Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!usc!ucsd!nosc!logicon.com!Makey
From: Makey@Logicon.COM (Jeff Makey)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: Imminent death of UUCP Zone predicted
Message-ID: <712@logicon.com>
Date: 17 Jul 90 22:48:36 GMT
References: <100@raysnec.UUCP> <269B82AE.415E@intercon.com> <707@logicon.com> <1990Jul16.200955.29906@chinet.chi.il.us>
Organization: Logicon, Inc., San Diego, California
Lines: 57

In article <707@logicon.com> I wrote:
>I always use pure bang-paths when sending mail via UUCP.

I should have been more specific: I have configured sendmail on my
Internet<->UUCP gateway to rewrite *all* headers into bang-only form
when the mail is being delivered via UUCP.  The From_ line, in
particular, is rewritten, but sendmail also rewrites From:, To:, Cc:,
Reply-To:, etc. in a similar manner.  If it comes from my machine via
UUCP, there are no @-signs in the headers.  I realize that this
violates RFC 822, but such behavior is recommended in section 2.1 of
RFC 976 ("UUCP Mail Interchange Format Standard"):

 ``Because of the confusion surrounding hybrid addresses, we recommend
   that all transport layer software avoid the use of hybrid addresses
   at all times.  A pure bang syntax can be used to disambiguate, being
   written c.d!a!b in the first case above, and a!c.d!b in the second.
   We recommend that all implementations use this "bang domain" syntax
   unless they are sure of what is running on the next machine.''

It works, too.

In article <1990Jul16.200955.29906@chinet.chi.il.us> les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) writes:
>The next problem is that random sites on the path will prepend their
>own names to the header address fields so that the sender's @ to !
>inversion is not reversible, making replies impossible.

It's the sites that *don't* prepend their own names to the header
addresses that cause problems.  More precisely, the problem is caused
by the fact that some sites prepend their own names and others don't.
If everybody did it, headers would all have nice complete bang-paths
in them.  If nobody did it, you would only be able to reply to sites
listed in the UUCP Map.

>In article <707@logicon.com> Makey@Logicon.COM (Jeff Makey) writes:
 [...]
>>It's a feature.  Internet sites are required to ignore the presence of
>>bang-paths (and any other route encoding) in the local part of an
>>address, except when the FQDN on the right-hand side of the address is
>>that of the current host.
>
>But, as you note, it's unpredictably difficult to present such an
>address from a uucp site.  While many gateways may correctly deliver
>path!domain!path!user, they don't all rewrite the headers correctly
>and even if they do, intermediate sites may destroy them.

A well-behaved UUCP->Internet gateway will rewrite the headers
correctly.  If your gateway to the Internet is broken, find another
one (there are plenty of them that work properly).  The same goes for
the broken intermediate UUCP sites: mark them DEAD in your local
pathalias data, or establish a direct connection to your destination
machine if the mail is really important.  It's the only real solution.

                           :: Jeff Makey

Department of Tautological Pleonasms and Superfluous Redundancies Department
    Disclaimer: All opinions are strictly those of the author.
    Internet: Makey@Logicon.COM    UUCP: {nosc,ucsd}!logicon.com!Makey