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From: sysnet@central1.lancaster.ac.uk (The Postmaster)
Newsgroups: mail.uk-sendmail-workers,comp.mail.sendmail
Subject: Problems with dots in From: fields
Message-ID: <25153.9008301044@central1.lancaster.ac.uk>
Date: 30 Aug 90 11:18:48 GMT
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We're currently experiencing some nasty problems with mail going out to EARN
from sendmail 5.61. What's happening is that the relay is not translating
our machine name in the From: field to little-endian, so the BITNET site
sees the message as from fred@uk.ac.lancs.cent1. It then isn't able to
reply to the mail.

Now, our sendmail is set up to include the GECOS field in the From: line,
so we send, say

   From: Fred Bloggs <fred@uk.ac.lancaster.central1>

Phil Overy at the relay tells me that the problem is caused by the presence
of dots in this field: thus the example above will work properly, but

   From: F.Bloggs <fred@uk.ac.lancaster.central1>

is treated as illegal by the relay, and will get to the BITNET side _without_
the site name being reversed.

We're using UK-Sendmail 2.1 to build the configuration file: so I would
guess that this problem must affect a lot of people. Does anyone else see it,
or is there some other factor making it peculiar to us? I know that at least
one PRIME site has also observed this behaviour.

Second, what do mail gurus think of the situation? Is the earn relay acting
reasonably?

Third, what do I do to get round this? We send a lot of mail into EARN, and
it's causing our users quite a problem. Our $o and $q macros are defined thusly:

Do.:%@!^=/[]~
Dq$?x$x <$g>$|$g$.

Can anyone suggest what I can change them to? Would putting the GECOS field in
quotes (how?) solve it?

-- 

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| LANCASTER UNIVERSITY POSTMASTER                              Alan Phillips |
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