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From: emigh@ncsugn.UUCP
Newsgroups: unix-pc.general
Subject: Re: pathalias and smail
Message-ID: <693@ncsugn.ncsu.edu>
Date: Sat, 21-Nov-87 16:46:14 EST
Article-I.D.: ncsugn.693
Posted: Sat Nov 21 16:46:14 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Nov-87 19:39:10 EST
References: <164@manta.UUCP>
Reply-To: emigh@ncsugn.UUCP (Ted H. Emigh)
Organization: Genetics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Lines: 34

In article <164@manta.UUCP> brant@manta.UUCP (Brant Cheikes) writes:
>Smail (current version 2.5) and Pathalias (current version 9) are
>intended to be used together, along with the UUCP map information
>updated and published monthly in comp.mail.maps, to provide "smart"
>mail routing.  For example, with smail and pathalias installed, you no
>longer need to figure out explicit bang paths in order to post mail
>from your site to any "known" UUCP site (where a "known" UUCP site is
>defined as a site with an entry in the published UUCP maps).  Simply
>address mail to user@site or site!user, and smail (together with the
>database created by pathalias) will determine the "optimal" route from
>your host to site.

Smail can be used without having pathalias or even getting the comp.mail.maps
database if you are a hop or two away from a site that does have the database
and uses pathalias.  For example, ncsugn uses the following paths list:

.ncsugn.ncsu.edu	%s	0
genetics	genetics!%s	95
mcnc	mcnc!%s	95
mouse	mouse!%s 95
ncsugn	%s	0
ncsuvx	ncsuvx!%s	95
ngn	ngn!%s	95
smart-host	ncsuvx!%s	95

(slightly edited to retain the anonymity of some sites).  This gets all our
mail directly to those we have uucp connections with and the "smart-host"
entry sends to ncsuvx all the rest of the mail.  (Of course, we have ncsuvx's
permission to use them in that way).

-- 
Ted H. Emigh, Dept. Genetics and Statistics, NCSU, Raleigh, NC
uucp:	mcnc!ncsuvx!ncsugn!emigh	internet:  emigh%ncsugn.ncsu.edu
BITNET: NEMIGH@TUCC                  @ncsuvx.ncsu.edu:emigh@ncsugn.ncsu.edu