[MlMt] Account addresses and address [atterns

[Bill Cole]

On 10 Feb 2018, at 4:15 (-0500), Randall Gellens wrote:

> I have both a list of frequently-used addresses and an address patter 
> in the form “*@foo\.examle\.org | *@bar\.example\.org” set for 
> several accounts.  Yet most replies have the wrong default address.  
> As a test, I tried deleting the list of explicit addresses, and 
> deleted the spaces around the pipe in the address pattern, but to no 
> avail

Those are both flawed. The pattern must be a regular expression, in 
which a leading '*' isn't meaningful, since it means 'zero or more of 
the prior character.' Also, spaces ARE meaningful in regular 
expressions, so you shouldn't have any in a pattern for an email 
address.

> 1: Is it correct to set both a list of explicit addresses and an 
> address pattern for an account?

Sure. The addresses mentioned in my signature AND OTHERS are matched by 
my combination of a list and a pattern.

> 2: Is it correct to have spaces around the pipe in the address 
> pattern?

No. I suppose it is possible that Benny cleans up the input to remove 
all spaces not inside double-quotes (address syntax has weird edge 
cases...) but I doubt that. A major advantage to using regular 
expressions instead of a simpler pattern syntax is that thee is a lot of 
mature free code

> 3: Is it correct to have a space after the comma in the explicit 
> address list?

Works for me. I don't know if it is required.

> 4: Is the default reply address determined on message reception or 
> reply generation?

Yes. :)

Benny has explained the heuristics involved in picking a sender here 
before, but I'm almost certain to get it wrong if I try to explain it 
myself.

> 5: is a pattern of the form “*@domain” acceptable?

No, but '.*@domain' is. '*' always has to refer to something before it.

-- 
Bill Cole
bill at scconsult.com or billcole at apache.org
(AKA @grumpybozo and many *@billmail.scconsult.com addresses)
Currently Seeking Steady Work: https://linkedin.com/in/billcole