[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Mail delivery question
Hal Finney says:
> Now, my question is, when this mail is delivered to the Unix system which
> I use, how does the local software know to deliver it to hfinney? My name
> does not seem to appear in the header at all. In particular, the "To:"
> address is not [email protected], as I would have expected, but rather
> [email protected].
All mail has two sets of "To" addresses. There is the ENVELOPE
address, which you do not see, and the HEADER address, which is mere
window dressing. I could have the headers say "To: That Lousy Schmuck"
and the mail would still arrive. The envelope and header addresses
have to be kept seperated for all sorts of very sound reasons that I
could explain happily in private mail. The envelope address is passed
around using the "RCPT" command in SMTP and is never contained in the
mail message itself.
Perry