NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/comp/mail/misc/3774

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-23 | 3.6 KB

Xref: sparky comp.mail.misc:3774 comp.mail.uucp:2121 comp.mail.sendmail:2854
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.uucp,comp.mail.sendmail
Path: sparky!uunet!utcsri!geac!torag!robohack!feline!becker!bdb
From: [e-mail] (Bruce Becker)
Subject: Re: dxmail on ULTRIX
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: G. T. S., Toronto, Ontario
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 01:07:40 GMT
Lines: 86

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Frederick M. Avolio) writes:
|
|If I have an address
|
|        something!else%host.UUCP@domain
|
|while it is ugly, and I'd rather die than generate such an address, the
|assumption is that "domain" will handle what is on the right hand side and
|if it generated it, it must be able to handle it.
|
|While all of this is ugly, it is allowed because it is on the
|left of the @ sign.  There is only one way to handle the above address.
|Send it to "domain" for "domain" to handle "something!else%host.UUCP" however
|it wants to. It is not a question of defined or undefined.  I have no
|business looking at what is clearly the localpart of the address.
|
|The case in question was a sendmail.cf that erroneously looked at this address
|and decided it should go to "something".  This is wrong.  The sendmail.cf
|in question actually took the address (again, using the above example) and
|changed it to
|
|    something!else%host.UUCP<@domain>
|
|correctly focusing on "domain" and then decided, no, there is a bang in
|there so then it changed it to the erroneous:
|
|    else%host.UUCP@domain<@something.UUCP>
|
|Based on that, it sent it via the wrong transport to the wrong host.  The
|corrected sendmail.cf that I sent fixed this problem.
|
|The point is that anything to the left of the @ is up to the host to the
|right of the @ to handle.  You -- and the ultrix sendmail.cf shipped with
|the product -- are breaking the rules.  You are peaking.  No peaking allowed.


    Yes, the sendmail.cf in Ultrix is broken,
    in more ways than just this.  So also are
    most that are shipped - a visible example
    of what else may also be wrong if one was
    to look at the source for many things.  A
    way of fixing this problem is needed, but
    there seems to be difficulties deciding a
    proper course, to wit:


    Sadly the interpretations in the uucp and
    the internet worlds differ.  Mailers such
    as smail 2.5 for uucp sites understand no
    special interpretation for "%", so in the
    case above delivery fails for "something"
    to send to local user "else%host.UUCP" (a
    patch exists which translates "%" into an
    "@" and attempts to resolve the result).


    "something!else%host.UUCP@domain" thus is
    routed "domain!something!else%host.UUCP".
    The mailer at "something" hopefully would
    route "host!else", if it's able to.



    In the domain system only the domain name
    is relevant for routing purposes, but the
    situation is not so well defined when the
    target system's mailer is invoked.  There
    seems to be a belief that "%"'s should be
    resolved as soon as they are seen, rather
    than by the mailer of last resort as it's
    usually practiced in the uucp world.


    "something!else%host.UUCP@domain" thus is
    "something![e-mail]" via "domain" -
    this is clearly not at all the same as in
    the uucp case; there's no simple means to
    resolve it, since this seems to be a kind
    of "religious" difference...


--
  ,u,     Bruce Becker            Toronto, Ontario
a /i/     Internet: [e-mail]    Uucp: ...!web!becker!bdb
 `\o\-e
 _< /_         DO NOT TAUNT HAPPY FUN BUSH - H. R. Perotnoid