From:	MERC::"uunet!DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU!vmsnet-request"  8-JUN-1992 23:47:45.39
To:	mccall!vmsnet-newsgate
CC:	
Subj:	RE: mailing lists

In article <1992Jun5.121759.2097@inland.com>, allebrandi@inland.com (Tom Allebrandi) writes:
>>  in the previous version,
>> i hacked uuxqt_dcl.com (i believe), to perform a logical name translation
>> before performing the "mail/protocol" command, i.e.:
>>...
> 
> I don't see how that could ever have worked. Unless... you were also
> running VMS version 4. I've never confirmed this but I think logical name
> aliases for lists and distribution files worked in VMS 4, but stopped
> working when Digital re-worked Mail for VMS 5.
> 

It appears from a couple of comments that I should have been clearer.

There are two parts to VAX Mail - the front end user interface part,
and the back end "Callable Mail" part. There are a number of front end
programs: the one we are used to seeing when we type MAIL at the DCL
prompt (often called DCL MAIL), the DECwindows Mail Utility, and
MAIL_SERVER.

MAIL_SERVER gets invoked by DECnet transfers, and is the agent used by
inbound UUCP delivery. MAIL_SERVER is invoked by MAIL/PROTOCOL=...

Logical names for mail aliasing take one of three common forms.

	define alias1 username
	define alias2 "username1,username2"
	define alias3 "@some_distribution.file"

All three of these are handled by the common user front ends:
DECwindows and DCL Mail. Callable Mail has the capability of handling
only the first one.

MAIL_SERVER does not do any logical name processing, hence, any logical
name aliasing of addresses presented to MAIL_SERVER are subject to
whatever Callable Mail supports. Since inbound UUCP delivery is
performed via MAIL_SERVER, inbound UUCP is subject to the same rules.

Which means -- for inbound UUCP -- that you can do single username
aliasing, but not distribution list aliasing. You can modify
UUXQT_DCL.COM to  support the "alias2" form above by translating the
logical name. The UUCP Mail Handler does correctly handle multiple
addresses seperated by commas - as long as they are seperate DCL
tokens.

	"username1","username" works
	"username1,username2"  does not (With the quotes present, read on...)

If all of the addresses are local, you can leave off the quotes which would
allow

	mail/protocol=uucp_mailshr d.something 'f$trnlnm("alias2")'

to work as you expect.

Form three, distribution list files, are not supprtable without a lot
of work in the current configuration. You would have to read the file
yourself and do something to get the addresses presented to
MAIL_SERVER. You could either do a loop in UUXQT_DCL or create a
logical name out of the entries and then do the form two trick. The
latter method requires that you be sensitive to the 255 character
equivalance value length restriction.

When most people ask about distirbution lists, they are talking about
using list files because of the number of entries. That's what I was
really responding to in my initial reply.

Sorry for any confusion.

--- Tom
Tom Allebrandi             | Mail guru   - DECUS UUCP Development Team
Inland Steel Research Labs | Chairperson - VMSnet Working Group, DECUS VAX SIG
East Chicago, IN           | Internet:  allebrandi@inland.com
219 399 6306               | UUCP:      ...!uunet!inland!allebrandi
                           | DECUServe: allebrandi