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From: cluther@supernet.haus.com (Clay Luther)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Smail 3.x newaliases/mkaliases sort error
Message-ID: <1990Oct10.155012.21376@supernet.haus.com>
Date: 10 Oct 90 15:50:12 GMT
Organization: Harris Adacom Corporation
Lines: 31

I have discovered that the newaliases/mkaliases scripts that come with 
smail 3.x sort the aliases file incorrectly when creating the aliases.sort
file for use by smail.

The sort places the substring "a-a" before "a", eg:

foo-bar:myfoobar
foo:myfoo

However, smail's binary search expects the order to be reversed.  If the
user's aliases.sort file is in this pattern, then the command:

smail -bv -v foo

will generate a "unknown user" error.

smail -bv -v foo-bar

is found, though

Editing the aliases.sort file to reflect

foo:myfoo
foo-bar:myfoobar

fixes the problem.
-- 
Clay Luther, Postmaster          cluther@supernet.haus.com 
  postmaster@supernet.haus.com   clay.luther@supernet.haus.com
  Harris Adacom Corporation      MS 23, PO Box 809022, Dallas, Tx 75380-9022
  214/386-2356                   Your mileage may vary.  Void where prohibited.