Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!agate!ucbvax!techunix.BITNET!ephraim
From: ephraim@techunix.BITNET (Ephraim Silverberg)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail
Subject: Re: Is this rfc822?
Summary: Incorrect addresses produced by VM NOTE
Keywords: RFC822, VM, NOTE
Message-ID: <7625@techunix.BITNET>
Date: 9 Feb 89 07:17:42 GMT
References: <778@bimacs.BITNET> <918@ssp15.idca.tds.philips.nl> <33795@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <7430@csli.STANFORD.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: ephraim%techunix.bitnet@jade.berkeley.edu (Ephraim Silverberg)
Organization: Technion, Israel Inst. Tech., Haifa Israel
Lines: 31

In article <7430@csli.STANFORD.EDU> gandalf@csli.UUCP (Juergen Wagner) writes:
>
> This indicates that the cited address "George Bush bush@tree" is valid. The
> interpretation according to RFC822 might not be the intended one, but that's
> a different topic. The mailer creating these addresses should be checked and
> corrected. It is most likely something like
>       Dq$?x$x $.$g
> instead of
>       Dq$?x$x $.<$g>
> in its sendmail.cf (incorrect definition of total addresses).

As the machine of the original poster (BIMACS) is a Bitnet Unix site (as
is this machine), I conjecture that the origin of the incorrect (albeit
officially valid) address is the infamous VM NOTE command which is notorious
for producing precisely this type of 'From:' line.

Other Bitnet Unix sites should note that this address problem only arose after
UREP (Unix RSCS Emulation Package) 3.x, as NOTE usually arrives (unless the
VM user is wide awake and sends the message with special parameters) in
NETDATA format. In previous UREP [12].x versions, NETDATA arrived as garbled
control characters including the header, so sendmail used the Bitnet Tag
to produce its own 'From:' line which was correct (though the actual message
was unreadable and usually put my terminal in APL mode). Now (UREP 3.x), the
message with its incorrect 'From:' line arrives intact.

Solution: Enlightened VM users should use MAIL not NOTE.  Not only does MAIL
          produce correct headers and is in a legible format, but MAIL can
          send to all Bitnet-recognised domains while NOTE is only between
          RSCS (Remote Spooling Control Subsystem) Bitnet sites.

Ephraim