Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!gatech!hao!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!hplabs!hpcea!hpfcdc!hpfclp!diamant From: diamant@hpfclp.HP.COM (John Diamant) Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc Subject: Re: whether to prefix myhost! onto the From: or not.. Message-ID: <8120002@hpfclp.HP.COM> Date: Fri, 1-May-87 01:49:07 EDT Article-I.D.: hpfclp.8120002 Posted: Fri May 1 01:49:07 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 5-May-87 01:21:33 EDT References: <1320@decuac.DEC.COM> Organization: HP, Fort Collins, CO Lines: 40 > / hpfclp:comp.mail.misc / jsdy@hadron.UUCP (Joseph S. D. Yao) / 6:52 am Apr 28, 1987 / > In article <600@vixie.UUCP> paul@vixie.UUCP (Paul Vixie Esq) writes: > >The various standards in place around the net (in RFC form) say: no. > > After the Nth last time this was discussed (*sigh*), I tried to verify > this for a paper I was writing. (I'm sorry: the paper is s t i l l > being written.) Various people, including Mark Horton (!), told me > that they couldn't find where this was said, either. If this has > changed, and someone has found the citation, I'd really appreciate > hearing about it! Well, you may be right that this is not stated in exactly that form. However, it can easily be concluded from other statements in RFCs. Both RFC-822 and RFC-976 are quite clear on @ precedence (822 because it doesn't recognize anything else -- 976 because it says so explicitly). Given that the only possible intent of tacking on myhost! to a From: line is to keep the address replyable, and @ precedence in the From: line guarantees that the address won't be replyable, adding myhost! to a From: line that already has a @ is clearly wrong. I believe the BNF in RFC-822 clearly requires one and only one @ in the address, so this makes prepending myhost! always wrong. Put another way, there are three possible situations with From: lines: 1) One exists with a domain address 2) One exists with a UUCP address 3) One doesn't exist yet In case 1, it is clearly wrong to prepend myhost! as stated above. Case 2 is common but violates RFC-822 because there is no @. Case 3 requires that the address be constructed with an @ in the From: line (only the From_ line may have the myhost! in it). So, in no case is it legal (by extrapolation from the RFCs) to prepend myhost! to a From: line. John Diamant SCO UUCP: {hplabs,hpfcla}!hpfclp!diamant Hewlett Packard Co. ARPA Internet: diamant%hpfclp@hplabs.HP.COM Fort Collins, CO