[11145] in Athena Bugs
Re: NetProb ticket #458, incorrect address on incoming mail
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (hoffmann@MIT.EDU)
Tue Oct 5 10:31:12 1993
From: hoffmann@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 93 10:30:49 -0400
To: cdemello@MIT.EDU
Cc: postmaster@MIT.EDU, bugs@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: cdemello@MIT.EDU's message of Tue, 5 Oct 93 09:23:20 -0400 <9310051323.AA06567@timesink.MIT.EDU>
This is indeed a bug but not one at our end. The system
where the user works, which is generating a mail header
field which is not fully qualified (ie there is no hostname,
or an incomplete hostname without a domain as in this case)
is violating the specifications for mail transfer agents.
The MIT.EDU mailhub sees the unqualified name and tries to
"make it right" by tacking on the only domain it knows,
the local MIT.EDU one. It is undesirable for us to change
the behavior of MIT.EDU to not do this.
The user might consider having the mail from the mailing
lists in question delivered directly to her account here.
That way very few messages would be travelling twice to
reach her. That would mean fewer messages with the bogus
header field and a more efficient use of the resources of
the Internet and her employer's computers and network.
Hope this helps.
-Ron Hoffmann
<postmaster@mit.edu>
