david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) (05/19/89)
A while ago I mentioned that I wanted to Gateway a BBS running under
Unix to "normal" Unix E-mail. I said I'd post a summary of my findings,
so here it is, along with new problems.
I described a totally ugly way I was handling replies to Usenet postings
destined for BBS users.
With the help of many people, I changed what I was doing. Here's the way
the thing now works (new and improved method):
1) BBS users all login as one UID and the BBS program runs
setuid to "unax@bdt.UUCP".
2) Each BBS user has a BBS login name, which is usually
the users full name.
3) BBS users post BBS messages addressed to a real E-mail
user (Bang or Internet addresses).
4) A deamon grabs these BBS messages and runs them through
smail with a 'From: "BBS USER"@bdt.UUCP' line, where
"BBS USER" is the users BBS login name (with quotes).
5) A deamon maintains an smail alias for each BBS user. All
incoming mail destined for a BBS user thus goes to
'bbsuser@bdt.UUCP'.
6) Another deamon reads the 'bbsuser' mail and posts BBS
messages containing the e-mail back to the appropriate
BBS user.
OK now for the open problems and questions.
First, the "smart" local mail agents (e.g. ELM) don't like to send to
these "BBS USER" type addresses because they can't find a local user
with that name. Is there a way (that I can't find in the docs) to
tell ELM "don't validate this address, let smail do it", or am I
going to have to maintain separate ELM BBS aliases too?
Second, what is the most reliable way to address the out-going mail to
have the best chance of replies coming back to the "BBS USER"@bdt.UUCP
address? The deamon that sends the mail runs as "unax@bdt.UUCP" and
I still get some mailers that send replies to this address. Here is
a copy of the headers from an outging BBS message:
From unax Thu May 18 20:27 PDT 1989
>From unax Thu May 18 20:27:27 1989
Received: by bdt.UUCP (smail2.5)
id AA05467; 18 May 89 20:27:27 PDT (Thu)
Reply-To: "SYSOP"@bdt.UUCP
To: david@bdt.uucp
Subject: A message sent from the BBS
Date: Thu May 18 20:27:22 1989
From: "SYSOP"@bdt.UUCP
Sender: "SYSOP"@bdt.UUCP
Message-Id: <8905182027.AA05467@bdt.UUCP>
What other headers are recommended for best results? Are any of these
going to screw up some mailers? Since there is no "BBS USER" Unix UID,
how can I fool smail into thinking this is who is sending the mail, so
that nobody even sees "unax"? Is the order if the ':' headers meaningful?
--
David Beckemeyer (david@bdt.UUCP) | "Adios amigos. And, as they say when
Beckemeyer Development Tools | the boys are scratching the bad ones,
478 Santa Clara Ave. Oakland, CA 94610 | 'Stay a long time, Cowboy!'"
UUCP: {uunet,ucbvax}!unisoft!bdt!david | - Jo Mora