
README -- MMDFII, Release B (beta), April 22nd, 1986

*****************************************************************************
* This is a beta release of MMDFIIb.  We believe it is quite stable or we   *
* would not have put it out with 4.3 but users should still be aware that   *
* it is beta-test.  The most critical error(s) are listed at the end of     *
* this file.                                                                *
*****************************************************************************

The first thing you should do is look at the administrators guide
in doc/administrators.  There is a makefile there to make an nroff
or troff version of "Installing and Operating MMDFII".  Read it.

For a current status report on MMDFII, including information on
how to get an up-to-date buglist and updates to the 4.3 distribution,
you should mail a request to the CSNET Info Server (info@sh.cs.net).
Simply cut out the following text and mail it to info@sh.cs.net for
the current status.

------cut-here------
request: mmdf
topic: status
request: end
-----cut-here-------

You should also join the MMDFII mailing list.  The list
is mmdf2@relay.cs.net.  Send requests to join/drop/etc to
mmdf2-request@relay.cs.net.  DO NOT CALL BERKELEY with MMDF2
questions.  Send bug reports to mmdf2-bugs@relay.cs.net.

Thanks and much credit is due to Doug Kingston, Phil Cockcroft,
Steve Kille, Howard Walter, and others who put in considerable time
and effort into this release.

Dan Long
Craig Partridge
CSNET Coordination and Information Center (BBN Laboratories)
cic@sh.cs.net

--------------------------

Comments and Bug list:

1.  The program channel is new and has not been widely used.  Expect
portability problems.

2.   4.2 and 4.3 sites should be aware that MMDFII is a complete mail
system, and as such, replaces sendmail et. al.  As a result you no
longer need the following files:

    /usr/lib/sendmail.*
    /usr/ucb/newaliases
    /etc/aliases
    /etc/delivermail
    /etc/comsat
    /usr/ucb/biff
    /usr/ucb/mailq

The following programs are replaced by MMDFII (you may want to save them)

    /bin/rmail
    /bin/mail
    /usr/lib/sendmail		MMDFII has a fake sendmail that fools
				most applications

    /usr/ucb/Mail		There are MMDFII versions that work
    /usr/ucb/mail		with MMDFII.   Most people seem to prefer
				to use MMDFII's own user interface (msg/send)
				or MH (6.4 or later).

3.  Internet sites which want to interact with nameservers and use MX
RR's should make sure that NAMESERVER is defined in Makefile.com.

4.  There are lot of bugs.  Many of them are so minor they have been
around since the early days of MMDFIIa and no one has bothered to fix them.
The most critical ones are:

    -  dotted quads aren't parsed properly.  As a result we
    don't put them into return addresses.  This occasionally
    means a user may get a message with a return address
    that he/she can't reply to.

    - the routines controlling timeouts may not be quite in
    sync with the BIND resolver routines distributed with 4.3.
    As a result, timeouts and delays may be slightly off.  This
    sometimes has unfortunate performance implications.  (A fix
    for this is expected shortly).

