Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!midway!clout!chinet!les
From: les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: % in path
Message-ID: <1991May06.141547.19963@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 6 May 91 14:15:47 GMT
References: <1991May4.023832.2999@mccc.edu>
Organization: Chinet - Chicago Public Access UNIX
Lines: 19

In article <1991May4.023832.2999@mccc.edu> pjh@mccc.edu (Peter J. Holsberg) writes:
>One of mccc.edu's leafs has an address
>	user%hissite.UUCP@mccc.edu

>but smail 2.5 barfs on replying to mail from him.  A couple of people
>have suggested that it is the % that is confusing an "*printf(address)"
>into thinking that the % is conversion string lead-in character, but
>there's no such "*printf()" in all of the source.

Smail 2.5 doesn't understand the % as a routing operator and just treats
it as the local part of the address.  That is actually the correct
thing to do until you hit the site where there are no other routing
operators left.  In this case mccc.edu has to handle it.  I would
suggest switching to smail3.x at least on your gateway machine since
it will handle the % as well as subdomain format (if you want to
allow hissite.mcc.edu) without any extra trouble.

Les Mikesell
  les@chinet.chi.il.us