Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site sdcsvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!prls!amdimage!amdcad!amd!pesnta!hplabs!sdcrdcf!sdcsvax!jww
From: jww@sdcsvax.UUCP (Joel West)
Newsgroups: net.mail.headers
Subject: Re: Some Article Which Notes Threw Away The Title To
Message-ID: <1012@sdcsvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 26-Jul-85 18:41:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.1012
Posted: Fri Jul 26 18:41:54 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Jul-85 06:52:47 EDT
References: <918@sdcsvax.UUCP> <55500002@hpfclo.UUCP> <2463@sun.uucp>
Organization: CACI, Inc - Federal, La Jolla
Lines: 45

In <2463@sun.uucp>, Guy Harris writes:
> What guarantees that a neighbor in your domain is the appropriate neighbor
> to route the mail to?  You may be sending to "Large_American_Corporation.COM",
> but the best path to "Large_American_Corporation" may be through
> "University_of_Southern_North_Dakota_At_Hoople.EDU".  

True, if you've heard of "Large_American_Corporation.COM".  But if you've 
never heard of LAC, a reasonable convention would be to dump it on
"Piddlin_Garage_Operation.COM" and assume that any site knows at least
how to find the "smart" router in its own domain.

> > 	And UUCP does not guarantee reliable deivery or message back ...
> > 	mail can vanish into never-never land, which should NOT be
> > 	allowed.
> 
> What does this have to do with mail routing?  The fact that mail can be
> dropped by UUCP is due to several problems:
> 
> 	1) not all UUCPs know how to send undeliverable mail back to the
> 	   original sender - it often goes back to "uucp" on the previous
> 	   machine

To quote the immortal (immoral?) Peter Honeyman, "if not for those cute-as-
a-shithouse mailers...."  Because there already is enough address munging
going on, I will not feel confident about reliable replies (on undeliverable
mail) until:
	1) Every site can somehow handle a path-less domain address, e.g.
		joel@sd.gould.com
	2) The CAAS mailers give up the ghost.  
I've tried the latter myself, using a path-aliased smart mailer and sendmail
BSD 4.2, but the latter starts retching if you try to leave "TO" and "FROM"
lines unmunged, particular when building a UNIX-style "From" line.

> 	2) UUCP doesn't always deal gracefully with out-of-space conditions
> 	   on /usr/spool

About the only practical solution is a quota system (with maybe a dedicated
file system), and allow UUCP to refuse new files until it's under quota
(the reserve disk space.).  You could, I suppose, always send your mail
with reply receipts. 


	Joel West	CACI, Inc. - Federal (c/o UC San Diego)
	{ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww
	jww@SDCSVAX.ARPA