bang path

2 definitions found

bang path - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  bang path
  
     1. <communications> An old-style UUCP electronic-mail address
      naming a sequence of hosts through which a message
     must pass to get from some assumed-reachable location to the
     addressee (a "source route").  So called because each hop
     is signified by a bang sign (exclamation mark).  Thus, for
     example, the path
  
     	...!bigsite!foovax!barbox!me
  
     directs people to route their mail to computer bigsite
     (presumably a well-known location accessible to everybody) and
     from there through the computer foovax to the account of user
     me on barbox.
  
     Before autorouting mailers became commonplace, people often
     published compound bang addresses using the   convention
     (see glob) to give paths from *several* big computers, in
     the hope that one's correspondent might be able to get mail to
     one of them reliably. e.g.
  
     	...!seismo, ut-sally, ihnp4!rice!beta!gamma!me
  
     Bang paths of 8 to 10 hops were not uncommon in 1981.
     Late-night dial-up UUCP links would cause week-long
     transmission times.  Bang paths were often selected by both
     transmission time and reliability, as messages would often get
     lost.
  
     2. <operating system> A shebang.
  
     (1998-05-06)
  

bang path - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  bang path
   n.
  
     [now historical] An old-style UUCP electronic-mail address specifying
     hops to get from some assumed-reachable location to the addressee, so
     called because each hop is signified by a bang sign. Thus, for
     example, the path ...!bigsite!foovax!barbox!me directs people to
  route
     their mail to machine bigsite (presumably a well-known location
     accessible to everybody) and from there through the machine foovax to
     the account of user me on barbox.
  
     In the bad old days of not so long ago, before autorouting mailers
     became commonplace, people often published compound bang addresses
     using the   convention (see glob) to give paths from several big
     machines, in the hopes that one's correspondent might be able to get
     mail to one of them reliably (example: ...!seismo, ut-sally, ihnp4!rice!beta!gamma!me
     ). Bang paths of 8 to 10 hops were not
     uncommon. Late-night dial-up UUCP links would cause week-long
     transmission times. Bang paths were often selected by both
     transmission time and reliability, as messages would often get lost.
     See the network and sitename.