Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!styx!ptsfa!vixie!paul From: paul@vixie.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: whether to prefix myhost! onto the From: or not.. Message-ID: <604@vixie.UUCP> Date: Thu, 23-Apr-87 16:08:44 EST Article-I.D.: vixie.604 Posted: Thu Apr 23 16:08:44 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 25-Apr-87 05:37:44 EST References: <1320@decuac.DEC.COM> <4271@auspyr.UUCP> Reply-To: paul@vixie.UUCP (Paul Vixie Esq) Organization: Vixie Enterprises, San Francisco Lines: 58 Xref: utgpu comp.mail.misc:186 comp.mail.uucp:446 In article <4271@auspyr.UUCP> joe@auspyr.UUCP (Joe Angelo) writes: >in article <1320@decuac.DEC.COM>, > avolio@decuac.dec.com (Frederick M. Avolio) says: >> In article <364@micropro.UUCP> mojo@micropro.UUCP (Morris Jones) writes: >>>Yeah, but smail doesn't (can't?) prepend myhost! on the From: line. >> Smail has nothing to do with it. [...] But, no, I'm not going to tell you. >But, yes, I'm going to tell you... Well, something else instead. >*WE* convert user@domain to the UUCP format of domain_or_system!user so that >SYSV mailx can reply to it. If SysV mailx doesn't have the ability to reply using From_ instead of From:, it loses. The From: line is not supposed to be in UUCP form -- bangs have NO official standing there. 'From: foo!bar', taken literally, means that you have received mail from a user on your own machine, who logs in as 'foo!bar'. >NO conflict of interest, NO reported problems. You stated that SMAIL would be able to figure it out. Well, that depends on how you configured it. If you told it to be as agressive as possible, it will start from the right instead of the left side of a path, looking for a host is recognizes -- given a!b!c!d!e, it looks for d, then c, etc. This can sometimes improve the route.... Unless it knows how to talk to a c that is a different machine (in a different state or country) than the one b and d talk to -- in which case, the mail gets screwed. So usually, the agressive behaviour is turned off, and smail starts from the left side. If there is a better way to get to 'd' than the way this letter got here, or -- more likely -- if there is an a1 or b1 that was part of the path the letter took, but did not prepend its host name as the message passed through -- the mail will either take a long time to get there, or it won't get there at all. Moral: Use the From_ line for replies if your mailer doesn't understand u@h.d Moral: don't touch those From: lines -- don't prepend your host name, don't rewrite from u@h to h!u (Sun, are you listening?) -- just leave them alone. >S14 >R$+<@$=E> $1 user@etherhost -> user >R$*<@$+>$* $@$1<@$2>$3 already ok >#R$+<@$+.$j>$* $1<@$j>$3 hide anydom.$j under $j >#R$+ $@$1<@$j> add our full address (orig) #>R$+ $@$w!$1 add our full address (angelo) R$+ $@$1<@$w> add our full address (vixie) Use the (vixie) version in the smail .cf file until you get registered. This will let you have autorouting without sticking .UUCP onto your host name, which breaks many mailers. -- Paul A. Vixie {ptsfa, crash, winfree}!vixie!paul 329 Noe Street dual!ptsfa!vixie!paul@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU San Francisco CA 94116 paul@vixie.UUCP (415) 864-7013