Re: Reply-to:

["Jens B. Jorgensen" <jbj1@wfg.com>]

> Date: Wed, 7 Feb 1996 10:16:15 -0500
> From: oly@head-cfa.harvard.edu (Oliver Oberdorf)
> 
> :   >Reply-to: IS the right thing to do, IMO, since it will get
> :   >people to reply to the correct address.
> :
> :   Unfortunately your opinion is wrong, since it won't get machines to
> :   reply to the correct address.
> [...]
> :    * The `return path' is the envelope sender address.  This tends to
> :      get used for bounce messages, and therefore must point somewhere
> :      sensible.  (Consider the case of a message with no valid headers
> :      at all; a bounce must still go somewhere sane.)
> :
> :    * The From: line in the header.  This needs to be set correctly so
> :      that replies go to the right place.
> 
> Indeed?  I've had marvelous success with it for over a year
> now.  The only reference I have on hand is, unfortunately,
> the O'Rielly GNU Emacs manual, but they say this much...
> 
> p.102
> 
> "Mail messages can use a *Reply-to:* field to guarantee that
> replies will be sent to the correct place."
> 
> and later on the same page...
> 
> "If you know that you will always receive mail that's been
> sent to the addresss /george@futons.com/, you can do a lot
> to solve your problem by putting the address in the
> *Reply-to:* field of your outgoing mail"
> 
> I've also recieved bounced mail w/o difficulty, as I recall.
> Of course, I'm using sendmail so that *could* cause some
> differences.
> 
> Bottom line?  Richard's solution will work, with the one
> problem we both recognize, so you can use it.  My advice is
> free, so you can try that too and if it works, it works.
> 
> ~Oly
> oly@head-cfa.harvard.edu
> 
> 

Return-Path should not be set by the user. Read the Bat Book (O'Reilly
Sendmail book). Use either From: or Reply-To: I recommend using Reply-To:
to people because a lot of folks out there *don't* have static IPs *or*
fully-qualified hostnames *or* a DNS ADDR reverse map of a fully-qualified
hostname. Anyway I'm not going to argue this point any more. RTFM.
(The 'F' stands for "funny").

-- 
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= Jens B. Jorgensen                   | Blah. Blah blah blah, blah blah.
= Citadel Investment Group, Inc.      | Blah blah blah blah, blah blah.
= jbj1@wfg.com                        |
= jbj1@midway.uchicago.edu            |
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