Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!pdn!boake2!jc3b21!rac
From: rac@jc3b21.UUCP (Roger A. Cornelius)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: How to do auto-routing using smail
Message-ID: <540@jc3b21.UUCP>
Date: 13 Jan 89 00:07:04 GMT
References: <11576@versatc.UUCP>
Organization: St. Petersburg Jr. College, FL
Lines: 40

From article <11576@versatc.UUCP>, by tran@versatc.UUCP (Tony Tran):
< How does one do auto-routing with smail ?
< 
< I've just installed smail 2.5 on my SUN 3 (3.4 OS). After 
< I create /usr/lib/uucp/paths, I try to test sending mail to
< somebody using the syntax username@hostname.UUCP or
< username@hostname.COM ... {without specifying the complete 
< bangpath like a!b!c!d!username}. Mail messages all bounce back
< with a unsuccessful delivery (failed mail). If I attemp to send
< mail using the fully qualified path (a!b!c!d!username ...) then
< mail was delivered correctly.  i thought smail is
< supposed to search the path in the paths database, but apparently
< it didn't do it.
< 
< Did I do something wrong?
< 
< Any hint/advise would be greatly appreciated.
< 
< Tony Tran
< Versatec Corp.
< -- 
< UUCP: {sun|ames|pyramid|vsi1|leadsv}!versatc!tran  	Tony Tran
< Versatec, 2805 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, Calif 95051 (408)982-4317

It sounds like you may not have the paths file set up correctly.
If I remember correctly, all fields in the file must be tab separated,
and lines are sorted in descending order *without* regard to case.
Also, smail will only autoroute to unknown systems (systems not in
paths file) when you have smart-host (or whatever you defined SMARTHOST
to be in defs.h) set to a known system that's willing to relay your mail.
The smart-host entry in paths has the same format as any other system
entry, i.e.
    smart-host<TAB>known-system!...!%s<TAB>cost

If smail won't send to systems that are in paths, then it's probably
a problem with the sorting or tab separated fields.
There's an in-depth description of the paths format in paths.8 which
was included with the smail distibution.

Roger Cornelius