Xref: utzoo comp.mail.misc:1206 comp.mail.sendmail:63 comp.mail.uucp:1714
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!decwrl!hplabs!motsj1!mcdchg!nud!anasaz!chad
From: chad@anasaz.UUCP (Chad R. Larson)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.sendmail,comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: smail query (long)
Summary: 'Splain it all to me, please...
Message-ID: <1196@anasaz.UUCP>
Date: 22 Aug 88 20:06:01 GMT
References: <605@bnlux0.bnl.gov>
Reply-To: chad@dcf.UUCP (Chad R. Larson)
Distribution: na
Organization: DCF Inc, Phoenix AZ
Lines: 64

In article <605@bnlux0.bnl.gov> abrams@bnlux0.UUCP writes:
>
>...What would be the advantage, if any, of implementing smail
>on our system?

Actually, I've been following the flame war...um...spirited discussion
that has been going on in this group for some time now.  I am at a
small, UUCP only site.  I hoped just by listening I would get educated
on domain mailings, smail, sendmail, Internet et al.  Mostly, however,
I've been getting confused.

For example:  It seems pretty obvious (but apparently only to me) that
an explicit bang path should never be messed with.  If a site foo
doesn't have a direct connection to bar in the path "...!foo!bar!baz..."
it should bounce the mail back to the originator, not try to figure
out a way to baz.  Otherwise, the sender will never know his chosen
path is no good and he will not be encouraged to improve it.  It seems
equally obvious that given a domain address, even one of the pseudo
ones (chad@dcfinc.UUCP) the site should take its best shot at an
optimal path to the terminal address.

Mail originators should be where the decision on what form of address
to use is made.  We UUCP sites would be good citizens if we used the
pathalias database on all our originated mail, but don't all have
access to it.  Gateways should be the ones (and only ones) who
translate paths from one style to another, as they are the ones
who know both side's requirements best, and already accepted that
responsibility when they agreed to be a gateway.

[ A personal observation aside: It seems the whole froth is kicked up
because of Internet requirements.  We UUCP'ers got along just fine,
and our mail went where we wanted it until accomodations for "that
other" network were implemented.  From where I sit and watch, it seems
the Internet people are of the "do it my way or I'll take my ball and go
home (pull the interconnection plug)" school of thinking.  If I were
intemperate, I'd say "Fine, write when you get work".  In the meantime,
the UUCP'ers say "Any network has to be able to accomodate me with my
desktop computer running only whatever came out of the box", which
seems patently silly given good public-domain software for them.  They
_do_ read the news, after all. ]

Anyway, these comments are meant to be provocative, but not mean
spirited and are not made in anything like anger.  I'm just confused
(bemused?).  Since I suspect many are like me in that regard, could
someone please offer a short course "UUCP in the 20th Century" or
"Mail networks 101" explaining smail, sendmail, ARPA/UUCP gateways,
annon FTP, and how it all is supposed to fit together?  Why would I
want to install smart mailer software on my machine?  Which ones would
I want?  Post if you think your comments have widespread interest (or
you want to drive the volume even higher), else e-mail me at the
address below.

Thanks, and excuse me while I go look for the Halon fire-extinguisher.
	-crl

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