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From: rhoward@msd.gatech.edu (Robert L. Howard)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: expanding reply address in 2.3
Message-ID: <10185@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 6 Jun 90 16:58:52 GMT
References: <2856@ecs.soton.ac.uk> <1990Jun5.225613.15848@DSI.COM>
Sender: news@prism.gatech.EDU
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 59

In article <1990Jun5.225613.15848@DSI.COM> syd@DSI.COM writes:
=tjc@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Tim Chown) writes:

=>I posted recently asking why when generating a reply address elm 2.3
=>expanded a local to: recipient to recipient@fullhostname, when elm 2.2
=>didn't do this and direct mail (via 'm') to a local user didn't get
=>expanded either.  I got no reply on this group (though people mailed
=>me to say they had the same "problem").

=I replied to this message, but I forget if I posted my reply or
=just mailed it, but here goes again:
=
=The reason the is exactly as stated in the kludge alert:
=
=          /*
=           * KLUDGE ALERT - DANGER WILL ROBINSON
=           * We can't just leave a bare login name as the return address,
=           * or it will be alias-expanded.
=           * So we qualify it with the current host name (and, maybe, domain).
=           * Sigh.
=           */
=
=The problem is that the mailing address during a later step goes
=past the alias processing code.
=
=Here is the problem:
=
=You have an alias a, that expands to abc!a, where abc is some other
=system.  There is also a user a on your local system.
=
=User a on your local system sends you a message and it is
="From: a", you reply and the reply is now a "To: a".  If we left
=it a plain "To: a" it would then turn into an alias expansion
=and go to "abc!a" not the local a.
=
=However, local!a does not expand to an alias, so all is well.

Well, that sounds like a user problem to me.  What are you doing with
an alias for some remote site that is the same as a username for
the local machine?

=>I'm confused as to why a bare name can't be left, and if it can't,
=>then why isn't the bare name expanded when mailing using the 'm'
=>option for "direct" mail.  Is the kludge needed ?
=
=The m command does not need to do this because you want the alias
=expansion for newly generated mail.

Therefore, if the expansion works for the 'm' command _and_ I have
an alias that is equal to a local username I can never send any
mail to that user.  I think what we have here is a poor choice of
an alias.

Robert
--
Robert L. Howard  (GTRI/STL/MSD)             (404) 528-7165
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
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