On Tue, 11 Apr 2006, Philip Hazel wrote:
> From: Philip Hazel <ph10@???>
> To: exim-users@???, exim-dev@???
> Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 14:39:41 +0100 (BST)
> Subject: [exim] Question for old-timers: mailbox sorting
> Reply-To: exim-users@???
>
> I have been asked for evidence of when local part suffixes were
> first used for sorting messages into different folders (for a
> patent issue).
As this is a patent issue, I guess that it isn't software specific.
> Do any old-timers on this list have any Exim sources or
> documentation from release 0.54 or earlier? Or evidence of the
> use of local part suffixes for message sorting from 1996 or
> earlier? If so, please get in touch.
This facility was available in the MMDF mail system. I believe this
dates from the mid 1980's.
The man page for MMDF's .maildelivery file includes a good
description of the use of local part suffixes:
MMDF treats local addresses which contain an equal sign (=)
in a special manner. Everything in a local address from an
equal sign to the at sign (@) is ignored and passed on to
the local channel. The local channel will make the entire
string available for matching against the addr string of the
.maildelivery file. For example, if you were to subscribe
to a digest as "foo=digest@???", submit and the local
channel will verify that it is legal to deliver to "foo",
but then the entire string "foo=digest" will be available
for string matching against the .maildelivery file for the
addr field.
You could easily use this MMDF facility for delivery into folders.
Source for MMDF is still available from:
ftp://www.mathematik.uni-kl.de/pub/Sources/mail+news/mmdf/
The user's .maildelivery file is handled in:
src/local/lo_wtmail.c
Comments at the start of the file indicate the author as:
* Julian Onions <jpo@???> August 1985
although I've no idea of the accuracy of this comment.
Certainly a far more ambitious development of MMDF didn't include
this specific facility. Documentation dating from 1991[1] includes
the statement:
PP does not support the MMDF syntax that allows users to give an
address as user=string@???.
[1] Stephen E Kille, "implementing X.400 and X.500: The PP and QUIPU
Systems", 1991, Artech House Inc, ISBN 0-89006-564-0
--
Dennis Davis, BUCS, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK
D.H.Davis@??? Phone: +44 1225 386101
