[243] in Moira
[bdclub@ATHENA.MIT.EDU: vax 7.1H: expn (I think) and/or blanche]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Wed Jan 9 19:20:07 1991
From: hoffmann@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 91 19:19:27 -0500
To: jik@pit-manager.MIT.EDU
Cc: mar@MIT.EDU, bug-moira@ATHENA.MIT.EDU, postmaster@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: "Jonathan I. Kamens"'s message of Wed, 9 Jan 91 17:03:39 -0500 <9101092203.AA20612@pit-manager.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 91 17:03:39 -0500
From: "Jonathan I. Kamens" <jik@pit-manager.MIT.EDU>
Yes, but the guy who reported the error claimed that an incorrect
address would cause *other* addresses in the mailing list to fail. Do
you know what he means by that?
I don't know why there would be a difference in VRFY
behaviour between MIT.EDU and ATHENA.MIT.EDU, unless
the user did the VRFY when the databases were not
consistent. There is a window in the middle of the
night when they are not the same: ATHENA is updated
first and builds faster.
Now as to the point above: the mailer as we have it,
can only know definitively about either unknown hosts
or unknown LOCAL users. An address with a valid
hostname (not this host) but invalid username can
not be distinguished from a valid username until the
delivery is attempted.
The list will still VRFY with a bad hostname (I'm not
absolutely certain on this one) but not if there is
a bad local username. A bad local username is defined
as one for which there is no entry in the local password
file AND no entry in the aliases database.
-Ron
