Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!vanvleck!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!CitHex.Caltech.EDU!carl From: carl@CitHex.Caltech.EDU (Carl J Lydick) Newsgroups: comp.os.vms Subject: Re: Mailer/Unix Problem Message-ID: <880703105311.1132@CitHex.Caltech.Edu> Date: 3 Jul 88 18:11:21 GMT References: <88528173247.2060011f.GOLDMAN_S> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 46 > We are having a problem here with receiving mail from UNIX systems. > > It appears that many UNIX systems or their mailers interpret a '$' as some > sort of control/special character. > > The Background: > We are using VMS usernames which are comprised of a prefix + '$' + first > initial + last name. For example, John Jones could have a username > TST$JJONES. The new username format has been in effect for just a couple > of months. > > The Problem: > Some of our users with this username format are having difficulty receiving > mail from UNIX systems. Or, more precisely, some of their UNIX collegues > are unable to send mail to users with this username format. The problem > appears to be the '$' in the middle of the username. The mailer parses off > the string before the '$' and puts it somewhere. > > My Question: > Does anyone know if there is something in UNIX or the UNIX mailer that > interprets a '$' in some strange and wondrous way?? (I know this is not a > VMS question, but it does have certain implications for those of us who are > VMS programmers and managers.) It seems to me that if a UNIX mailer is > sending to TST$SGOLDMAN@SITVXC that it should never worry about the '$'. There are two places that $ is special in the BSD mailer. If you issue, for example, the command: $ mail c$lyd@cithex < /dev/null the mailer tries to send to c@cithex, the $ and the following field having been eaten. If you're familiar with UNIX, this immediately suggests that you should try escaping the $: $ mail c\$lyd@cithex < /dev/null In this case, the mailer reports that it is trying to send to c$lyd@cithex. However, when the two machines start talking to each other, the RCPT To: field becomes:so that doesn't work either. I checked the delimiter macro in sendmail.cf, and $ wasn't one of the listed delimiters. The problem is built into the sendmail executable, so it looks like you're out of luck on this one. Your best bet would probably to change the $ to an _ in these usernames, or to do something like: $ MAIL MAIL> SET FORWARD/USER=C_LYD C$LYD and let people outside your system send mail using the _ version. This, of course, will make it impossible for UNIX users to use the reply facility.