Xref: utzoo gnu.emacs.gnus:55 comp.emacs:4571 news.software.nntp:93
Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!ddsw1!mcdchg!rutgers!mailrus!ames!fxgrp!ljz%fxgrp.fx.com
From: ljz%fxgrp.fx.com@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Lloyd Zusman)
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.gnus,comp.emacs,news.software.nntp
Subject: Proper handling of "%" in Internet addresses.
Message-ID: <849@fxgrp.UUCP>
Date: 31 Oct 88 22:58:17 GMT
Sender: ljz@fxgrp.UUCP
Reply-To: ljz%fxgrp.fx.com@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Lloyd Zusman)
Distribution: usa
Organization: FX Development Group, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 53

My site has almost perpetual Internet connection problems, and hence
we have to use another site as our gateway to the net.  Hence, my
Internet address contains a "%" as follows:

	ljz%fxgrp.fx.com@ames.arc.nasa.gov

I have tried using Gnews and Gnus, and neither seems to handle this
case very well.  If I specify my domain name as ...

	fxgrp.fx.com@ames.arc.nasa.gov

... then the news posting routines in both of these generates something
like this in my "From:" line:

	ljz@fxgrp.fx.com@ames

If I specify my domain as ...

	%fxgrp.fx.com@ames.arc.nasa.gov

... then the "From:" line ends up something like this:

	ljz@%fxgrp.fx.com@ames

This happens because the leading "@" is hard-coded in Gnews and in
Gnus.  No provision for handling domain names with leading a "%"
or an embedded "@" exists in either of these pieces of software.

This is bad enough, but to make things even worse, the fact that
"@ames.arc.nasa.gov" gets parsed down to "@ames" causes our mailer to
generate the address as "@ames.fx.com", which is wrong.  This becomes
a problem when I'm trying to reply to a news posting written by
someone at my own site.  This isn't a problem when there is only one
component in the Internet address (i.e., "ljz@fxgrp.fx.com" would get
parsed down to "ljz@fxgrp" in Gnus and Gnews, and our mailer would
expand this correctly to "ljz@fxgrp.fx.com").

Now, I realize that we can screw around with our local copies of Gnews
and Gnus to make them spew out our address correctly, but I'd prefer
to see something better: how about fixing Gnews, Gnus, and any other
news software that needs it so that it can handle domain names such as
mine?  I will do this with Gnews and Gnus if I get time in the next
3-6 months (unlikely), but I'm hoping that the authors of these programs
would take care of fixing the Internet address handling in their code.

Has anyone else had this problem, and if so, how have you dealt with it?

-- 
  Lloyd Zusman                  Internet:  ljz@fx.com
  Master Byte Software                  or ljz%fx.com@ames.arc.nasa.gov
  Los Gatos, California                 or fxgrp!ljz@ames.arc.nasa.gov
  "We take things well in hand."    uucp:  ...!ames!fxgrp!ljz
  [ our Internet connection is down: use uucp or mail to the entry above it ]