Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!tekecs!mcg From: mcg@tekecs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: not forwarding mail Message-ID: <1315@tekecs.UUCP> Date: Sat, 4-Jun-83 14:38:43 EDT Article-I.D.: tekecs.1315 Posted: Sat Jun 4 14:38:43 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 7-Jun-83 03:52:07 EDT References: uw-beave.654 Lines: 38 The problem with the scheme suggested by uw-beaver!jim is that it doesn't always correctly turn the address around! To recap, the suggested fix was to treat '!' as having higher precedence that '@'. Unfortunately, in addresses of the form: site1!site2!site3!person@site4.UUCP the '@site.UUCP' could have been added in between sites 1 and 2, or between 2 and 3, as well as before 1 or after 3. Thus, all of the following are possible correct addresses for the above: site4!site1!site2!site3!person = ("site1!site2!site3!person")@site4 site1!site4!site2!site3!person = site1!(("site2!site3!person")@site4) site1!site2!site4!site3!person = site1!site2!(("site3!person")@site4) site1!site2!site3!site4!person = site1!site2!site3!("person@site4") You rightly ask "what's going on here?" The answer is: some sites seem to be converting parts of addresses that come through them into Internet-style addresses. Since Internet addresses do not recognize the '!' as anything other than plain text (i.e. part of the destination address), they simply append their pseudo-Internet "site.UUCP" on the end. The next site down the road, being a standard old UNIX mailer, and not realizing that '@' is special, treats the whole thing like a string, and just adds its own 'site!' at the front. In degenerate cases (and I have seen quite a few), you get addresses like: From: foo!bar!biff!person@DECVAX.UUCP!ucbvax@CBOSG.UUCP with random sprinklings of '!' and '@' all over the place. What to do? Pressure all the sites which are currently generating bogus Internet addresses to generate real UUCP addresses when talking to UUCP. How? I sure don't know... S. McGeady