[net.mail] case distinctions

ss@wanginst.UUCP (Sid Shapiro) (02/21/85)

Hi folks,
I am running Ultrix (4.2bsd) on a vax.  Back in the old days of 4.1,
local address were case insensitive (I could mail to ss,SS,sS,Ss, and
still get to me).  Now that I am in 4.2/sendmail, case seems to make a
difference.  I read in MAILADDR(7) the following lines:

     "... Most  hosts
     accept  any  mixture of case in user names, with the notable
     exception of MULTICS sites."

I take that to mean the user names are case insensitive.  I called the
DEC support folks and was told that their interpretation was that
usernames ARE case sensitive, also that there seemed to be no code 
in anyplace they looked that did case translations.  

So, 2 questions:

1. What does that line mean to you? and
2. Are your mailers case sensitive?  (And if they are, how do you tell
people who mail to you that they MUST use the correct case?)

Thanks, people

Sid Shapiro -- Wang Institute of Graduate Studies
    [apollo, bbncca, ucadmus, decvax, linus, masscomp]!wanginst!ss
    ss%wang-inst@Csnet-Relay.ARPA
	  (617)649-9731

msj@gitpyr.UUCP (Mike St. Johns) (02/23/85)

"...with the notable exception of MULTICS sites."

This is nolonger the case.  Multics sites accept usernames i#externally
as non case sensitive.  I.e. StJohns@MIT-MULTICS or stjohns@MIT-Multics
both work fine.  
-- 
Mike St. Johns
Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!msj
StJohns@MIT-Multics.ARPA  (404) 982-0035