Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site t12tst.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!decwrl!sun!idi!t12tst!chip From: chip@t12tst.UUCP (Chip Rosenthal) Newsgroups: net.news.b Subject: "From:" lines violating standard Message-ID: <274@t12tst.UUCP> Date: Mon, 4-Mar-85 16:00:44 EST Article-I.D.: t12tst.274 Posted: Mon Mar 4 16:00:44 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 6-Mar-85 03:08:56 EST Distribution: net Organization: Intel Microprocessor Mfg, Santa Clara Lines: 48 There are several people out there who are using "From:" lines which violate the USENET standard. It appears to me that the number of violators has been increasing over the past Ponths. Unfortunately, these violations cause my mailer program to break. (Silly me...trying to base an algorithm around a standard.) Anyway, portions of the standard document (by Mark Horton) which describe this problem are quoted below: > 2.1.3 From > > The From line contains the electronic mailing address of the person who > sent the message, in the ARPA internet syntax. It may optionally also > contain the full name of the person, in parentheses, after the > electronic address..... > > Either the full name is omitted, or it appears in parentheses after the > electronic address of the person posting the article, or it appears > before an electronic address enclosed in angle brackets. Thus, the > three permissible forms are: > > From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP > From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) > From: Mark Horton > > Full names may contain any printing ASCII characters from space through > tilde, with the exceptions that they may not contain parentheses ``('' > or ``)'', or angle brackets ``<'' or ``>''. I did a 'grep' on all the "From:" lines in net.unix. The ones which used angle brackets (names changed to protect...) and my comments are as follows: Correct "From" fields: From: John Q PublicFrom: John Q Public Illegal "From" fields: From: John Q Public (SC4-455) parentheses in name From: jqp@bigvax.ARPA (John Q Public ) angle brackets in name Am I interpreting the standard correctly? If so, is there reason why the sites which violate the convention need to do so? On the other hand, does the standards document (and my mailer) need to be changed? Does anybody else but me care about this? (And what about Naomi?) -- Chip Rosenthal, Intel/Santa Clara, (408) 496-7651 {cbosgd,idi,intelca,icalqa,kremvax,qubix} ! {t4test,t12tst} ! {chip,news}