Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rochester!pt!andrew.cmu.edu!ghoti+ From: ghoti+@andrew.cmu.edu (Adam Stoller) Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc Subject: Re: published documentation on mailers (was: Bracketing in addresses) Message-ID:Date: Tue, 30-Jun-87 09:40:16 EDT Article-I.D.: andrew.AUtvz0y00jaFsr00y- Posted: Tue Jun 30 09:40:16 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 5-Jul-87 20:23:33 EDT Organization: Carnegie Mellon University Lines: 50 In-Reply-To: <685@vixie.UUCP> minor point (perhaps) but I believe that the correct Internet address for: > yourpathtoames!ames!harvard!lhasa!postmaster would not be: > postmaster@lhasa%harvard.harvard.edu but would be; > postmaster%lhasa@harvard.harvard.edu As there has been some discussion recently about the "%" - I figured this was a dandy of an excuse to explain my understanding of it (which comes from stepping into the middle of a mail system with little background before hand, and picking things up as fast as I can (i.e: I can't quote any RFC's for this stuff) The address "postmaster%lhasa@harvard.harvard.edu" basicly says: -Deliver this mail to harvard.harvard.edu and let them deal with what is to the left of the @ -- When it gets to harvard - *they* look at what is to the left of the @ and find: postmaster%lhasa -- I believe at this point there are mechanisms for identifying this as an additional address to route to (as opposed to a local address to deliver locally) and they change the "%" to an "@" and send it to: postmaster@lhasa -- (Now it is possible, that harvard might be able to further understand that lhasa can be (must be?) reached through UUCP - and maybe translates it to a bang address) The point being, that in the Internet each sender is concerned only with what is to the *right* of the "@" and each receiver must determine if they are interested in what is to the *left* of the "@" - if what appears to the left of the "@" is a local address to that machine/site - then it should recognize it and deliver it as such - if it is another address, it dresses it up appropriately (this might mean the simple translation of "%" to "@" - or the translation of Internet to UUCP) - and sends it on it's way. so something like the following might take the following "route" (figuratively speaking): [from A]userfoo%site.bar%site.baz%site.mumble@site.reach.able[to B] [from B]userfoo%site.bar%site.baz@site.mumble[to C] [from C]userfoo%site.bar@site.baz[to D] [from D]userfoo@site.bar[to E] Sorry if this is more confusing than helpful - the initial point though is that the address should be: postmaster%lhasa@harvard.harvard.edu --fish