bang path

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}.
    

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)