Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!ucbvax!van-bc!skl
From: skl@van-bc.UUCP (Samuel Lam)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: What does %u mean to smail 3?
Summary: {s,f,}printf() did it!
Keywords: smail percent internet mail address
Message-ID: <150@van-bc.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jan 90 10:59:58 GMT
References: <110@puzzle.UUCP>
Reply-To: skl@wimsey.bc.ca (Samuel Lam)
Organization: Balliffe International, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 24

In article <110@puzzle.UUCP>, news@puzzle.UUCP (newshound) wrote:
>	What significance does %u have to smail 3?  I sent a mail message
>to someone at uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu, using this form:
>	username%uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu@my_backbone
>and it was resolved to
>	username2155879098okmax.ecn.uoknor.edu@my_backbone
>but the expansion is not in the smail logfile.  How can I escape the % so
>that smail reads it literally?

It sounds like the address string is being used as the format string of
a printf()/fprintf()/sprintf() call, as in:

	printf(address);		/* incorrect */

instead of

	printf("%s", address);		/* correct */

.  The only sure-fire way to fix this problem is to go into the source
and find that particular printf/fprintf/sprintf call and fix it.

...Sam
-- 
Internet: <skl@wimsey.bc.ca>	UUCP: {van-bc,ubc-cs,uunet}!wimsey.bc.ca!skl