Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ANDREW.CMU.EDU!cfe+ From: cfe+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU ("Craig F. Everhart") Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: Re: Networks considered helpful Message-ID: Date: 28 Dec 89 17:20:55 GMT References: <8912262327.AA15824@gaak.LCS.MIT.EDU> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 21 Here at andrew.cmu.edu we invented the foo+bar@andrew.cmu.edu form of local address, for use in addition to the usual john.doe@andrew.cmu.edu form, to allow simple automatic sorting of incoming mail. Mail to local address ``foo+bar'' is stuck in the mailbox for userid foo, and the ``bar'' tag is retrievable (minimally) by looking at a ``for foo+bar'' clause in a Received: header. An advantage to this form of local address is that recipients who wish to use these alternate in-box forms don't have to be mail administrators; anybody can ask that one of these annotated addresses be added to some address list. Like many other mail readers, we also have a whole Lisp-like language that lets users filter and sort their incoming mail, but that's another story. The delivery system software that implements the foo+bar local address form, as well as the joe.jones form, will all be in the X.V11R4 tape, in the Andrew contribution. Craig