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Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!ulowell!page
From: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.sysadmin,comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Rewriting From: lines
Summary: don't
Message-ID: <10510@swan.ulowell.edu>
Date: 6 Dec 88 21:06:30 GMT
References: <1227@vsi1.UUCP> <871@acer.stl.stc.co.uk> <944@dlhpedg.co.uk> <1296@ucsd.EDU>
Reply-To: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Organization: University of Lowell, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 26

brian@ucsd.edu (Brian Kantor) wrote:
>'pacbell' doesn't add its sitename to the "From:" line in mail, but does
>add it to the "From " line.  The system administrator at host 'pacbell'
>claims he's doing the right thing.  I think he's wrong.  There it stands.

You should never edit a From: line.  Never.  Most sendmail sites
add their hostname to the front of the From: line, which is wrong for
two reasons:
	- address info is *not* routing info.
	- not everybody does it!  That means you get lines like:
		From  host5!host4!host3!host2!host1!host!user
		From: host4!host1!host!user

>There is no quick fix.  You have been warned.

The 'smail' package fixes this errant sendmail behavior.  However
it requires that mail admins believe From: munging is a bad thing,
which is damn near impossible.  Also, the latest available version
of smail has enough problems for sites with complex configurations.
Maybe smail 3.0 fixes everything but I haven't seen it yet, and
I don't know about the IDA sendmail patches.

..Bob
-- 
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept.  page@swan.ulowell.edu  ulowell!page
Have five nice days.