From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!cbosg!cbosgd!mark
Newsgroups: net.followup
Title: Re: revised RFC733 syntax vs Usenet
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.2345
Posted: Thu Jun 10 21:59:16 1982
Received: Fri Jun 11 06:12:12 1982
References: utzoo.2137

I see no reason why sendmail wouldn't run on a PDP-11, even a non-separate
11.  The vax binary I have is only 67K text+data, and I'm sure it will
be much smaller on an 11.

I also wouldn't expect people to switch over without having the
software conveniently available.  There is no question that the addressing
syntax change is going to be a major upheaval, and upward compatibility
is going to be strained.  (This means that your automatic reply command
will probably not work across the boundary between the new and old
parts of the world.  Actual mailing addresses people type will probably
be in a "both old and new syntax work" mode for some time.)
But I think we can all assume that there will be versions of sendmail
available for all major dialects of UNIX very quickly - certainly 4.2BSD,
UNIX 5.0, 2.81BSD, and V7 will be covered.  The source will be in the
public domain and I expect someone will probably convert it for the
various minor dialects and make that available too.  But we're talking
about a portably written V7 style program - the only porting problems
will be local/system conventions like where your mailbox is, where your
full name is, and what transport mechanisms are available to talk to
other machines.  Sendmail is an amazing piece of software - implementing
the user.host@domain syntax that was at one time going to be the standard
took exactly one line added to a configuration file - you didn't even
have to recompile!  It understands the various routing syntaxes of uucp,
arpanet, berknet, and so on, even to a host sensitive level.  It speaks
SMTP, or can be invoked directly ala delivermail.  It does routing.
(Sorry, no windows or floors.)

The standard will be finalized within a few months, and sendmail will
be out on 4.2BSD this December (if not sooner).  At that point new
user level software will be made available that understands this syntax
(e.g. netnews, MH, and probably Mail) and a massive conversion effort
will begin.

I think the only unresolved issue is what to do about the routing table.
CSNET is said to have some kind of caching scheme in mind, but I don't
know how concrete this is or when it will be reality.  Sendmail works
off a fixed routing table very similar to the foo!bar!%s hacks that have
been floating around lately.  Somebody is going to have to assemble and
maintain a master copy of the routing database, and right now I don't
know of any volunteers.

	Mark