[comp.mail.uucp] precedence of % when there are no @'s in the address

emv@mailrus.cc.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) (09/07/88)

In article <4740@b-tech.UUCP> zeeff@b-tech.UUCP (Jon Zeeff) writes:
>6) Should the address "zzz!user%site.com" be sent to site.com or zzz?  
>(ie, what should have precedence)

At umix, mailrus, and sharkey, zzz!user%site.com becomes zzz!user@site.com.
(which then becomes user%zzz@site.com).  


The reason (which predates me) is that users here believe that a
% is just another way of writing @ .  So for instance
	user%site1%site2.com -> user%site1@site2.com
	
This behavior is not likely to change any time soon, and only
seems to bite people who either reply through news paths
or go through a pathological variety of gateways.  I'm 
actively trying to hunt some of these problems down, but
you never know what someone else is going to try to type
as an address that routes through your machine....

--Ed
"news is not mail"

honey@umix.cc.umich.edu (Peter Honeyman) (09/07/88)

my treatment of zzz!user@site.com depends on who utters it.

if the message arrives via uucp, i assume uucp addressing, i.e.,
ask zzz to mail it to user@site.com.

if the message arrives via smtp, i assume 822 addressing, i.e.,
ask site.com to mail it to zzz!user.

if the message originates locally, i follow a local convention.
but the issue here is the treatement of hybrid addresses when
issued by a remote, so i won't expand on the local convention.

	peter

lear@NET.BIO.NET (Eliot Lear) (09/07/88)

Just a minor point.  RFC822 mentions nothing about %.  Does anyone know
where % actually came from?  It is a horrendous thing, given that there
are now THREE ways to accomplish mail routing in the Internet.
-- 
Eliot Lear
[lear@net.bio.net]