Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbatt!cblpf!cbstr1!Karl.Kleinpaste From: Karl.Kleinpaste@cbstr1.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc Subject: Re: Precedence in network mail addresses Message-ID: <235@cbstr1.att.com> Date: Sun, 17-May-87 22:30:09 EDT Article-I.D.: cbstr1.235 Posted: Sun May 17 22:30:09 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 19-May-87 02:15:07 EDT References: <588@bsu-cs.UUCP> <958@xanth.UUCP> <559@smidefix.liu.se> <631@bsu-cs.UUCP> Sender: karl@cbstr1.att.com Lines: 24 In-reply-to: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP's message of 16 May 87 20:14:07 GMT Posting-Front-End: GNU Emacs 18.41.1 of Mon Mar 30 1987 on cbstr1 (usg-unix-v) With all due respect, I think the correct solution to the problem of forced precedence in mail addresses is to conform to RFC by installing smail or other compliant software. The suggestion that [a$b&c!d#f]@host.domain ought to be shipped off to "host" who will then interpret the remaining mess is fine - except that the brackets to force the high-order precedence of `@' are not at all necessary by virtue of the fact that `@' is the only recognized addressing character according to the relevant RFCs. So everything right of `@' is what a compliant host needs to consider for relay purposes, everything left of `@' is used for whatever you want to use it for, and I don't have to cope with that in any way. The only way I'd have to try to cope with it is if strcmp(host.domain, "cbstr1.att.com") == 0, in which case I'm obliged to handle the "local part" on the left - and in which case I'll bounce it back at you as an unrecognizable mess. (Full names and login names only, thanx much.) The RFC is nice enough to hand me a very clear rule about this, so your brackets to force precedence are really very unnecessary. Sites converting local.part@host.domain to some other syntax, or trying to handle local.part when they are not the destination host.domain, are violating the RFC constraints. Karl