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From: chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: Standardising the "postmaster" concept
Message-ID: <1529@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Sep-85 08:10:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.1529
Posted: Tue Sep 10 08:10:49 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 14-Sep-85 01:45:47 EDT
References: <426@mungunni.OZ> <82@l5.uucp> <428@mungunni.OZ>
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 35

In article <428@mungunni.OZ> isaac@mungunni.OZ (Isaac Balbin) writes:
> In article <82@l5.uucp> gnu@l5.uucp (John Gilmore) writes:
> ! For VM/370 systems [BITNET], the equivalent of "root" is "operator".
> ! You could try mailing to there.
> ! 
> Thanks for your advice, but it only serves to show how disorganised
> things are.  A previous news item <10298@ucbvax.ARPA> from Erik Fair

(Look, Erik, he spelled it right! :-) )

> quotes reliable sources as saying they have standardised to POSTMAST!

I do not know what standards are in use on BITNET; however, the
two articles Isaac Balbin quotes make orthogonal points.  All ARPA
Unix sites will have both a ``root'' and a ``postmaster''.  If you
are trying to reach someone on such a machine, either address will
suffice.  (Postmaster is, of course, better for mail queries.)  It
is not unreasonable that BITNET would have both ``operator'' and
``postmast''.

> I don't really care *how* (viz sendmail) one achieves the aliasing
> - the point is that there is no uniform way (in practice) as yet
> to address the "postmaster" on any machine. There should be; and
> everyone should conform.  Can/Will it happen? Will everyone keep
> RFC822 religiously?

The nature of the UUCP network implies that the answer is ``no''.
I do believe, however, that the majority of sites can and will
adopt any reasonable standard, as long as the standard is well
known.  (Definitions of ``reasonable'' may vary, but I think
``postmaster'' will fit into most.)
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 4251)
UUCP:	seismo!umcp-cs!chris
CSNet:	chris@umcp-cs		ARPA:	chris@maryland