e-mail return paths, mmdf?

[David Fiander]

In article <26211 at adm.brl.mil> ddavis at aeha1.apgea.army.mil ( dave davis) writes:
...
>queries.  The problem we are seeing is that mmdf (I think) can not send a
>response back to the users.  I was under (the possibly erroneous) impression
>that if a message sent from site A can be received at a site B, then a
>response could be sent from B to A using the return path.  Is this the
>case?  If so, are there any limitations to the length of the return path?
>(i.e., if the application needs to store the return path and be reasonably
>sure to cover the 'worst case,' what length path is needed?)  Do some
>versions of MMDF handle this better than others?

First of all, it is not the case that a mail path is necessarily
bidirectional.  Replies to a particular mail message may have to take a
different path from the return path to get to the originator.

Secondly, MMDF can only attempt to deliver to the address it is given by
your application (mentioned in deleted text).  How are you determining
the return address to send?  Youi may not want to use the "envelope"
address, but the "From:" header address, since the envelope could be an
address which processes error responses only.

David J. Fiander
SCO MMDF Development Team
SCO Canada, Inc.