				--Blair
				  "*&%$@#$"