Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!steinmetz!uunet!jetson!john
From: john@jetson.UPMA.MD.US (John Owens)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: .US domain map entries incorrect
Keywords: .US domain, map
Message-ID: <162@jetson.UPMA.MD.US>
Date: 20 Oct 88 01:33:24 GMT
References: <537@comdesign.CDI.COM> <10357@s.ms.uky.edu> <154@jetson.UPMA.MD.US> <3172@hermes.ai.mit.edu>
Organization: SMART HOUSE Limited Partnership
Lines: 35

In article <3172@hermes.ai.mit.edu>, wisner@zug.AI.MIT.EDU (Bill Wisner) writes:
> # Well, from what I hear, there will be a difference in the way smail
> # 3.X handles
> # fernwood .fernwood.mpk.ca.us
> # and
> # fernwood = fernwood.mpk.ca.us
> 
> Nooo. You're forgetting that smail (in any incarnation) never looks at
> the map files directly. That's pathalias's job.

OK, OK.   I should have said that there will be a difference in the
way smail 3.X handles

.fernwood.mpk.ca.us	some!path!fernwood!%s
and
fernwood.mpk.ca.us	some!path!fernwood!%s

Everything else I said is still true.  I did find out some new
information about the .US domain, with a lead from Henry Mensch.  They
are now allowing groups of hosts to be registered as fifth-level
domains under a fourth-level domain.  They still insist, however, that
for the time being, all host names must be given to them: they will
not do wildcard MX records.  Since this is true, it's not unreasonable
to have the UUCP maps follow the same pattern, and list all the
fifth-level hosts explicitly.  Even if you don't agree with this, I
still think you shouldn't say

fernwood	.fernwood.mpk.ca.us

in your pathalias input unless there are registered hosts with domain
names under .fernwood.mpk.ca.us.

-- 
John Owens		john@jetson.UPMA.MD.US		uunet!jetson!john
+1 301 249 6000		john%jetson.uucp@uunet.uu.net