Xref: utzoo comp.mail.uucp:3207 comp.mail.misc:1947
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!glasgow!taylor
From: taylor@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Mr Jem Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: rewriting FROM: lines
Message-ID: <3033@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk>
Date: 1 Jun 89 15:04:30 GMT
References: <31051@sri-unix.SRI.COM> <24642@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: taylor@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jem Taylor)
Organization: Comp Sci, Glasgow Univ, Scotland
Lines: 43

In article <24642@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> wisner@mica.Berkeley.EDU (Bill Wisner) writes:
>Pshaw. foo@bar.UUCP is a stupid revolting hack, I'll give you that. But
>bar!foo is just fine. It's a UUCP address. It's unmistakably a UUCP address.
>

I'm sorry, but I can't agree with any of this. "bar!foo" has the same
semantic content as "foo@bar" ; I believe it to be both permissible
and necessary to convert one to the other merely to move a message
between two connected systems if the standard notation is one on the
first and the other on the second.

If you wish to be able to communicate with a system such as ours which
uses domain names (not the domain name system RFC88n), then you must
use a domain name such as "foo@bar.uucp", or, in your notation, "bar.uucp!foo"
otherwise I cannot send back.

The problem is that few niave (ie, single environment, including many
Unix gurus) people seem to acknowledge the need for globally valid names
to be stamped when a message moves between systems. You can have local
names and local domain expansion if you want it; you cannot expect me to
have knowledge of your local domain, whereas you can expect me to
recognise the name of the domain which encompasses yours.

>When you see bar!foo the first thing you should think is "that's a UUCP
>address". And when your mailer sees bar!foo it should think "this is a
>UUCP address" and act accordingly.

I suggest that you should recognise the name "bar" and 'complete' it (in
the terminology of the ARPAnet Domain Name System) by adding the name
of its enclosing domain, regardless of the notation originally used.

The uk-sendmail sendmail.cf writing package generates sendmail.cf files
which do this, regardless of the format in which names are presented.
Afterwards, it routes messages to the correct relay and converts all
addresses to the notation that the relay understands.

-Jem Taylor.


-- 
Arpa:taylor@cs.glasgow.ac.uk	  \ J.A.Taylor, Computing Science,
Janet: taylor@uk.ac.glasgow.cs	   \ University of Glasgow,
Uucp: mcvax!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!taylor \ GB-GLASGOW G12 8QQ