karl@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) (03/19/88)
Although one would generally like to have !-paths left intact, there is at least one circumstance wherein reroutes are entirely appropriate. When a site is set up to do replies using the Path: header line due to not having INTERNET #defined, then reroutes may be a necessary fact of life. The reason is that not all host1!host2 connections that show up in the Path: line are UUCP connections. We speak NNTP with, e.g., mailrus.cc.umich.edu. (Yes, Ohio State and Michigan can be civil toward one another. :-) So when we trade articles with them, the Path: headers gain pseudo-UUCP connections that say tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!some!where!username and as we forward such an article farther down the line (via UUCP, for example, through osu-cis and then to other Columbus sites), more sites get tacked on the front of that. Now someone replies to the !-path. It says mumble!fubar!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!some!where!username which hasn't got a chance of working. We don't speak UUCP with mailrus; we talk with them over our common NSF tributary. So this mail will do fine until it gets to tut.cis.ohio-state.edu, where we will try to send mail via UUCP to mailrus - which will fail because there is no `mailrus' in Tut's Systems file. We don't reroute; we just fail the mail and return it to where it came from, if possible. This reflects not so much on the problems of !-path re-routing as it does on the use of such an ambiguous syntax for the Path: header. A !-path `path' is not necessarily indicative of the transport used.
jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck) (03/19/88)
In article <8563@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> karl@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) writes: >Although one would generally like to have !-paths left intact, there >is at least one circumstance wherein reroutes are entirely >appropriate. When a site is set up to do replies using the Path: >header line due to not having INTERNET #defined, then reroutes may be >a necessary fact of life. There is no longer a good reason not to define INTERNET, even for sites with primitive mailers, when news 2.11 is used. >The reason is that not all host1!host2 connections that show up in the >Path: line are UUCP connections. I have no problem with rerouting when the path is invalid, and the rerouting is done to the first host, not the last. a!b!c!user says to send to a, then to b, then to c, then to user. If a doesn't talk directly to b, then a can route to b. a should not attempt to route directly to c in this case, though, since UUCP names can be ambiguous. Now that we have the host.domain!user syntax, ! no longer implies a direct UUCP connection. But it is a route just the same. -- - Joe Buck {uunet,ucbvax,sun,<smart-site>}!epimass.epi.com!jbuck Old Internet mailers: jbuck%epimass.epi.com@uunet.uu.net
jay@splut.UUCP (Jay Maynard) (03/26/88)
From article <2014@epimass.EPI.COM>, by jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck): > There is no longer a good reason not to define INTERNET, even for > sites with primitive mailers, when news 2.11 is used. Uh, Joe...if I define INTERNET, how do I keep news from trying 'mail buck@epimass.epi.com' if I reply to your message? (If the answer is RTFM, please tell me where in the FM. :-) One of these days, I'll figure out how to set up a useful subset of the path database, and will get smail running... -- Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC...>splut!< | GEnie: JAYMAYNARD CI$: 71036,1603 uucp: {uunet!nuchat,academ!uhnix1,{ihnp4,bellcore,killer}!tness1}!splut!jay Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity. The opinions herein are shared by none of my cats, much less anyone else.
jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck) (03/27/88)
In article <444@splut.UUCP> jay@splut.UUCP (Jay Maynard) writes: >Uh, Joe...if I define INTERNET, how do I keep news from trying >'mail buck@epimass.epi.com' if I reply to your message? >(If the answer is RTFM, please tell me where in the FM. :-) It's in there (in the 2.11 news installation guide). Check out the instructions on how to build the "mailpaths" file. (There's also an article posted every month to news.admin explaining the details). Say you have a plain UUCP mailer, but you talk to uunet. Just have the following line in /usr/lib/news/mailpaths: internet uunet!%s Then a reply to my article will go to uunet!epimass.epi.com!jbuck and will work fine. The monthly article posted to news.admin gives the list of who will accept internet mail from all comers. In addition, if your news feed has a full pathalias database running, you may be able to obtain special permission to say internet news-feed!%s But ask first! -- - Joe Buck {uunet,ucbvax,sun,<smart-site>}!epimass.epi.com!jbuck Old Internet mailers: jbuck%epimass.epi.com@uunet.uu.net