rca@fico2.UUCP (The OTHER Rick Adams) (08/10/90)
I'm in the midst of writing a uucp implementation for my home computer.
I notice that mail from my site ("ccentral") tends to have the word
"somewhere" inserted in the address, by other mailers. So mail is
received as coming from ...!apple!fico2!somewhere!ccentral!rickadams.
Okay, I must be doing something wrong. What is it? Anyone got some
pointers to RFCs defining uucp mail standards, etc, also? (I'm
posting from my work account; you can send replies either here or
at home.)
Thank you very much!
--
Rick Adams UUCP email: (work) ...!apple!fico2!rca
Delphi: RICKADAMS (home) ...!apple!fico2!ccentral!rickadamstim@gvlf9.gvl.unisys.com (Timothy Scharping) (08/14/90)
In article <987@fico2.UUCP> rca@fico2.UUCP (The OTHER Rick Adams) writes: >I'm in the midst of writing a uucp implementation for my home computer. >I notice that mail from my site ("ccentral") tends to have the word >"somewhere" inserted in the address, by other mailers. So mail is >received as coming from ...!apple!fico2!somewhere!ccentral!rickadams. > I am having a similar problem between a XENIX running machine and my VAX mail server running Mt. Xinu 4.3 BSD. I think that I can describe the cause of the problem in detail. (If I go astray in this explanation, *please* correct me) I can not, however, provide a solution: The problem that I am having is caused by an improper From (no colon) line being received by rmail on the BSD machine. A proper From line is composed of an address followed by a date. From chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 When mail is sent via uucp something (uux??) should tack a "remote from" piece on the end of the From line. A correct example looks like: From ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris Mon Aug 13 15:00:46 1990 remote from imagine Upon receiving this, rmail prepends the hostname given in the "remote from" entry to the existing From path and sends the whole thing to sendmail (or another transport agent) like this: /usr/lib/sendmail -ee -fimagine!ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris -i 'tim@gvlf9.GVL.Unisys.COM' The somewhere entry is created when rmail receives a message that doesn't have the "remote from" portion of the From line. The rmail source is written such that the path of any mail recieved without a "remote from" appended to the From line will be given to sendmail in this format: Here is the From line: From uucp@ls.com Sun Jul 1 20:10:31 1990 Here is the sendmail command line: /usr/lib/sendmail -ee -fsomewhere!uucp@ls.com -i 'news' Given this expanation of the problem, can anyone: A) Offer any insight as to where the "remote from" comes from and why it isn't being tacked onto the mail that I am receiving from this system?? B) Tell me that I am barking up the wrong tree and point me in the right direction. Thanks-- --tim ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Timothy Scharping Internet: tim@GVL.Unisys.COM Unisys Corporation UUCP: ...!uunet!lgnp1!gvlv2!tim Paoli, PA 19301 ...!{gatech,purdue}!psuvax1!burdvax!gvlv2!tim
rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) (08/14/90)
In article <863@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM> tim@gvlf9.GVL.Unisys.COM (Timothy Scharping) writes: >In article <987@fico2.UUCP> rca@fico2.UUCP (The OTHER Rick Adams) writes: >>I'm in the midst of writing a uucp implementation for my home computer. >>I notice that mail from my site ("ccentral") tends to have the word >>"somewhere" inserted in the address, by other mailers. So mail is >>received as coming from ...!apple!fico2!somewhere!ccentral!rickadams. > >The problem that I am having is caused by an improper From (no colon) line >being received by rmail on the BSD machine. A proper From line is composed >of an address followed by a date. > >From chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 > >When mail is sent via uucp something (uux??) should tack a "remote from" >piece on the end of the From line. A correct example looks like: > >From ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris Mon Aug 13 15:00:46 1990 remote from imagine > ...... >The somewhere entry is created when rmail receives a message that doesn't >have the "remote from" portion of the From line. The rmail source is written > I did some test on my rmail. The following seems to be the story: Firstly, neither uux nor rmail provides the 'remote from'. This comes from the sending MTA. For example, in a 'sendmail' based system, it is the responsibility of 'sendmail' to add the 'remote from' to the end of the Unix from line. Secondly, many versions of 'rmail' do not require the 'remote from'. In my 4.3 based system, the vendor's version of rmail does not insist on a 'remote from'. I suspect this is a common state of affairs in BSD systems. HOWEVER - rmail DOES insist on having a sending host name. Because it is used for UUCP transport, it uses a '!' to determine this system. Thus the line: From chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 does not have a 'remote from' nor a '!'. Hence many rmail versions will add a 'remote from somewhere'. From chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 remote from imagine will not generate a 'somewhere', but will be converted by rmail into the incorrect 'imagine!chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM' as the sender. From ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 remote from imagine is OK. It will generate a sender address of 'imagine!ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris' which is correct, but is not a valid RFC822 address. If you unleash this as a sender address some Internet hosts will refuse to accept the mail. From chris Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 remote from ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM This might work. It is risky with some systems, because of the periods, and the length of the 'remote from' host name, which violate UUCP standards. From ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 This is the best choice in many cases. Many versions of 'rmail' will accept it, in spite of their being no 'remote from' because there is at least an '!'. Furthermore, if this is pumped into 'sendmail', most versions of 'sendmail.cf' will convert 'ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris' to 'chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM' leaving a valid RFC822 address. -- =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Neil W. Rickert, Computer Sci Dept, Northern Illinois U., DeKalb IL 60115 InterNet, unix: rickert@cs.niu.edu Bitnet, VM: T90NWR1@NIUCS =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
smoot@cs.utexas.edu (Smoot Carl-Mitchell) (08/14/90)
In article <1990Aug13.221553.17992@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes: > >From ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 > > This is the best choice in many cases. Many versions of 'rmail' will accept >it, in spite of their being no 'remote from' because there is at least an '!'. >Furthermore, if this is pumped into 'sendmail', most versions of 'sendmail.cf' >will convert 'ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris' to 'chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM' >leaving a valid RFC822 address. All this ``From_'' line nonesense is why I wrote a version of rmail which takes only domain names and adds the sender's domain address as a argument to rmail with an '-f' flag. Its really a sendmail firewall which disallows remote uucp users from doing all the esoteric things which sendmail can do (rebuild alias DB, enter test mode, use an alternate configuration, etc). I call it ``rmaild'' and it assumes there is no ``From_'' lines in the message header. Works pretty well. I use it to send mail from ``tic.com'' to the Internet with uucp transport, but I look like I'm just another domain address. If you want details, send me e-mail. -- Smoot Carl-Mitchell, Texas Internet Consulting smoot@tic.com, smoot@cs.utexas.edu
del@thrush.mlb.semi.harris.com (Don Lewis) (08/17/90)
In article <1990Aug13.221553.17992@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes: >In article <863@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM> tim@gvlf9.GVL.Unisys.COM (Timothy Scharping) writes: >> >>The problem that I am having is caused by an improper From (no colon) line >>being received by rmail on the BSD machine. A proper From line is composed >>of an address followed by a date. >> >>From chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 This is an improper envelope From_ line (see RFC976). From_ lines use band paths, not @'s. The header From: line is governed by RFC822 and should contain an address in @ format. The From_ line above is probably due to a sendmail deficiency. In stock Berkeley sendmail, the same rewriting rules are used for both the envelope and body addresses. If the sendmail.cf is written to make the header From: address a valid RFC822 address, it munges the envelope From_ into the above invalid format. The IDA sendmail enhancements provide for separate header and envelope rewriting rules which can prevent this from happening. It is also possible to provide a filter to fix the envelope, but it sure would seem to be desirable if Berkeley picked up this particular enhancement to sendmail so that it would be RFC complient. >> >>When mail is sent via uucp something (uux??) should tack a "remote from" >>piece on the end of the From line. A correct example looks like: >> >>From ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris Mon Aug 13 15:00:46 1990 remote from imagine >> This is correct. >...... >>The somewhere entry is created when rmail receives a message that doesn't >>have the "remote from" portion of the From line. The rmail source is written >> > I did some test on my rmail. The following seems to be the story: > > Firstly, neither uux nor rmail provides the 'remote from'. This comes from >the sending MTA. For example, in a 'sendmail' based system, it is the >responsibility of 'sendmail' to add the 'remote from' to the end of the >Unix from line. > > Secondly, many versions of 'rmail' do not require the 'remote from'. In my >4.3 based system, the vendor's version of rmail does not insist on a >'remote from'. I suspect this is a common state of affairs in BSD systems. > > HOWEVER - rmail DOES insist on having a sending host name. Because it is >used for UUCP transport, it uses a '!' to determine this system. > > Thus the line: > >From chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 > >does not have a 'remote from' nor a '!'. Hence many rmail versions will >add a 'remote from somewhere'. > >From chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 remote from imagine > >will not generate a 'somewhere', but will be converted by rmail into the >incorrect 'imagine!chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM' as the sender. But if the From_ line was originally correct (like the one below) then ... > >From ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 remote from imagine > >is OK. It will generate a sender address of 'imagine!ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris' >which is correct, but is not a valid RFC822 address. If you unleash this as >a sender address some Internet hosts will refuse to accept the mail. But it doesn't matter that this is not a valid RFC822 address. The pertinent RFC is 976, and it says that this line is correct. Remember, there is still a valid RFC822 From: line, or at least there had better be! From: chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM > >From chris Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 remote from ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM > > This might work. It is risky with some systems, because of the periods, and >the length of the 'remote from' host name, which violate UUCP standards. > >From ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 > > This is the best choice in many cases. Many versions of 'rmail' will accept >it, in spite of their being no 'remote from' because there is at least an '!'. >Furthermore, if this is pumped into 'sendmail', most versions of 'sendmail.cf' >will convert 'ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris' to 'chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM' >leaving a valid RFC822 address. Well, sendmail should'nt be mucking with the From_ line at all, and the From: line (chris@ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM) should be untouched by its travels. If the recipient is using a RFC822 complient mailer, then he can reply to the From: address since it is in RFC822 format. If the recipient is using some sort of brain dead mailer, then he is going to need an unmangled address in the From_ line. The last example won't work, since his mailer won't know that it needs to forward the mail to imagine in order to get to ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM. The From_ line From ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris Mon Aug 13 15:01:00 1990 remote from imagine which gets translated into From imagine!ADMS-RAD.Unisys.COM!chris ... is the correct one. -- Don "Truck" Lewis Harris Semiconductor Internet: del@mlb.semi.harris.com PO Box 883 MS 62A-028 Phone: (407) 729-5205 Melbourne, FL 32901