Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!lll-tis!CS.UCL.AC.UK!steve
From: steve@CS.UCL.AC.UK (Steve Kille)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway
Subject: Proposed delta to RFC 987
Message-ID: <11895.582550723@UK.AC.UCL.CS>
Date: 17 Jun 88 13:38:43 GMT
Sender: root@tis.llnl.gov
Distribution: inet
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 26
Approved: post-x400-gateway@tis.llnl.gov

I propose the following change.  Comments welcome?

Many mailers need to access gateways by use of source routes (e.g.
@gateway:user@x400-domain) - alternatively using a % style routing.  RFC 987
maps this into domain defined attributes (to ensure reversability of the
mapping).   

It is suggested that a 987 gateway should recognise (in an RFC 822 header), the
source routes with the local domain explicitly identified, and treat the
address as if the component was not present (e.g. map @my-gateway:user@dmn
as if it was user@dmn).  

This is ugly because:
 - It is assymetrical
 - 822 Mailers should be able to route properly  

It is pragmatic because:
 - Many 822 mailers cannot route properly
 - Many X.400 systems do not deal cleanly with DD atributes
 - In practice it will behave in the "right way"

On balance, I vote for the pragmatic change (as it will keep some of our
users happy).    What do people think?   


Steve