138 lines
5.2 KiB
Groff
138 lines
5.2 KiB
Groff
.\" $NetBSD: mailaddr.7,v 1.2 1997/04/13 10:50:53 mrg Exp $
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.\"
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.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1987 The Regents of the University of California.
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.\" All rights reserved.
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.\"
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.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
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.\" provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
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.\" duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation,
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.\" advertising materials, and other materials related to such
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.\" distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed
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.\" by the University of California, Berkeley. The name of the
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.\" University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived
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.\" from this software without specific prior written permission.
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.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
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.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
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.\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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.\"
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.\" @(#)mailaddr.7 6.5 (Berkeley) 2/14/89
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.\"
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.TH MAILADDR 7 "February 14, 1989"
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.UC 5
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.SH NAME
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mailaddr \- mail addressing description
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.SH DESCRIPTION
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Mail addresses are based on the ARPANET protocol listed at the end of this
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manual page. These addresses are in the general format
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.PP
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user@domain
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.PP
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where a domain is a hierarchical dot separated list of subdomains. For
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example, the address
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.PP
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eric@monet.berkeley.edu
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.PP
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is normally interpreted from right to left: the message should go to the
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ARPA name tables (which do not correspond exactly to the physical ARPANET),
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then to the Berkeley gateway, after which it should go to the local host
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monet. When the message reaches monet it is delivered to the user ``eric''.
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.PP
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Unlike some other forms of addressing, this does not imply any routing.
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Thus, although this address is specified as an ARPA address, it might
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travel by an alternate route if that were more convenient or efficient.
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For example, at Berkeley, the associated message would probably go directly
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to monet over the Ethernet rather than going via the Berkeley ARPANET
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gateway.
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.SS Abbreviation.
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.PP
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Under certain circumstances it may not be necessary to type the entire
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domain name. In general, anything following the first dot may be omitted
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if it is the same as the domain from which you are sending the message.
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For example, a user on ``calder.berkeley.edu'' could send to ``eric@monet''
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without adding the ``berkeley.edu'' since it is the same on both sending
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and receiving hosts.
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.PP
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Certain other abbreviations may be permitted as special cases. For
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example, at Berkeley, ARPANET hosts may be referenced without adding
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the ``berkeley.edu'' as long as their names do not conflict with a local
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host name.
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.SS Compatibility.
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.PP
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Certain old address formats are converted to the new format to provide
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compatibility with the previous mail system. In particular,
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.PP
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user@host.ARPA
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.PP
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is allowed and
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.PP
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host:user
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.PP
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is converted to
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.PP
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user@host
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.PP
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to be consistent with the \fIrcp\fP(1) command.
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.PP
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Also, the syntax
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.PP
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host!user
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.PP
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is converted to:
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.PP
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user@host.UUCP
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.PP
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This is normally converted back to the ``host!user'' form before being sent
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on for compatibility with older UUCP hosts.
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.PP
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The current implementation is not able to route messages automatically through
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the UUCP network. Until that time you must explicitly tell the mail system
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which hosts to send your message through to get to your final destination.
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.SS Case Distinctions.
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.PP
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Domain names (i.e., anything after the ``@'' sign) may be given in any mixture
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of upper and lower case with the exception of UUCP hostnames. Most hosts
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accept any combination of case in user names, with the notable exception of
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MULTICS sites.
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.SS Route-addrs.
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.PP
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Under some circumstances it may be necessary to route a message through
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several hosts to get it to the final destination. Normally this routing
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is done automatically, but sometimes it is desirable to route the message
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manually. Addresses which show these relays are termed ``route-addrs.''
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These use the syntax:
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.PP
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<@hosta,@hostb:user@hostc>
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.PP
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This specifies that the message should be sent to hosta, from there to hostb,
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and finally to hostc. This path is forced even if there is a more efficient
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path to hostc.
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.PP
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Route-addrs occur frequently on return addresses, since these are generally
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augmented by the software at each host. It is generally possible to ignore
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all but the ``user@domain'' part of the address to determine the actual
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sender.
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.SS Postmaster.
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.PP
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Every site is required to have a user or user alias designated ``postmaster''
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to which problems with the mail system may be addressed.
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.SS Other Networks.
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.PP
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Some other networks can be reached by giving the name of the network as the
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last component of the domain. \fIThis is not a standard feature\fP and may
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not be supported at all sites. For example, messages to CSNET or BITNET sites
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can often be sent to ``user@host.CSNET'' or ``user@host.BITNET'' respectively.
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.SH BUGS
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The RFC822 group syntax (``group:user1,user2,user3;'') is not supported
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except in the special case of ``group:;'' because of a conflict with old
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berknet-style addresses.
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.PP
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Route-Address syntax is grotty.
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.PP
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UUCP- and ARPANET-style addresses do not coexist politely.
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.SH SEE ALSO
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mail(1), sendmail(8);
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Crocker, D. H.,
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.ul
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Standard for the Format of Arpa Internet Text Messages,
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RFC822.
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