Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!ukma!gatech!ncar!tank!oddjob!matt
From: matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu (Matt Crawford)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: Pathalias and routing of mail
Message-ID: <1144@tank.uchicago.edu>
Date: 12 Dec 88 20:03:25 GMT
References: <2189@unmvax.unm.edu> <1665@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu> <4199@mailgw.cc.umich.edu> <2194@unmvax.unm.edu> <VIXIE.88Dec10052803@bacchus.pa.dec.com>
Sender: news@tank.uchicago.edu
Reply-To: matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu (Matt Crawford)
Organization: If you worked here you'd go home by now
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In-reply-to: vixie@decwrl.dec.com (Paul A Vixie)

Paul A Vixie sez:
) Canonically, this is usually put: "given a!b!c!user, go ahead and get to 'a'
) by any means available, but don't assume that your 'c' is the same as the 'c'
) known to 'b'".  Details such as 'c' being a fully qualified domain are not
) really that interesting, since your route to that fully qualified domain may
) not be as good as the one that's being chosen, ...

I stand by my practice of jumping ahead when 'c' is fully qualified.
Since I am at an internet site, my route to 'c' ought to be almost as
up-to-date as humanly possible, unless the authority for c's domain
Just Doesn't Care.  And if the authority Doesn't Care, I don't feel
guilty for Not Helping.

(Also, I think that jumping to a fully-qualified 'c' does More Good Than
Harm - i.e., it wins in more cases than it loses.)

				Matt Crawford