Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!ox.com!mudos!mju From: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: Who pays the bill? Message-ID: Date: 9 Aug 90 00:22:13 GMT References: <26C03C57.1A38@intercon.com> Organization: The Programmers' Pit Stop, Ann Arbor MI Lines: 35 amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker) writes: > There is a difference, though. Most of uunet's connections are to machines > whose mailers only understand UUCP addresses. Most of osu's connections > (if not all) are to machines whose mailers understand RFC 822 addresses. > In their own contexts, each strategy makes sense, and serves to help mail > get through. Let's make something clear right off the bat. The From:, To:, Date:, etc. headers are all RFC822 headers. Therefore, if you implement them, it can be assumed that you also impliment the other parts of RFC822, such as "@"-style addressing. If you are running a UUCP system without a mailer that implements RFC822, then you have no business trying to interpret the From: header, or the To: header, or any other RFC822 header. Period. They should be considered part of the message body. The only thing other than the envelope you're allowed to touch is the From_ line. IF YOUR MAILER MUCKS WITH RFC822 HEADERS WHEN IT DOESN'T UNDERSTAND RFC822, YOUR MAILER IS BROKEN. Period. And you should expect mail to bounce. Period. If the next site down the line doesn't understand RFC822, then rewrite the envelope address in bang-path form. And make sure you muck the From_ line correctly. But never, ever muck with an RFC822 header to make the contents non-RFC822-conformant. Again, if your site doesn't understand "@"-style addresses but insists on doing things with the From: or To: headers, then get a different mailer. But don't complain when other people refuse to break more things so you can continue to run a broken mailer. -- Marc Unangst | mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us | Angular momentum makes the world go 'round. ...!umich!leebai!mudos!mju |