Xref: utzoo comp.mail.misc:3625 comp.mail.mush:827 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!twg.com!david From: david@twg.com (David S. Herron) Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.mush Subject: Re: user's aliases on the To: line (was: UUnet and munging headers.) Message-ID: <7489@gollum.twg.com> Date: 5 Jul 90 19:26:37 GMT References: <2777.AA2777@julie> <136802@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <7329@gollum.twg.com> <10128@ogicse.ogc.edu> Reply-To: david@twg.com (David S. Herron) Followup-To: comp.mail.misc Organization: The Wollongong Group, Palo Alto, CA Lines: 107 In article <10128@ogicse.ogc.edu> schaefer@ogicse.ogc.edu (Barton E. Schaefer) writes: >In article <7329@gollum.twg.com> david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes: >} In article <136802@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> argv@turnpike.Eng.Sun.COM (Dan Heller) writes: >} >Sometimes people send mail to an entire list of people with the >} >intent that the recipients should *not* be able to reply to everyone, >} >just the original author. ... >} The RFCs (822 to be exact) specify a form >} list-name: ; >} to be used for the purpose you're talking about. >} Does mush generate this when $no_expand is set? ... >Joe User (joe@joes.domain.org) has in his .mailrc (or .mushrc) file: > > alias everybody fred mary tom peter@far.away.edu \ > henry@farther.off.com uunet!nowhere!jane > >If he sets $no_expand in mush and gives the command > > mail everybody > >mush will send out a message with the headers (among others) > > From: joe@joes.domain.org > To: everybody EEG erm.. that is indistinguishable from an un-domained address. I personally feel it is a very very bad thing to EVER generate mail with un-domained addresses in the header. I know that within some local net people generally have mail floating around that doesn't have domains attached to the Mail IDs ... and that's fine so long as the mail stays in the local net. But once it escapes, and it may well escape without passing through a gateway which cleans up and domainifies the header, then it will only cause confusion to people replaying to a header with all these addresses which look like they're local. For instance: the security mailing list at "zardoz" sends out a normal digest format with the headers inside the digest being in UUCP format relative to zardoz. I use mh for reading mail and use the burst command to burst digests. So now I have a bunch of messages in the zardoz-security-list folder with unusable headers. Even if the digest had passed through a gateway machine which cleans the headers it wouldn't have gone into the body and cleaned up the headers in the body. Ergo: Always generate mail with full domain names in the header or in some other way avoid strenuously making it look as if the names in the headers are local. >Yes, I agree this is imperfect, and we have considered changes. It >isn't clear what the translation into 822 syntax should be; do we >make it > > To: everybody:; Sure.. Some other places do this. CSNET, for instance, recently started using this format for sending out the CSNET Forum type stuff. RFC-822 describes groups as so: 6.2.6. MULTIPLE MAILBOXES ... A set of individuals may wish to receive mail as a single unit (i.e., a distribution list). The construct permits specification of such a list. Recipient mailboxes are speci- fied within the bracketed part (":" - ";"). A copy of the transmitted message is to be sent to each mailbox listed. This standard does not permit recursive specification of groups within groups. And an example A.2.4. Committee activity, with one author George is a member of a committee. He wishes to have any replies to his message go to all committee members. From: George Jones Sender: Jones@Host Reply-To: The Committee: Jones@Host.Net, Smith@Other.Org, Doe@Somewhere-Else; Elsewhere it says that the list need not be present. In other words.. this group:; format is meant for the exact situation which the "alias" in mush and/or ucbmail covers. I'd propose two commands and/or variables use_group_syntax list_group_members -- <- David Herron, an MMDF weenie, <- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <- <- Sign me up for one "I survived Jaka's Story" T-shirt!