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From: silvert@cs.dal.ca (Bill Silvert)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: Return addressing
Summary: Problem seems solved, caused by unsorted pathalias database
Message-ID: <3258@cs.dal.ca>
Date: 1 May 89 19:09:02 GMT
References: <3256@cs.dal.ca>
Organization: Habitat Ecology Div., Bedford Inst. of Oceanography
Lines: 26

In article <3256@cs.dal.ca>, silvert@cs.dal.ca (Bill Silvert) writes:
> We are having trouble getting elm to process our most common return
> address...
> 
> We have a direct path to cs.dal.ca in our pathalias database...

I discovered that some of the aliases in the database (which we built
following instructions in the Alias Guide) worked and some didn't.  Old
addresses were deleted, results were still erratic.  However, after
playing around we find that ELM now reads the database correctly, and I
think (although I am not sure) that it might not have been sorted.

Although the Alias Guide does mention that the data base is normally
sorted (on p. 4), it does not warn the reader to sort it (on p. 5), so
it seemed worth posting a warning, if you build your own pathalias
database file, SORT IT!

By the way, am I missing something, or does the sample database on p. 5
contain single % signs when they should be doubled?  For example,
shouldn't the second line be PARC\t%s%%Xerox...?

-- 
Bill Silvert, Habitat Ecology Division.
Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, NS, Canada B2Y 4A2
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