Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!ispd-newsserver!ism.isc.com!ico!rcd From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: local site in a domain Message-ID: <1991Feb26.014736.6765@ico.isc.com> Date: 26 Feb 91 01:47:36 GMT References: <_L=-F2#@b-tech.uucp> Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation, Boulder, CO Lines: 52 peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: [background: discussion about tacking domain onto bang-path element] > > >> ...ie[sic], apple!user becomes apple.jpr.com!user... ... > > When somebody sends mail to mysite!apple!user (intending this mail to > > be delivered to apple.uucp) it ends up going to user@apple.mysite.com ... > Apple.uucp? Apple.uucp? Where is apple.uucp? I know of an apple.com... is > that what you're talking about? The maps say that the machine named "apple" in the uucp zone is the same as apple.com. Why is this confusing? > If you're planning on letting another site reroute for you, the least you > can do is give it an unambiguous address, and "apple" or "apple.uucp" > isn't one... How can apple.uucp be ambiguous? That means "machine apple in the uucp zone" and there's only one of those, by definition. >...Either "apple.com" or "neighbor.dom.ain!apple" where you know > that neighbor.dom.ain is adjacent to apple. apple may be a bad example here because it's also in a real domain. What about all the machines which ARE registered in the uucp maps but ARE NOT in a true domain? The sensible approach is either to use the pathalias- derived data, or hand your mail to a machine which does. > ...If you want to get to a site in the UUCP zone, you have to use > a path. It's one thing to insist on a complete path if you're using bang-style source routing; it's another thing entirely to expect the user to create that path. apple!user is a uucp-style path (or fragment of a path). It seems at least reasonable to route as follows: - If you talk to "apple", hand them the mail. - If you don't talk to apple, look up apple in the paths file and route accordingly. - If you don't have the paths on your machine, hand apple!user to a machine that does, and let it route. One way that people get into trouble is with the assumption that host!user is the same as user@host. user@host is a valid way to abbreviate user@host.local.domain. host!user, in a substantial part of the universe, means "`user' on the registered uucp machine `host'". If you DON'T use that convention/mnemonic, how do you (the user) get routing via the maps? You already objected to adding ".uucp" on the end of the hostname. -- Dick Dunn rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd Boulder, CO (303)449-2870 ...But is it art?