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From: gil@limbic.ssdl.com (Gil Kloepfer Jr.)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: How to make mail forward unresolved local mail to uucp host?
Summary: I have one
Keywords: xenix smail
Message-ID: <127@limbic.ssdl.com>
Date: 2 Jan 91 07:06:38 GMT
References: <881@gdc.portal.com> <206@unikla.ASK.SE>
Organization: Southwest Systems Development Labs, Houston, TX
Lines: 52

In article <206@unikla.ASK.SE> jan@unikla.ASK.SE (Jan S{ll) replies to:
>>How  much of my mail system do I have to upgrade just so I can type
>>user@host.domain.com and have mail automatically forward it to my Internet
>>neighbour?
>
>I have had the same problem on our system.

I have a postprocessor to pathalias that I wrote which works with
smail 2.5 that does exactly what the original article was interested in
doing.  However, right now it isn't in postable form, nor does it have
any documentation.  If there's interest in it, I'll clean up the source
and post it.  I hear there is a program that does a similar type of
thing out in some archives somewhere...so it might be worthwhile
to look there.

My postprocessor does the following: (in short)

	1.  Makes my "smart-host" my MX forwarder

	2.  Removes any site name with a dot, causing all domain-type
	    paths to go to the smart host.

	3.  Substitutes any known, popular uucp sitenames with their
	    domain name

	4.  Optimizes pathnames down to their first domain-type link

This way, if there's any way to do it, all mail tries to go out on the
internet, except when it absolutely can't.  With #3, I have replaced all
instances of !uunet! with !uunet.uu.net!, and optimized the path down
to uunet.uu.net!... with #4...so very rarely do I zap someone for the
cost a third-party uunet transfer (except in the cases where someone
is in uunet's map file as passing mail).  

This postprocessing concept will also effectively speed-up all net
transfers as it favors using the internet rather than UUCP links, and
even when a site is only receiving MX service, the mail message is moved
along to that MX forwarder quickly.  The path optimization shortens many
of the long paths that result from the pathalias database not knowing
about the interconnectivity of the internet.

The postprocessor does not handle all cases, but it does a good enough
job to merit using.  It also eliminates the need for the awk script to
put the paths file in site-path-cost order.

Those interested, please drop me a note.  I won't reply personally, but
if I get sufficient requests, I'll post something sometime next week.
-- 
Gil Kloepfer, Jr.              gil@limbic.ssdl.com   ...!ames!limbic!gil 
Southwest Systems Development Labs (Div of ICUS)   Houston, Texas
"There are beautiful people I wish would have never opened their mouths,
because such ugliness oozes out."  Philosophy Prof. at NYIT