Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!ucbarpa.berkeley.edu!jordan From: jordan@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu (Jordan Hayes) Newsgroups: net.mail Subject: Re: colons, atsigns, & domains in uucp path keys Message-ID: <13328@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: Mon, 21-Apr-86 11:20:30 EST Article-I.D.: ucbvax.13328 Posted: Mon Apr 21 11:20:30 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 23-Apr-86 21:59:03 EST References: <404@geowhiz.UUCP> Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: ucbvax!jordan (Jordan Hayes) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 86 Summary: ha ha Larry McVoy writes: Colons: Is there some reason why these sites can't accept the normal uucp sequence? Most likely they aren't a uucp site ... berknet uses colons, and there are other forms that use them as well ... if you run uucp, why should you worry about it? Atsigns: Why don't these sites register as normal uucp sites? tsk tsk ... if you want to take the craziness out of the addressing syntax of UUCP, then pathalias has no job to do and there is no need for the maps -- get a grip -- these are not little convenience programs that can be written without the advanced knowlege of whats out there ... If you're trying to write some addressing software, consider all the possibilities -- don't just clean up the maps, because then they are of very little use. I, myself, don't use the stuff, but lots of people (it may be argued even that too many people) depend on the functionality of that software. Remember, UUCP is the little guy on the block, and we all gotta play fair ... if you're looking for genocide, you won't kill off the atsign race ... we may starve you to death first Although I notice you have an account on the arpanet out of wisc ... Domains: This is just obnoxious. There exist routers which will forward stuff from one domain to the next, lets not clutter up the uucp maps with this garbage. You must be a mathematician ... "there exists a solution, so were done!" I remember high school when I could *use* things like + Proof by Inspection "See! It works! Just plug in 17 and remove this expression..." + and Proof by distraction "LOOK! THE QUEEN! (scamming takes place here ...) domained addresses like the form foo!bar.baz.edu!mumble!joe are just as valid as anything else -- if there are dots, and they don't mean anything to you, you can justpass them along and be a good citizen, right? Berkeley is by far the worst offender with 272 out of 389 such names and they are just aliases for the uucp names. Can't this stuff go someplace else? Sorry, Berkeley doesn't run UUCP on it's internal ethernets (unlike *some* University of California ... or maybe that's almost gone now, right, Rich?), so the ucb* name is NOT a uucp name, just an easy way to scam a unique name for sites like "topaz" which is pretty popular these days ... see, wwe just tack on the ucb to make "ucbtopaz" and then we're okay ... the mailers on campus are very generous as to what they will accept for a machine name ... See, but everyone on the net here has access to news via NNTP, so there needs to be a way for the pigeons who use pathalias to get mail to these people who don't happen to have an account on ucbvax, mostly for news replies. Some people believe in the philosophy of being liberal with what they accept ... maybe you could learn something here. By the way, just to clear up the present confusion about how to reach internal Berkeley hosts, you can use the following syntax. Example: user "joeblow" on machine "gadzooks" at Berkeley ... UUCP: ...!ucbvax!ucbgadzooks!joeblow ARPA: joeblow%gadzooks@Berkeley.EDU As a matter of fact, you can even combine these to get a UUCP path of UUCP: ...!ucbvax!gadzooks.Berkeley.EDU!joeblow Summary: The uucp maps are for UUCP PATHS! Don't fill them with domain aliases. You'll be very lonely without the rest of the world. I wish you luck. /jordan (not *even* a signature line here!)