[fa.info-vax] RFC-822 and DECnet addresses

info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (05/16/85)

From: Kevin Carosso <engvax!KVC@cit-vax>

I have a problem that I think many others have seen and (hopefully)
addressed.  I've set up a system allowing VMS MAIL to be sent and
received to/from foreign networks (like ARPA and UUCP).  In doing
so, I've tried to conform to RFC-822 (ARPAnet standard for message
headers).

The problem is that I have to be able to handle DECnet addresses in
mail that I'm sending out.  For example, I have one system set up as
a gateway, with the UUCP MAIL software.  All other systems in the net
can send UUCP mail by addressing mail something like:

	gate::uucp%"uucp-address-path"

Now, when I make up return addresses, if the message is being gated
with an address like that above, the return address in the message
looks like:

	reverse-uucp-address-path!node::username

This works very well except for the fact the DECnet node names do not
conform to RFC-822 because of the "::".  Does anyone out there have
any good ideas on how I can mangle the address to conform to RFC-822
but still easily handle DECnet users?  I've thought of things like
having a special cased list of DECnet hosts, but that's stupid.
Also, replacing the DECnet address with something in an "@" form
brings up the problem of left-to-right vs. right-to-left.  e.g.
what does:

	reverse-uucp-address-path!username@decnet-node

mean?  (I want it to be the same as my previous example, but a reply to
that at most sitess would look for a site on the ARPAnet called "decnet-node"
and think it should send the message to:

	reverse-uucp-path!username

which is clearly incorrect.

Doesn't RFC-822 have any mechanism for allowing foreign network addresses
in mail going into and out of the ARPAnet?  Domains seem like they may
help, but how am I supposed to justify registering every little DECnet
with the Internet people as it's own domain?  Also, strictly speaking,
do UUCP address paths conform in some way to RFC-822?  Are they
just lucky in that they use "!" rather than "::"?

ggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

	/Kevin Carosso               engvax!kcv @ CIT-VAX.ARPA
	 Hughes Aircraft Co.

info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (05/18/85)

From: Random <decvax!mcnc!rti-sel!rcb@BERKELEY>

I have been looking for the information on the VMS MAIL hooks and
can't find it anywhere. Could you send the info or tell me where to find
it? thanks.

					Randy Buckland
					...!mcnc!rti-sel!rcb
					Research Triangle Institute

info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (05/21/85)

From: greipa!paul@decwrl.ARPA (Paul A. Vixie)


I at one time tried to set up a UUCP gateway to VMS - would have succeeded, too,
if i had worked there long enough.  anyway, my solution was to have the mailer
daemon recognize it's own name as a host no matter what the form.  thus, if
vaxa, vaxb, vaxc and vaxd are vms sites with a unix gateway running on vaxb,
and vaxb talks to greipa and politik, then when a message arrives at vaxb from
greipa addressed to vaxb!paul, vaxb eats it and queues it up in
[usr.lib.uucp.vaxb]; if addressed to vaxb!politik!chris, it gets queued to
[usr.lib.uucp.politik].  obviously if addressed to an unknown host it is sent
back with an error-message header prepended.

now, when the polling happens, it knows whether the site it is polling for is
a unix or a vms site.  if it is a vms site, it reforms the address to a valid
vms one (vaxb!paul becomes vaxb::paul or just "paul" if you want to optimize
or if you don't have decnet).  each message is passed to the vms mailer via
lib$spawn() and then deleted from the spool directory.  unix polling is more
obvious but somehow i never did get it to work.