IETF Logo Mail Archive

Re: history of using a comment for display-name?

Eric Allman <eric+drums@sendmail.org> Mon, 12 March 2001 16:49 UTC

Received: from cs.utk.edu (cs.utk.edu [160.36.56.56]) by ietf.org (8.9.1a/8.9.1a) with SMTP id LAA13764 for <drums-archive@odin.ietf.org>; Mon, 12 Mar 2001 11:49:31 -0500 (EST)
Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) by cs.utk.edu with SMTP (cf v2.9s-UTK) id LAA29956; Mon, 12 Mar 2001 11:40:26 -0500 (EST)
Received: by cs.utk.edu (bulk_mailer v1.13); Mon, 12 Mar 2001 11:40:25 -0500
Received: by cs.utk.edu (cf v2.9s-UTK) id LAA29939; Mon, 12 Mar 2001 11:40:25 -0500 (EST)
Received: from knecht.Neophilic.COM (marvin@localhost) by cs.utk.edu with ESMTP (cf v2.9s-UTK) id LAA29921; Mon, 12 Mar 2001 11:40:22 -0500 (EST)
Received: from knecht.Neophilic.COM (209.31.233.176 -> knecht.sendmail.org) by cs.utk.edu (smtpshim v1.0); Mon, 12 Mar 2001 11:40:23 -0500
Received: from knecht.Neophilic.COM (localhost.Neophilic.COM [127.0.0.1]) by knecht.Neophilic.COM (8.12.0.Beta5/8.12.0.Beta5) with ESMTP id f2CGeMYZ076255; Mon, 12 Mar 2001 08:40:22 -0800 (PST)
Message-Id: <200103121640.f2CGeMYZ076255@knecht.Neophilic.COM>
X-Mailer: exmh version 2.2 06/23/2000 with nmh-1.0.4
To: Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>
From: Eric Allman <eric+drums@sendmail.org>
X-URL: http://WWW.Sendmail.ORG/~eric
cc: drums@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: history of using a comment for display-name?
In-reply-to: Mail from Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu> dated Mon, 12 Mar 2001 08:30:33 EST <200103121330.IAA12426@astro.cs.utk.edu>
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 08:40:22 -0800
Sender: eric@knecht.Neophilic.COM
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:drums-request@cs.utk.edu?Subject=unsubscribe>

Robert and Keith are correct.  Remember, when sendmail (and delivermail)
appeared, the Internet didn't exist, and the network world had many more
users on UUCP than on ARPAnet/Internet (remember the "acceptable use
policy"?).  Far more mailers could handle ``address (name)'' than
``name <address>'', probably because the former syntax was already in
use on Usenet.

Couple this with the relatively strange restrictions on "." and "'" in
RFC-822 -- folks like Mike O'Dell and Almost Anyone Jr. had to quote
their full names, auto-quoting not being common in mailers at that time.

Clearly the Internet has won out over UUCP, which is why sendmail has
been using ``name <address>'' for about ten years now.

eric


============= In Reply To: ===========================================
: From:  Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>
: Subject:  Re: history of using a comment for display-name? 
: Date:  Mon, 12 Mar 2001 08:30:33 -0500

: > Additionally section 3.4.3 does state that comments must not be included
: > during protocol exchanges with mail servers.. and thus if I interpret it
: > correctly, sendmail is non-RFC822 compliant then.
: 
: nope.  that's not what section 3.4.3 means.
: 
: in practice, comments were the "preferred form" of representing names
: for many years after RFC 822 was published.  this was due to several
: reasons:
: 
: - there were rumors of old mailers still in use that couldn't handle a 
:   phrase before the address
: 
: - Usenet (RFC 1036) used comments, didn't support phrase, and gateways
:   between mail and news were fairly common.
: 
: - many mailers could be configured to automatically add a name as a
:   phrase but would not quote that name if it contained special 
:   characters (most notably ".") - thus mailers configured to use
:   phrase for name developed a reputation for producing badly
:   formed messages. 
: 
: - people didn't update their old sendmail.cf files, thus use of
:   comments for names remained quite common and thus seemed "normal".
:

v2.23.0 | Report a Bug | By Email