Xref: utzoo comp.mail.headers:229 comp.mail.misc:707 comp.mail.uucp:853 Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!jack!nusdhub!rwhite From: rwhite@nusdhub.UUCP (Robert C. White Jr.) Newsgroups: comp.mail.headers,comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.uucp Subject: Mail guesses [fixed] Message-ID: <569@nusdhub.UUCP> Date: 17 Dec 87 00:53:33 GMT Organization: National University, San Diego Lines: 139 Ladies and gentelmen, I previously posted this message but it Contained some horrible mistakes in the form of typos. The entire precidence map at the bottom, for instance, had the left<>right binding reversed. This message has been preceded by a cnacel message for the other text. Sory about the screw-up. Rob. Hello All, Having been unable to get a decient refrence on what headers are what, I would like to know if my perceptions about address lines are correct. I am going to give a few examples of possible mailing addresses, and then what I think will happen, I would like to have responses as to correctness of the examples [and possibly the approprateness of the usage]. NONE of this is garneteed correct, but is instead intended as a group of perceptions which I would like validated or invalidated. I will of corse sumarize any mailed responses. To: personA,personB,personC@machine1.smalldomain.largedomain The local machine will first attempt to locate "machine1" because it is the most spesific refrence. If the local machine fails to find "machine1" it will then look for a machine which is a member of "smalldomain" because this is the most limited set of machines of which "machine1" is aledgedly a member. If "smalldomain" is not found then "largedomain" will be sought, and so on with domain sizes increasing as the list progresses to the left, hence: machine.building.campus.school.educational-comunity-at-large. If the above address is attached to a message whic is received at a machine which is a member of "largedomain", that machine will look for "machine1" and if not found "smalldomain". If neither is found then the message will be frowarded to the top of "largedomain". If this is the top of large domain, the message will bounce [fail]. This domain-resolution will continue through each seccussive domain until the machine is found or the samllest domain is encountered and fails to resolve the machine refrence. Upon reaching "machine1" the message will be delivered to three seperate accounts "personA" "personB" and "personC" If any of these accounts do not exist then those messages will bounce without interfeering with deleivery to the accounts which do exist. To: personA@sdomain.mdomain.ldomain The top of "sdomain" will be sought [as above] if it can be found, it will search it's accounts, aliases, mailing-lists, and group-lists [as exist] for an account or refrence to "personA" and send the message to that [those] accounts. A list of accounts [as above] may exist in place of "personA" [i.e. "group1,group2,list1,personB,personC"] To: personA@machine1%machine2%machine3 The sending machine will send to "machine1" and remove "machine1%" from the address [netting personA@machine2%machine3%]. machine1 will similarly forward to "machine2" removing "machine2%" [netting personA@machine3]. Machine2 will forward to "machine3" leaving the header unchainged. Machine3 seeing "personA@machine3" will deliver to that/those account/list/group. To: personA@machine1%machine2@machine3%machine4 This one I am not shure about. My best guess would be: machine3->machine4->machine1->machine2. It is clear that the "%" [percent] symbols can be used like a bang path for explicit routing. It is also clear that the "@" [at] sign has higher precidence, and that the "@" groups right to left, leading me to read this as "personA (at machine1 then machine2 (at machine3 then machine4))". Of course "personA" may again be a list [as above]. IS THIS CORRECT?? To: machine3!personA@machine1%machine2 This again is a guess: machine1->machine2->machine3->personA IS THIS CORRECT? To: machine2!personA,personB@machine1 Another Guess: machine1->personB >machine2->personA IS THIS CORRECT? IS IT LEGAL? The summary of these two is: 1) any bang paths must be to the left of the first "@" [at] sign. 2) These bang paths will only be processed _after_ everything to the right of the "@" [at] sign. 3) The message will be replicated for each member of the list [the left side of the "@" [at] sign] and forwarded as necessary. To: personB@machine2,personA@machine1 Another Guess: machine1->personA >machine2->personB IS THIS CORRECT OR LEGAL? This would seem to follow from the listing rule above. It also implies that "," [comma] is of a higher precidence then an "@" [at] when it is to the right of the "@" [at], while maintaing a lower precidence to the left of the "@" [at]. Or it would indicate that "," [comma] and "@" [at] are of equal precidence, but that they _both_ group from right to left. To: (text) The material within the "(" [lparen] and ")" [rparen] is a comment, and generates NO delivery address or forwarding at all. IS A COMMENT ALONE ON A LINE LEGAL? Also, any of the above formats may occur on the same line as any other as long as there is at least one unit of whitespace seperating each form of address. The order of such combination, or multiple occuarances of the "To:" "Cc:" and "Bcc:" header lines are immaterial to the delivery, and should be processed on a first come first served basis. Precidence map: "(" ")" Grouping L->R MAtched Pairs required. "," "@" Grouping R->L "%" Grouping L->R "!" Grouping L->R Finally, a question: I have seen ";" [semicolon] refrenced in some of what I have read on mail addressing. What is the ";" for and have I missed any other symbols? ANY comments on the correctness of any of this will be greatly appriciated. Rob. p.s. I'll bet you'll never guess why my .signiture does _not_ contain a mailing address ;-)