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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!amdcad!lll-crg!hoptoad!gnu
From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: Parsing mixed form addresses (! and @)
Message-ID: <480@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Mon, 3-Feb-86 05:21:47 EST
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.480
Posted: Mon Feb  3 05:21:47 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Feb-86 01:03:23 EST
References: <1942@peora.UUCP> <11500004@unido.UUCP> <117@sering.mcvax.UUCP> <592@well.UUCP>
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 38
Summary: Context?  Who defines the context?

Let me cast a dissenting vote on interpreting incoming mail based
on what transport mechanism was used.

I run a 4.2BSD based system which connects to all other systems via
uucp.  I ran a similar setup at Sun with a few hundred machines on
a network, all connected to the outside world via uucp.  In both these
setups, RFC822 rules are used -- @ always takes precedence.  Incoming
mail from the Arpanet gateway has the gateway info removed, making it
look like we are on the Arpanet, and outgoing mail for the Arpa
domains is of course forwarded immediately to the gateway.

If the gateway sites that we connect to suddenly decide that "since we talked
uucp we must care more about !" then the whole thing falls down.

Just because I run uucp doesn't mean I don't know better!  It means
nobody has offerred me an Arpanet connection in the same price range.

----

No matter what scheme you use, unless every site follows the same
rules, there will always be places that (theoretically or practically)
cannot be reached.  The key as I see it is to make it clear what will
go on, so that humans can plan around the limitations of the medium.
Are we gonna add another field to the uucp maps for "parses ! ahead of
% but behind @", or are we going to try to move towards a standard?  If
we solidly move towards a standard, (eg, cutting out the "%" crap),
then sites that do that stuff will not be reachable and will have to
fix themselves up.

It is *possible* for any site to fix its mailer to produce and accept
unmixed ! addresses.  Look at DEC or Sun.  Ever had problems getting a
decnet "::" address parsed?  Of course not, they translate it properly at
the gateway.  Woe to those who cheap out and make their local kludges
visible to the whole net!
-- 
# I resisted cluttering my mail with signatures for years, but the mail relay
# situation has gotten to where people can't reach me without it.  Dammit!
# John Gilmore  {sun,ptsfa,lll-crg,nsc}!hoptoad!gnu    jgilmore@lll-crg.arpa