Path: utzoo!utstat!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!soleil!mlb.semi.harris.com!thrush.mlb.semi.harris.com!del
From: del@thrush.mlb.semi.harris.com (Don Lewis)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Who pays the bill?
Message-ID: <1990Aug2.061232.26671@mlb.semi.harris.com>
Date: 2 Aug 90 06:12:32 GMT
References: <EMV.90Aug1202214@urania.math.lsa.umich.edu> <1990Aug2.012444.22770@mlb.semi.harris.com> <1990Aug2.032455.9108@zoo.toronto.edu>
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Organization: Harris Semiconductor, Melbourne FL
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In article <1990Aug2.032455.9108@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <1990Aug2.012444.22770@mlb.semi.harris.com> del@thrush.mlb.semi.harris.com (Don Lewis) writes:
>>...It looks like it is time to update the RFC
>>to discourage the use of Path: and update the newsreaders to do
>>something sensible with the From: and Reply-To: headers for sites with
>>brain dead mailers.
>
>I would be interested to hear exactly what you think they could do, and
>so would most of the sites in question.

Well, in the B news installation documentation (my copy is dated Oct '86)
there is a description of the mailpaths files.

	This file contains the mail paths to a Usenet "backbone" site
    and a site that can handle "internet" style mail addresses.  Each
    line consists of two fields.  The first field is either the keyword
    "backbone" or the keyword "internet".  The second field is a string
    to be used by printf to create a mail path.  As distributed, they
    are almost certainly wrong.  You will need to modify the paths so
    they work from your site.

	As an example, suppose that your site's closest "backbone" site
    was "seismo" and the closest site that understood the "internet"
    mail systax was "decuac".  Your "mailpaths" file would look like:

	backbone	seismo!%s
	internet	decuac!%s

	The "backbone" path is used when posting articles to moderated
    groups.  [description of posting to moderated groups deleted].

	The "internet" keyword is used when the INTERNET option is
    defined for replying to news articles.  A site whose mailer does
    not understand "internet" syntax can (and should) define INTERNET
    so that mailed replies use the "From:" line of the article instead
    of the unreliable "Path:" line.

The "internet" site does not have to actually be on the Internet,
it just has to have a smarter mailer that can understand RFC822
addresses.  It can forward the mail totally via uucp if it is
able to find the destination in the maps.

It should also be possible to process user@host.UUCP addresses
locally if the host has pathalias.
--
Don "Truck" Lewis                      Harris Semiconductor
Internet:  del@mlb.semi.harris.com     PO Box 883   MS 62A-028
Phone:     (407) 729-5205              Melbourne, FL  32901