PMDF System Manager's Guide

The only solution to the problem of @DIS mailing list addresses expanding into the To: or other header is to stop using VMS MAIL @DIS distribution lists or @DIS style addresses within PMDF MAIL.

PMDF has absolutely no control over the expansion of VMS MAIL @DIS mailing lists. The expansion is done, and necessarily so, by VMS MAIL. It cannot work any other way: VMS MAIL must look at each address from the list, determine if it is a pure MAIL-11 address, a DECnet MAIL-11 address, or an address involving a foreign protocol interface, and dispatch it accordingly. PMDF is handed, one address at a time, those addresses from the list which are intended for PMDF. (Any addresses that are not intended for PMDF, VMS MAIL does not even tell PMDF about; see Section 35.4.13.) PMDF does not know that a mailing list was used. While PMDF is passed a pure text string containing the exact (original) To: address presented by the user (e.g., @STAFF.DIS), the context under which to evaluate that string does not exist. It can have been entered on a remote DECnet node in which case any incomplete file specifications cannot be resolved, and similarly for addresses effected through process logical names. Moreover, the string is just plain text and there are no assurances that it contains anything meaningful (e.g., TM%"bob\[123,456]").

To prevent @DIS mailing lists from being expanded into the message headers, stop using @DIS style addresses and begin using PMDF's mailing list facilities. See Section 4.1 for information on creating system-wide mailing lists. Direct your users to the OpenVMS Edition of the PMDF User's Guide for information on setting up their own mailing lists.