Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!stan!dce
From: dce@Solbourne.COM (David Elliott)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.mh
Subject: Smart generation of reply address
Message-ID: <1019@marvin.Solbourne.COM>
Date: 8 May 89 15:14:37 GMT
Reply-To: dce@Solbourne.com (David Elliott)
Organization: Solbourne Computer Inc., Longmont, Colorado
Lines: 24


When I moved to this site (Solbourne), I noticed that most of
the mail we get has invalid From: lines.  Many UUCP sites modify
this line, but not all do, so relying on the information in the
From: line resulted in failed mail about 50% of the time.

To fix this, I changed my replcomps file so that the first line
is:

%(lit)%(formataddr %<{reply-to}%|%<{return-path}%|%<{sender}%|%{from}%>%>%>)\

which causes the Reply-To: and Return-Path: fields to be used instead
of From:, resulting in almost no failed mail (in fact, I can't remember
the last time mail failed for me due to a bad path generated by MH
using Return-Path:).

What I would prefer, though, is that if the From: line contains an
@ and no !s, the From: line should be used, and otherwise the Return-Path:
should be used.  That way, I use Internet addressing whenever it is
available.  Currently, I just do this substitution by hand.

-- 
David Elliott		dce@Solbourne.COM
			...!{boulder,nbires,sun}!stan!dce