[comp.mail.sendmail] Why the stupid + signs in sendmail

wezel@balaena.bio.vu.nl (Jos van Wezel) (09/27/89)

When using a domainname on a Sun 4.0 the first part of the domain is 
cut off by sendmail unless it is preceded by a plus sign (+). (can be a dot
too I believe). So the domain "bio.vu.nl" is rewritten to "vu.nl", but since
I've set the name to "+bio.vu.nl" the From headers appear like the one above.
However it's very annoying to have a 'domainname' call return something
stupid like "+bio.vu.nl". I want to change this to just "bio.vu.nl".

Now for the question, does anyone know why this was put into the 
rewriting rules, and when I tear it out will it harm anything else in the 
mail delivery system. Is it common in other mail configuration files?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Jos van Wezel
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