Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!mips!bridge2!mdb From: mdb@ESD.3Com.COM (Mark D. Baushke) Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail Subject: Re: Free standing periods Message-ID: Date: 10 May 91 19:05:14 GMT References: Sender: news@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM Followup-To: comp.mail.sendmail Organization: 3Com Corp., Santa Clara, CA. Lines: 56 Nntp-Posting-Host: kosciusko.esd.3com.com In-reply-to: ehrlich@cs.psu.edu's message of 10 May 91 18:14:49 GMT On 10 May 91 18:14:49 GMT, ehrlich@cs.psu.edu (Dan Ehrlich) said: Dan> After many hours of debate with others here at Penn State we Dan> still have not resolved the following: Are free standing periods Dan> allowed in a mailbox specification? For example, most sendmails Dan> will happily accept Dan> John Q. Public Dan> Rayan Zachariassen's ZMailer on the other hand complains loudly Dan> that free standing periods can only occur inside a quoted string. Dan> Here is an example: Dan> Illegal-Object: Syntax error in From: address found on cs.psu.edu: Dan> From: John Q.Public Dan> ^ ^-illegal period in phrase Dan> \-phrases containing '.' must be quoted Dan> After pouring over RFC822 and RFC1123 a few times I have come to Dan> the conclusion that this case is not clearly covered. In RFC822, in section 3.3 LEXICAL TOKENS we see the following: specials = "(" / ")" / "<" / ">" / "@" ; Must be in quoted- / "," / ";" / ":" / "\" / <"> ; string, to use / "." / "[" / "]" ; within a word. atom = 1* phrase = 1*word ; Sequence of words word = atom / quoted-string Since 'specials' includes '.' and has the comment that it must be in a quoted string to use within a word, I believe that the ZMailer interpretation appears to be legally correct. Also note that MH (6.7 w/o the BERK option) will complain about names like 'J. Public ' (sans the quotes) being illegal even though it accepts 'John Q. Public '. Some versions of sendmail (like IDA Sendmail) will automatically quote the users name if it contains a '.' in it. Dan> I would appreciate hearing what others have to say on this Dan> matter. Another question. Is there an official 'interpreter' of Dan> RFCs or is it just left up to the concensus of the majority? Good question. Dan> Thanks in advance. Dan> -- Dan> Dan Ehrlich - Sr. Systems Programmer - Penn State Computer Science Dan> /Voice: +1 814 863 1142/FAX: +1 814 865 3176 Enjoy! -- Mark D. Baushke mdb@ESD.3Com.COM