Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!sdsu!ucsd!ucbvax!ziploc!eps
From: eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: ...!got!me!here!too
Message-ID: <265@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
Date: 21 Jan 90 00:29:14 GMT
References: <8707@cbnewsm.ATT.COM> <8708@cbnewsm.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: eps@cs.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Distribution: usa
Organization: San Francisco State University
Lines: 44

In article <8707@cbnewsm.ATT.COM> jeffj@cbnewsm.ATT.COM
	(jeffrey.n.jones) writes:
>What does this mean, {what,is,this}!got!me? Are those optional paths 
>in the curly que's or is at least one of them required to send the
>message.I am guessing that at least one of them is required. Am I right?

It's a convention for "pick one of these."  Read it as

	what!got!me -or- is!got!me -or- this!got!me

You NEVER, NEVER, NEVER try to feed "{site,site,site}" to a
mailer--it will spit it out.


In article <8708@cbnewsm.ATT.COM> jeffj@cbnewsm.ATT.COM
	(jeffrey.n.jones) writes:
>I just noticed this for the first time and was wondering how it 
>works, ...!best!guess? Are the ... the where you put your machine
>of choice (att,uunet)? Or is cbnewsm smart enough to figure what goes
>there? 

... is a convention too.  You (possibly) have to replace it with
"whatever works from your site."  I can't speak for cbnewsm.
Once upon a time, there were "well-known" sites (such as the
legendary inhp4) that talked to so many places that
...!inhp4!yoursite!yourname was used by its neighbors.  The
closest thing there is today is uunet, but uunet is *not* an
arbitrary uucp gateway--it serves its PAYING subscribers.
(However, within AT&T, I suspect you can use "att" this way!
Non-AT&T people CAN NOT pass mail though att.  Some people
try because they have broken newsreaders that try to reply
through Path: headers instead of Reply-To: (or From:).  News
paths often fail outright if used for mail, and are nearly
always suboptimal anyway.)

A couple of points:
1) Your site has a domain name--cbnewsm.ATT.COM.  That is
sufficient for anyone in the world to know how to get to you.
2) All uucp sites are supposed to be registered with the UUCP
Mapping Project (see comp.mail.maps) with unique names.  This,
in conjunction with the pathalias program, allows cbnewsm.uucp
to be sufficient as well (although the domain name is preferred).

					-=EPS=-