🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <00932CA6.30EE8E00@vms.ecs.rpi.edu>, madison@vms.ecs.rpi.edu 
(Matt Madison) writes:
> Problem 1.  In implementing a gateway between VMS MAIL coming in over
> DECnet and SMTP, my software generates return addresses of the form
> <"node::user"@domain>.  The quotation marks are necessary because colons
> are considered "special" by RFC 822.  This immediately started to cause
> problems because (I'm told) sendmail by default strips quotation marks
> from the user portion of an address.  So when UNIX users tried to reply
> to messages sent from my system, the replies would be rejected by my
> SMTP server becuase <node::user@domain> is not valid RFC 822.

I suggest that you do what we (the DECUS uucp folks) do for our
"user base":  We have an address rewrite mechanism that, for From addresses
on outbound mail, can be set up to rewrite

	node::user

to

	user@node.rest_of_domain

eg, stuff coming from SKYVAX::user here ('here' is simpact.com) ends up
coming from user@skyvax.simpact.com.  This is in concert with most domain
naming schemes anyway, where the second-level domain ('simpact' in our 
case) specifies which company within .com, and the third-level specifies
which machine within .simpact.com .

Our rewrite rules can get fancier; for example, if there may be overlaps
between DECnet nodename space and some other internal network's namespace 
to which you must also delivery mail, you can choose to rewrite to something 
like

	user@node.decnet.simpact.com

or even 

	user%node@decnet.simpact.com

(but a lot of other mailers don't do what you want with %'s)

And, of course, for To: addresses on inbound mail, we can look for things
that match whichever of the above patterns the user wants, and rewrite
to node::user for inbound delivery.  

This works for us (simpact), even in a horribly mixed decnet/tcp-ip/uucp 
environment, and we don't even use PMDF (yet).  

> ...[descriptions of other hassles deleted]

> What really burns me up about this, is that it's considered _my_ fault that
> this stuff doesn't work!  Argh.

Being chief recipient for e-mail and phone calls regarding DECUS uucp, 
I know EXACTLY what you mean.  (And thanks to all of you who have communicated
thanks to us for the package; you are keeping us going!)  The above commentary 
is in no way meant to suggest that mailers Out There ought NOT to take 

	"anything_at_all"@domain

and pass the stuff in quotes intact.  But suggesting that they do so is
probably tilting at windmills.  

(p.s.:  DECUS uucp is uucp for VMS with full mail and netnews support.  It 
is essentially free.  Send mail to me for info.)

	--- Jamie Hanrahan, Simpact Associates, San Diego CA
Chair, VMSnet [DECUS uucp] and Internals Working Groups, DECUS VAX Systems SIG 
Internet:  jeh@simpact.com, or if that fails, jeh@crash.cts.com
Uucp:  ...{crash,scubed,decwrl}!simpact!jeh