On Mon, 8 Sep 1997 eelco@??? wrote:
> My alias file for the iafrica.sz domain often contains lines like:
>
> AUser: holiday@??? # Until Oct 6.
> #AUser: /var/mail/AUser
>
> In my understanding everything from the first # up to the end of the line
> should be ignored. Why not here?
Because # is a legitimate character that may appear in RFC822 addresses.
The format of an alias line, after the initial name, is a list of
comma-separated RFC822 addresses. For example
Auser: User#001@???
If you want to put comments in an alias list, you can do so by using the
RFC822 syntax for comments, e.g.
Auser: holiday@??? (Until Oct 6)
I see that the manual states that # to introduce a comment can appear
"in any white space position", which is, I agree, totally confusing.
I've looked at the code, and it does recognize # as a comment if it
appears at the start of an item, e.g. after a comma. However, I believe
this to be a bug, since an RFC822 address is perfectly entitled to start
with a #. I clearly wasn't thinking straight when I wrote the code and
that bit of documentation. Sorry about that.
I will fix both code and manual in due course (not for the immediate
next release, which is coming very soon in order to update the mailing
list address in the documents).
--
Philip Hazel University Computing Service,
ph10@??? New Museums Site, Cambridge CB2 3QG,
P.Hazel@??? England. Phone: +44 1223 334714
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