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Annotation of 43BSDReno/share/doc/ucs/mmdf/p8, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: .SH
        !             2: The BBOARDS Channel
        !             3: .PP
        !             4: Sites that run the MH message system, version mh.5, may install
        !             5: a \fIbboards\fR channel which delivers messages 
        !             6: from interest-group mailing lists to a special ``bboards'' directory  .
        !             7: The bboards software,
        !             8: which is compatible with the MH message system, keeps track of which
        !             9: messages have been seen by individual users, and allows designated bboards
        !            10: managers to control the size and access for different bboards.
        !            11: .FN
        !            12: See the \fIman\fR entry mh-gen.8 in the MH distribution.
        !            13: It is important to note that the choice to install ``bboards'' 
        !            14: must be made when MMDF is generated.  The ``news'' facility mentioned
        !            15: in the MH documentation is not supported by CSNET.
        !            16: .FE
        !            17: .SH
        !            18: The UUCP Channel
        !            19: .PP
        !            20: The task of integrating UUCP mail into MMDF was a prime
        !            21: goal for BRL.
        !            22: Our users would not tolerate having to use
        !            23: two radically different mail interfaces for two different
        !            24: kinds of mail connections.
        !            25: We decided to write a channel to interface to the UUCP
        !            26: mail world that would take care of the necessary format
        !            27: conversions to allow mail to traverse the two mail worlds.
        !            28: The channel has two parts.  The input portion of the channel
        !            29: is the program \fB/bin/rmail\fR which is executed by the UUCP
        !            30: program \fBuuxqt\fR when mail is being delivered.
        !            31: The output portion is a standard channel that invokes the UUCP
        !            32: system after reformatting the message.
        !            33: .PP
        !            34: The \fBrmail\fR
        !            35: program has been totally rewritten to interface to MMDF.
        !            36: \fBRmail\fR's primary task is to collect and reformat the
        !            37: address strings in the message.
        !            38: To reformat each address, \fBrmail\fR uses the UUCP channel table
        !            39: to determine what hosts are known to this host and shortens
        !            40: an host!host!host! string down to the single most distant host we know
        !            41: about and any subsequent hosts we do not know.  For example
        !            42: knownA!knownB!knownC!unknown1!unknown2!user would become
        !            43: knownC!unknown1!unknown2!user.
        !            44: It then converts this to an RFC822 style address by putting the unknown
        !            45: hosts and the user in the local part and putting the known host with
        !            46: a domain in the domain portion, e.g. [email protected].
        !            47: If all the hosts are known, then only the user
        !            48: is left in the local part, and the address winds up being [email protected].
        !            49: Since you always know the hosts you talk to, you can build any arbitrary
        !            50: UUCP path by simply saying [email protected].
        !            51: .PP
        !            52: \fBRmail\fR is prepared to accept destination addresses in two forms.
        !            53: If the addressee is just another UUCP host addressed using host!host!...
        !            54: notation, then \fBrmail\fR forwards the letter via UUCP without header munging
        !            55: since the destination host may not support RFC822 style mail.
        !            56: An addressee of the form user@domain will
        !            57: cause the message to be fed to \fBsubmit\fR and into MMDF proper
        !            58: where the message can be delivered to another UUCP site or any other site
        !            59: accessible via MMDF.
        !            60: \fBRmail\fR will reformat the message header in the latter case to conform
        !            61: as much as possible with the RFC822 specifications.
        !            62: .PP
        !            63: The outbound portion of the UUCP channel is a MMDF channel program called
        !            64: ``uucp'' which is invoked by \fBdeliver\fR.
        !            65: The job of this program is much
        !            66: easier since all it must do is reformat the ``From:'' line to be compatible
        !            67: with UUCP mail.
        !            68: The outbound channel must also reformat the destination addresses
        !            69: which become arguments to \fBuux\fR.
        !            70: The outbound channel uses the same channel table that
        !            71: \fBrmail\fR used but performs the reverse action on the address so,
        !            72: for example, [email protected] becomes unc!duke!mcnc!root and this is
        !            73: then further divided to form the uux command
        !            74: ``uux unc!rmail duke!mcnc!root'' (assuming the channel table maps
        !            75: mcnc.UUCP into duke!unc!mcnc).
        !            76: .PP
        !            77: The UUCP channel would have to be classed as the only ``flakey''
        !            78: portion of MMDF since some of these address transformation really need
        !            79: an advanced AI system to make an intelligent transformation.
        !            80: In general, though, the channel does a very good job and has little trouble
        !            81: with ``normal'' UUCP addresses.

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