Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bu.edu!xylogics!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!dptspd!dptspd.sat.datapoint.com
From: lcz@dptspd.sat.datapoint.com (Lee Ziegenhals)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Question on group names in headers
Message-ID: <710@dptspd.sat.datapoint.com>
Date: 24 Oct 90 19:19:32 GMT
Sender: lcz@dptspd.sat.datapoint.com
Organization: Datapoint Corporation, San Antonio, TX
Lines: 18

We are running smail3.1 here, and we occasionally get mail that smail
will not accept.  The problem is "To:" lines of the following form:

	To: some.thing.or.another.;@some.where

Smail complains that the ";" does not terminate a group.  I examined
RFC-822, and it appears to me that this is not a valid address.  If
the intent is that "some.thing.or.another.;" be a group, then it is
missing a colon.  If it is not a group, then the semicolon is a special
character, and should be quoted.

I know very little about mail headers, so I would appreciate any comments
on the subject.  Smail is not following the "be liberal in what you
accept" policy here, but I would like to know if this form of addressing
is valid or not before I go munging the code.

Thanks,
Lee Ziegenhals (lcz@sat.datapoint.com)