138 lines
5.2 KiB
Groff
138 lines
5.2 KiB
Groff
.\" $NetBSD: mailaddr.7,v 1.1 1996/02/02 15:27:34 mrg Exp $
|
|
.\"
|
|
.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1987 The Regents of the University of California.
|
|
.\" All rights reserved.
|
|
.\"
|
|
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
|
|
.\" provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
|
|
.\" duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation,
|
|
.\" advertising materials, and other materials related to such
|
|
.\" distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed
|
|
.\" by the University of California, Berkeley. The name of the
|
|
.\" University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived
|
|
.\" from this software without specific prior written permission.
|
|
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
|
|
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
|
|
.\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
|
|
.\"
|
|
.\" @(#)mailaddr.7 6.5 (Berkeley) 2/14/89
|
|
.\"
|
|
.TH MAILADDR 7 "February 14, 1989"
|
|
.UC 5
|
|
.SH NAME
|
|
mailaddr \- mail addressing description
|
|
.SH DESCRIPTION
|
|
Mail addresses are based on the ARPANET protocol listed at the end of this
|
|
manual page. These addresses are in the general format
|
|
.PP
|
|
user@domain
|
|
.PP
|
|
where a domain is a hierarchical dot separated list of subdomains. For
|
|
example, the address
|
|
.PP
|
|
eric@monet.berkeley.edu
|
|
.PP
|
|
is normally interpreted from right to left: the message should go to the
|
|
ARPA name tables (which do not correspond exactly to the physical ARPANET),
|
|
then to the Berkeley gateway, after which it should go to the local host
|
|
monet. When the message reaches monet it is delivered to the user ``eric''.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Unlike some other forms of addressing, this does not imply any routing.
|
|
Thus, although this address is specified as an ARPA address, it might
|
|
travel by an alternate route if that were more convenient or efficient.
|
|
For example, at Berkeley, the associated message would probably go directly
|
|
to monet over the Ethernet rather than going via the Berkeley ARPANET
|
|
gateway.
|
|
.SS Abbreviation.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Under certain circumstances it may not be necessary to type the entire
|
|
domain name. In general, anything following the first dot may be omitted
|
|
if it is the same as the domain from which you are sending the message.
|
|
For example, a user on ``calder.berkeley.edu'' could send to ``eric@monet''
|
|
without adding the ``berkeley.edu'' since it is the same on both sending
|
|
and receiving hosts.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Certain other abbreviations may be permitted as special cases. For
|
|
example, at Berkeley, ARPANET hosts may be referenced without adding
|
|
the ``berkeley.edu'' as long as their names do not conflict with a local
|
|
host name.
|
|
.SS Compatibility.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Certain old address formats are converted to the new format to provide
|
|
compatibility with the previous mail system. In particular,
|
|
.PP
|
|
user@host.ARPA
|
|
.PP
|
|
is allowed and
|
|
.PP
|
|
host:user
|
|
.PP
|
|
is converted to
|
|
.PP
|
|
user@host
|
|
.PP
|
|
to be consistent with the \fIrcp\fP(1) command.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Also, the syntax
|
|
.PP
|
|
host!user
|
|
.PP
|
|
is converted to:
|
|
.PP
|
|
user@host.UUCP
|
|
.PP
|
|
This is normally converted back to the ``host!user'' form before being sent
|
|
on for compatibility with older UUCP hosts.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The current implementation is not able to route messages automatically through
|
|
the UUCP network. Until that time you must explicitly tell the mail system
|
|
which hosts to send your message through to get to your final destination.
|
|
.SS Case Distinctions.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Domain names (i.e., anything after the ``@'' sign) may be given in any mixture
|
|
of upper and lower case with the exception of UUCP hostnames. Most hosts
|
|
accept any combination of case in user names, with the notable exception of
|
|
MULTICS sites.
|
|
.SS Route-addrs.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Under some circumstances it may be necessary to route a message through
|
|
several hosts to get it to the final destination. Normally this routing
|
|
is done automatically, but sometimes it is desirable to route the message
|
|
manually. Addresses which show these relays are termed ``route-addrs.''
|
|
These use the syntax:
|
|
.PP
|
|
<@hosta,@hostb:user@hostc>
|
|
.PP
|
|
This specifies that the message should be sent to hosta, from there to hostb,
|
|
and finally to hostc. This path is forced even if there is a more efficient
|
|
path to hostc.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Route-addrs occur frequently on return addresses, since these are generally
|
|
augmented by the software at each host. It is generally possible to ignore
|
|
all but the ``user@domain'' part of the address to determine the actual
|
|
sender.
|
|
.SS Postmaster.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Every site is required to have a user or user alias designated ``postmaster''
|
|
to which problems with the mail system may be addressed.
|
|
.SS Other Networks.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Some other networks can be reached by giving the name of the network as the
|
|
last component of the domain. \fIThis is not a standard feature\fP and may
|
|
not be supported at all sites. For example, messages to CSNET or BITNET sites
|
|
can often be sent to ``user@host.CSNET'' or ``user@host.BITNET'' respectively.
|
|
.SH BUGS
|
|
The RFC822 group syntax (``group:user1,user2,user3;'') is not supported
|
|
except in the special case of ``group:;'' because of a conflict with old
|
|
berknet-style addresses.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Route-Address syntax is grotty.
|
|
.PP
|
|
UUCP- and ARPANET-style addresses do not coexist politely.
|
|
.SH SEE ALSO
|
|
mail(1), sendmail(8);
|
|
Crocker, D. H.,
|
|
.ul
|
|
Standard for the Format of Arpa Internet Text Messages,
|
|
RFC822.
|