Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!usc!csun!srhqla!uucp
From: comp-mail-mush@srhqla.uucp
Newsgroups: comp.mail.mush
Subject: Re: mush adding commas to addresses
Message-ID: <663@srhqla.UUCP>
Date: 23 May 89 00:03:45 GMT
Sender: uucp@srhqla.UUCP
Lines: 65

From: "Barton E. Schaefer" <island!ucbcad!ogccse.ogc.edu!schaefer>

In article <14033@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> you write:
} I think I made an error in this statement:
} 
} > some general info:
} > RFC822 requires using commas between addresses so as to identify them
} > from other addresses.
} 
} I am probably wrong about RFC822 because it might not say anything about
} multiple addresses on the same line.  I'm at home now, so I can't check

Dan was correct.  From RFC822, section 2 (Notational Conventions), page 4:

    2.7.  #RULE:  LISTS

	A construct "#" is defined ... as follows:

			    <l>#<m>element

    indicating at least <l> and and most <m> elements, each separated
    by one or more commas (",").  ....

And from section 4.1 (Message Specification, Syntax), page 18:

    destination =  "To"          ":" 1#address  ; Primary
		/  "Resent-To" ....

Therefore a "To:" field has at least one and at most an unspecified
number of addresses, separated by one or more commas.

} The reason for this is that addresses can have
} multiple words in it:
}     island!argv (Dan Heller) @ sun.com
} and it is all considered one address.

I might point out that mush itself wouldn't understand the example Dan
gave there unless it were fully RFC822-compliant, which means it has to
be in <> as in:

	<island!argv (Dan Heller) @ sun.com>

and even then I wouldn't guarantee mush will figure it out in all cases
(though the ones where it fails are largely cosmetic, such as doing
autosigns and alternates).

} This interferes with a valid addressing scheme that Bart and I call
} "weird" addresses because altho they are legal, they are inconvenient
} because they contain commas.  e.g. a legal address might look like:
}     @host.dom.ain,@cad.berkeley.edu:argv@island.uucp

Actually, *I* call them "stupid". :-)  Sendmail doesn't seem to like <>
on its From_ lines, so it strips them out.  To make this "legal", you
have to put <> around it, just like the one with the comment in the
middle that was given above.  <> has higher precedence than commas.

} Dan Heller	<island!argv@sun.com>
                ^                   ^
		!		    !

-- 
Bart Schaefer       "And if you believe that, you'll believe anything."
							-- DangerMouse
CSNET / Internet                schaefer@cse.ogc.edu
UUCP                            ...{sequent,tektronix,verdix}!ogccse!schaefer