Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!karl_kleinpaste From: karl_kleinpaste@cis.ohio-state.edu Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains Subject: Re: A plea for care when faking top-level domains Message-ID: Date: 20 Jul 90 13:25:02 GMT References: <9007191733.AA01412@venera.isi.edu> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Distribution: inet Organization: Ohio State Computer Science Lines: 35 pvm@venera.isi.edu writes: P.S. Speaking of problems, isn't pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic !tut!kannel!kim@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Kimmo Suominen) a bit much? I know, its not your fault, but which postmaster do I blame? You blame Erik Fair (sorry, Erik). The newsgate code picks up a Usenet article and decides it should guarantee an RFC-compliant From: line as it prepares to distribute to the mailing list side of the gate. Unfortunately, it chooses to do this by taking the Path: header (which, in the land of Usenet, is what amounts to an audit trail of systems where this article has been, to avoid retransmission when Usenet's flooding algorithm redistributes to neighbors) in !-path format, and slices/dices/julienne-fries it until it comes out in something approaching The Right Way. It flatly ignores the supplied From: line, which is Bad, since in this case it was the perfectly reasonable From: kim@lut.fi (Kimmo Suominen) You'll probably see this note's From: as From: cis.ohio-state.edu!karl_kleinpaste@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu even though it'll leave my system as From: karl_kleinpaste@cis.ohio-state.edu The reason for hacking up Path: into a From: rather than taking the supplied From: has to do with the fact that, at least in the past, it was more than likely that a From: contained some pretty bad addresses, notably containing UUCP pseudodomain trash (user@host.uucp); so Erik decided, years ago, to avoid the problem entirely and use Path:. By now, this decision is probably not in the best of taste, as far more sites generate valid From: lines. Perhaps I'll see about fixing newsgate so that it only hacks up Path: if From: contains .uucp. Hm. --karl