datta@vacs.uwp.wisc.edu (David Datta) (05/26/90)
I have set up a mailing list, the mail going into the list is run through an awk script that changes the old From, Reply-To, and Server lines to match where I want mail to reply to. (The list) I have been looking for a definition of the other "standard" header fields that handle where error messages are bounced to from other machines. I have read RFC822 and have not been able to find an update that refers to header lines such as "Errors-To". The problem I am having right now is I can get the error messages to go to me using the "Errors-To" line. They also get sent to the list. As utgoing messages are forwarded as From <mailing-list>, the bounced messages go to both the From: and Errors-To: addresses. Resulting in a nice endless loop. We are running BSD Unix and sendmail. -- -Dave datta@vacs.uwp.wisc.edu ....uwm!uwpvacs!datta uwpvacs!datta@uwm.edu
Craig_Everhart@TRANSARC.COM (05/29/90)
Once more, with feeling. Lots of (most?) automatic failure notices aren't sent to any address taken from the mail header, but are sent to the envelope-from information. This envelope-from information is transmitted in SMTP in the ``MAIL FROM:'' command, is recorded at final delivery time in old Unix mail in the From_ (``From '') header, and is recorded at final delivery time in Internet-style mail in the Return-path: header. RFC 822, describing only headers, suggests that automatic error messages be sent to the content of the Sender: field of the message header. Lots of (most?) mailers use the RFC 821 option of sending error messages to the envelope-from address information instead. Sendmail gets the envelope-from information from its -r and -f options. However, you can get (some versions of) it to override this information if you use its alias expansion to do the redistribution. I believe that if you have, say, ``foo-list'' set up as your exploder address, sendmail also looks for an ``owner-foo-list'' alias, and if it finds it, uses its content to replace the envelope-from address information. Free advice: don't muck with the headers of redistributed mail; leave ``From:'' and ``Reply-to:'' alone. Change the envelope-to (and envelope-from) information without changing the headers. Craig Everhart