Probably Eric will find some very kind words because he loves it
to discuss uucp related mixed-case address problems :-)  Anyway ...
 
Some days ago Mike Whitt <VMSP@NCSUVM> wrote about a rejected
mail file. From his Listserv console log:
() 1 Sep 1987 12:03:16 From [log in to unmask]: L
() IST DETAILED
() 1 Sep 1987 12:03:27 Sent mailfile "NCSUVM LISTS" to SPAR!ASCWAY.UUCP!HDS.SINE
() [log in to unmask]
and from the rejected mail file:
() bad system name: SPAR
() uux failed. code 68
() 550 <[log in to unmask]>... Host unknown
() and Eric replied:
()   Well as  far as I can  see LISTSERV was right  to call it a  rejection mail
() wasn't it? Or did you mean why did the gateway reject it? This is a question
have no answer for :-)
 
Maybe the name of the host is "spar" and not "SPAR". I would expect
that Listserv preserves the case of the address in addresses like
[log in to unmask], but I don't know which version of Listserv
is running at NCSUVM, and which commands are not supported in this
way under that particular version of Listserv.
 
BTW, the problem is not the case sensitive addressing on the UUCP
network, the problem are some gateways and hosts. Our own gateway
e.g. is able to translate an upper case address back to lower
case when necessary (I'm sure, Eric will never believe that a Unix-box
can perform such a complicated task :-) , but I'm pretty sure that
we have some machines here which wouldn't recognize themselves
if addressed in upper case.
 
But even assuming that addresses like [log in to unmask] are
handled correctly by the current version of Listserv, I still
have some problems. I think the criteria for case sensitive
handling are weak or inconsistent. A subscription from a user
on a local Unix machine will be seen by Listserv as coming from:
  user%localhost.UUCP@tub
tub is the gateway and is both on UUCP and on BITNET. Listserv
converts this address to upper case. The user will be able to
receive mail (because our gateway can handle the upper case
address, and so can the local host to find the right user).
But the user can't send a QUERY command (Listserv compares
the incoming lower case address which doesn't match the upper case
address entered into the list). The UNSUBSCRIBE command on the
other hand will find him on the list.
 
And so I have two wishes:
 
- the "case sensitivity detector" should be extended to preserve
  the mixed case if anywhere in the address string ".uucp" shows
  up.
- All commands should do address comparsions after uppercasing
  both addresses.
 
  Thomas
§ Thomas Habernoll    LSTSRV-L@DB0TUI11    9/04/87 Case sensitive addresses (for