MAIL(7) MAIL(7)
NAME
mail - address conventions and rewrite rules
DESCRIPTION
Mail(1) accepts and converts among the addressing conven-
tions of several computer networks, according to rules given
in the file /usr/lib/upas/rewrite. Each line of the file is
a rule. Blank lines and lines beginning with '#' are
ignored.
Each rewriting rule consists of (up to) 6 strings:
pattern
An ed(1)-like regular expression, with simple parenthe-
ses () playing the role of \(\) and with the + and ?
operators of egrep(1). The pattern is applied to mail
addresses.
command
An ed(1) style replacement string to generate a command
to deliver messages to the destination matched by the
pattern. The substring `\s', is replaced by the login
id of the sender. The default is no command.
next hop
An ed(1) style replacement string that represents the
name of next routing hop. The default is the empty
string. See the section below on forwarding.
next address
An ed(1) style replacement string that represents the
address as it will be seen at the next hop. The
default is the empty string. See the section below on
forwarding.
conversion
The name of the conversion that must be performed
before the message is piped to the command. If this
field is empty, no conversion is performed. The only
conversion now known is rfc822, which makes the message
conform to the ARPA RFC 822 mailer standard.
system
The name to use for the current system. The default
name is found in /etc/whoami.
Each field, except for pattern, is optional if it and all
fields following it are to assume the default values. Any
empty field (e.g. ``'') assumes the default value.
MAIL(7) MAIL(7)
When delivering a message, mail starts with the first rule
and continues down the list until a pattern matches the des-
tination address. If the rule contains no command, the mail
is appended to the user's mailbox in the standard way (see
mail(1)). If the rule does contain a command, upas(8) starts
the command and pipes the message to it, performing any
requested conversion.
Forwarding is controlled using the next hop and next address
fields and the forwarding files. Using these fields, the
rewriting rules are recursively applied to the source and
destination addresses. If all hops in either source or des-
tination are in the forwarding files, forwarding is allowed.
If the forwarding files do not exist, blanket forwarding is
assumed.
EXAMPLES
Rewriting rules for major networks are:
network: UUCP (machine!machine!...!person)
^([^!]+)!([^!]+)$ \1 \
"uux 2>>/tmp/uuxl - -a \s \1!rmail \\(\2\\)"
^([^!]+)!((.+!)?([^!]+)![^!]+)$ \4 "uux - -a \s
\1!rmail \\(\2\\)"
network: ARPANET (arpa!person@machine)
^arpa!(.+)$ csnet "cs-inject \1.csnet-relay" rfc822
network: CSNET (csnet!person@machine)
^csnet!(.+)$ csnet "cs-inject \1.csnet-relay" rfc822
network: CSNET or ARPANET (person@machine)
^.+[@%.][^@%.]+$ csnet "cs-inject &.csnet-relay" rfc822
network: ACSNET (acsnet!person@machine.acsnet)
^acsnet!(.+)$ ACSnet "acs-inject \1" rfc822
network: BITNET (bitnet!person@machine)
^bitnet!(.+)[.@](.+)$ csnet
"cs-inject \1%\2.bitnet@wiscvm.arpa.csnet-relay"
rfc822
The address on incoming mail depends largely on the origi-
nating mail program. However, the following can usually be
relied upon to reach CS researchers at Bell Labs.
MAIL(7) MAIL(7)
UUCP: research!person
CSNET: person@btl or person.machine@btl
ARPANET: person@btl.csnet or person.btl@csnet-relay
ACSNET: person@research or research!person
BITNET: person%btl.csnet@wiscvm
If in any of the above addresses, `person' is not on
research, use `machine!...!person' in place of `person'.
FILES
/usr/lib/upas/rewrite the rewriting rules
SEE ALSO
uucp(1), mail(1), upas(8)