Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!uunet!gsm001!mailgsm
From: root@mailgsm.mendelson.com (Superuser)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Pathalias, makedb enquiry
Message-ID: <13102111@mailgsm.mendelson.com>
Date: 22 Apr 91 11:34:36 GMT
Sender: news@mailgsm.mendelson.com (GNEWS Version 1.01 news poster.)
Organization: GNEWS Development Center -- Philadelphia, Pa.
Lines: 46

dtinker@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (David Tinker) asks:


>1) Is libdbm.a available on piggy or anywhere else?  If someone has it
>   I'd like to get it, or its equivalent (including a man page if
>   possible).
>2) Is pathalias available on piggy?  (It wasn't on mwcbbs last time I
>   looked).  If not, would someone, more familiar with ftp than me, like
>   to upload it?  Looks like a lot of people might need it soon.
>


You don't need pathalias at all. Pathalias is for people who act as a network
backbone. Since your coherent system is not on the Internet, you dont need it
at all.

All you need to do is define the systems that you talk to directly. Then add
a smart-host line for the next host up the chain to the Internet: For example
this is my paths file:

	gsm001	gsm001!%s	50
	gsm001.mendelson.com	gsm001!%s	50
	mailgsm	%s	0
	mailgsm.mendelson.com	%s	0
	mendelson.com	gsm001!%s	50
	smart-host	gsm001!%s	98


gsm001 does not run pathalias either, it has smart-host defined as uunet. 
When I send mail to a user smail on mailgsm does not know, it sends it up the 
line to gsm001. gsm001 probably won't know it either, but he sends it up the 
chain to uunet. uunet can sort out just about any address you give it. If it 
can't, being directly on the internet, it asks the nameserver at UCB for 
help.

This makes life easier for me as I only need change the paths file when I add
or delete a system that I talk to directly.

P.s. If your are using the version of smail that was on mwcbbs and experience
"wild stores", email me for a fixed version.

Geoff.
gsm@mailgsm.mendelson.com

------
Geoffrey S. Mendelson