[comp.mail.misc] Smail 3.x newaliases/mkaliases sort error

cluther@supernet.haus.com (Clay Luther) (10/10/90)

I have discovered that the newaliases/mkaliases scripts that come with 
smail 3.x sort the aliases file incorrectly when creating the aliases.sort
file for use by smail.

The sort places the substring "a-a" before "a", eg:

foo-bar:myfoobar
foo:myfoo

However, smail's binary search expects the order to be reversed.  If the
user's aliases.sort file is in this pattern, then the command:

smail -bv -v foo

will generate a "unknown user" error.

smail -bv -v foo-bar

is found, though

Editing the aliases.sort file to reflect

foo:myfoo
foo-bar:myfoobar

fixes the problem.
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