Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!infotel!pollux!ndmce!tp From: tp@ndmce.uucp (Terry Poot) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: From: lines ... Message-ID: <1159@ndmce.uucp> Date: Thu, 22-Jan-87 12:38:02 EST Article-I.D.: ndmce.1159 Posted: Thu Jan 22 12:38:02 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 24-Jan-87 08:00:31 EST References: <1139@ndmce.uucp> <16950@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: tp@ndmce.UUCP (Terry Poot) Organization: Nathan D. Maier Consulting Engineers, Dallas Lines: 53 In article <16950@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> jordan@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Jordan Hayes) writes: >headers. While correct that 822 does not provide for slapping a >sitename! on the front of the address, normal UUCP conventions dictate >exactly that. Only sendmail sites slap sitename! on the front of the address in the From: line (as opposed to the uucp >From line. Sites with dumb mailers don't do this. I have seen indications, however, that sendmail sites have a tendency to put in the intermediate sites, if those sites didn't do it. I.e., it seems as though if the site I talk to runs sendmail with a 'conventional' configuration, and no other site along the path runs sendmail, the sendmail site will tack the entire path onto the From: line. Anyone know if this is correct? >All the ambiguity questions have been asked, but only one answer >remains -- make all sites do routed addressing, so everyone can munge >them appropriately, or use domain addressing. Which do you think is >the more reasonable advice ...? The question is actually: mung the From: line, or don't mung the from line. There need be no correlation with routing or addressing methods and header re-writing. There is only one alternative that seems reasonable to me: don't re-write the From: line. Reasons: 1) The only mail standard with a serious foothold in this user community (RFC822) forbids From: munging. The only way to get this stuff to work the way we all would like is standardization on SOMETHING, and this seems to be far and away the top contender. 2) The major package doing the re-writing is sendmail. Sendmail is not available to everyone, and even if it were, many people would feel little incentive to use it. Thus the re-writing alternative is not available to everyone with existing software. The alternative of not re-writing is available, in the form of smail. smail conforms to the standard given above and is available to everybody, whether they run sendmail or not. It is not necessary to give up sendmail to run smail. 3) I am told that sendmail can be made NOT to re-write the From: line simply by changing the configuration file. Non-sendmail sites can not easily be made to re-write the From: lines (given the unavailability of sendmail). Thus this is not even really an option as a net-wide standard. As far as I can see, there is only one reasonable conclusion: sendmail sites should modify their sendmail.cf to not mung the From: lines. There will then be peace and harmony throughout the net :-) >/jordan -- Terry Poot, Nathan D. Maier Consulting Engineers, (214)739-4741 8800 N. Central Expressway, Suite 300, Dallas, Tx 75231, USA UUCP: { seismo | cbosgd | ihnp4 | sun!convex | allegra!convex }!ndmce!tp ARPA: ndmce!tp@seismo.css.gov CSNET: ndmce!tp@smu