Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!ames!ncar!boulder!pikes!udenva!isis!scicom!zebra!vern From: vern@zebra.UUCP (Vernon C. Hoxie) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: crazy mail Message-ID: <164@zebra.UUCP> Date: 3 Jun 89 14:03:18 GMT Distribution: usa Organization: Alpha Science Computer Networks, Denver, Colo. Lines: 81 I'm still trying to figure out how the domain system works, in the meanwhile .. my thanks to all who have posted or mailed explanations to me. Here is an example of some of the crazy things that can happen to the mail when mail handlers mung up the "To:" or "From:" lines. As a background, I received a message to "marc@zebra.???.???" a couple of weeks ago. (I have forgotten which domain.) I sent it back to the original sender so that he could readdress it. (Yes ladies, it was a 'he'.) Since then I have received three messages from MAILER-DEMON's at somewhere or the other. I was able to observe that one of the earlier ones was bounced by my 'mailx'. The third is listed below. o What am I supposed to do with these? o How can I avoid clobbering up the system with these crazy messages? From uucp Sat Jun 3 07:14 EDT 1989 ^^^ {note 1} >From harvard!bu-cs!MAILER-DAEMON Sat Jun 3 11:14:39 1989 remote from scicom Received: by scicom.alphacdc.com (smail2.5) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ {note2} id AA01874; 3 Jun 89 11:14:39 GMT (Sat) Received: by ncar.UCAR.EDU (5.61/1.00.UUCP-MOD.8-11-85) id AA07529; Sat, 3 Jun 89 05:01:43 CDT Received: by harvard.harvard.edu (5.54/a0.25) (for scicom!zebra!uucp@husc6) id AA07262; Sat, 3 Jun 89 02:39:16 EDT ^^^^^^ {note 3} Received: by bu-cs.BU.EDU (5.58/4.7) id AA26923; Sat, 3 Jun 89 02:35:28 EDT Date: Sat, 3 Jun 89 02:35:28 EDT From: MAILER-DAEMON@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Mail Delivery Subsystem) Subject: Returned mail: User unknown Message-Id: <8906030635.AA26923@bu-cs.BU.EDU> To: harvard!husc6!scicom!zebra!uucp ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ {note 4} ----- Transcript of session follows ----- 550 buita!bu-it.bu.edu!tower... User unknown ----- Unsent message follows ----- Received: by bu-cs.BU.EDU (5.58/4.7) id AA26921; Sat, 3 Jun 89 02:35:28 EDT From: harvard!husc6!scicom!zebra!uucp Received: by harvard.harvard.edu (5.54/a0.25) (for buita!bu-it.bu.edu!tower) id AA07077; Sat, 3 Jun 89 02:19:11 EDT Received: by husc6.harvard.edu; Sat, 3 Jun 89 01:50:11 EDT Date: Sat, 3 Jun 89 00:17:44 CDT Message-Id: <8906030617.AA00431@ncar.UCAR.EDU> Received: by ncar.UCAR.EDU (5.61/1.00.UUCP-MOD.8-11-85) id AA00431; Sat, 3 Jun 89 00:17:45 CDT Received: by scicom.alphacdc.com (smail2.5) id AA00229; 3 Jun 89 00:05:40 MDT (Sat) Apparently-To: husc6!harvard!bu-cs!buita!bu-it.bu.edu!tower remote execution [uucp job zebraC85bb (6/3-1:29:52)] rmail marc exited with status 1 ===== stderr was ===== mail: can't send to marc mail: cannot create dead.letter Note 1: This is the time that the message was received here but it illustrates one of my pet peeves. The audacity of the writer of my 'mail' program to think that the world revolves about the eastern u.s. time zone. If they can't use the built in conversion routines to produce the local time, they should have at least used the the universal standard of GMT (or UTC as it is now known.) Note 2: This is my friendly neighbor who is my only path to the net. Note 3: Did the address get munged here or didn't it? Note 4: They had it correct here. -- Vernon C. Hoxie {ncar,nbires,boulder,isis}!scicom!zebra!vern 3975 W. 29th Ave. voice: 303-477-1780 Denver, Colo., 80212 uucp: 303-455-2670