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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!jww
From: jww@sdcsvax.UUCP (Joel West)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Proposal for un-munging addresses
Message-ID: <1037@sdcsvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Aug-85 11:49:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.1037
Posted: Wed Aug 14 11:49:36 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 00:49:02 EDT
References: <3018@nsc.UUCP> <47300004@hpfclo.UUCP>
Organization: CACI, Inc - Federal, La Jolla
Lines: 57

> > /***** hpfclo:net.mail / nsc!chuqui /  7:03 pm  Jul 22, 1985*/
> > I'm starting to see problems that look like smart mailers messing up
> > addresses. I **think** it may have something to do with some of the
> > assumptions in the gatech sendmail configuration files -- I'm hacking on
> > them now and some things don't look quite right.
> 
	...
> > From: ihnp4!purdue!jsq%im4u.UTEXAS@ut-sally.ARPA (John Quarterman)
  (becomes)> 
> To: ut-sally.ARPA!ihnp4!purdue!jsq%im4u.UTEXAS (John Quarterman)
> 
> 	Mailers  should  leave the  sender's  address the hell alone.  
  ...
> 	When I reply to this mail (consider me a novice), my user-agent
> 	constructs the reply address, which (SHOCK!) just happens to
> 	be the exact same thing as is in his mail (ie. NO MUNGING EVER!).
> 				--	jad	 --
> 				John A. Dilley, FSD
> 				Fort Collins,    CO
> 
> ARPA:				terrapin@Purdue.EDU
> UUCP:				{ihnp4}! hpfcla!jad

Here, here!  Once an address is munged, no reasonable amount of artificial 
intelligence is going to be able to unambiguously unmung it all of the time.
Only a few humans who know the various local paths and gateways can scan the 
"To:" above and figure that "jsq%im4u.TEXAS@ut-sally.ARPA" is the recipient.

I'd like to propose a least-change approach that will work with both the 
"cute-as-a-shithouse" mailers and the dumbest of dumb V6 mailers.
Let's forget (for the time being) about ever getting a reasonable 
"From xxx!yyy" or "From: yyy@xxx" line.  Write those off as being the 
province of the overly smart or dumb.

Instead, the secret fraternity of pathless mailers can hide the unmunged
address in a different field -- one that the other mailers don't know how
to mung.  "Reply-To:" is an obvious candidate, but it might be safer to
pick something totally new and unused:
	From-Address:
	Sender:
etc. etc.

Then, these fraternity members can look for this secret header (the heathen
will go on their merry way using From or From:).  Being unmunged (nobody
knows how to mung it) the local mailer can use this, where available,
to feed to a smart router.

Adding the new header is a snap--any sendmail site can do it in 5 minutes.
And while we're all waiting for new versions of /ucb/mail to support this,
we can manually type in this unmunged address (typically 10-20 chars) as
needed to fool the overly cute mailers.

Any takers?

	Joel West	CACI, Inc. - Federal (c/o UC San Diego)
	{ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww
	jww@SDCSVAX.ARPA