[ On Fri, January 3, 1997 at 17:01:50 (-0500), Brian Reichert wrote: ]
> Subject: ampersand in GECOS field
>
> A behavior I've noted with other MTAs is to treat ampersands in
> the GECOS field as magic. By magic, I mean that it it replaced
> with the username field, with a first character in uppercase.
I don't think this feature is formally defined in any standard relating
to e-mail, but it is a "necessary" feature for BSD systems which support
it as a documented feature.
For example from the passwd(5) manual page on SunOS-4:
gcos-field is the user's real name, along with informa-
tion to pass along in a mail-message heading.
It is called the gcos-field for historical
reasons. A & in this field stands for the
login name (in cases where the login name ap-
pears in a user's real name).
--
Greg A. Woods
+1 416 443-1734 VE3TCP robohack!woods
Planix, Inc. <woods@???>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@???>
