Trouble with From: lines

Thread View: comp.mail.headers

2 messages

[T] Back to Threads [V] Tree View [G] Group Articles

2 total messages Started by Mail and USENET News System main... Wed, 03 Dec 1986 19:40

#287

Author: Mail and USENET News System main...
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 1986 19:40

19 lines
1372 bytes

We are a UUCP site that is fed by an ARPA site.  Incoming ARPA
messages used to come to us with headers saying things like

	From: arpa-feed!user@arpa.site

which worked fine--one could reply to it, etc.  Recently this has
changed (the "arpa-feed!" part isn't added), so return addresses have
to be composed manually.  I complained to the postmaster that this
makes the From: lines unusable for sending replies.  His reply was to
quote from RFC 976 that any transformation from a valid domain address
was forbidden, even if the address that was sent on was unusable to
the recipient.  He suggested upgrading our mail software.

This strikes me as quite unreasonable.  As far as I can see, the only
genuine need in address manipulations is that any address sent to a
machine must be usable by that machine.  It used to work and now it
doesn't.  Am I being unreasonable?

Dale

Re: Trouble with From: lines

#290

Author: Frederick M. Avolio
Date: Thu, 04 Dec 1986 14:08

26 lines
1674 bytes

In article <621@cullvax.UUCP>, news@cullvax.UUCP (Mail and USENET News System maintenance account) writes:
> We are a UUCP site that is fed by an ARPA site.  Incoming ARPA
> messages used to come to us with headers saying things like
> 
> 	From: arpa-feed!user@arpa.site
> 
> which worked fine--one could reply to it, etc.  Recently this has
> changed (the "arpa-feed!" part isn't added), so return addresses have
> to be composed manually.  
> ....  Am I being unreasonable?

I too think you are ... well, not unreasonable... But I think the ARPA
site is correct.  Soo, maybe you are uninformed? See, you say parse
"host!user@other" as Send to "host" for "user@other".  I say it says
"send to "other" for "host!user".

Not all hosts, uucp or otherwise, add a "host!" to the beginning of
the From: line.  The From_ may be changed that way.

It is not such a big deal to request that mail standards are adhered
to.  There are no "uucp" mail standards except as defined in the
Internet stndards.  In any event, the code exists for upgrading your
mailer to a smart mailer.  "Smail" was posted to mod.sources a while
back and will take care of your problems.  Pick it up...

Fred

Thread Navigation

This is a paginated view of messages in the thread with full content displayed inline.

Messages are displayed in chronological order, with the original post highlighted in green.

Use pagination controls to navigate through all messages in large threads.

Back to All Threads