The addressing model that IMTA deals with assumes that all systems are aware of the addresses of all other systems and how to get to them. Unfortunately, this ideal is not possible in all cases, such as, when a channel connects to one or more systems that are not known to the rest of the world (for example, internal machines on a private TCP/IP network). Addresses for systems on this channel may not be legal on remote systems outside of the site. If it is desirable to be able to reply to such addresses, they must contain a source route that tells remote systems to route messages through the local machine. The local machine can then (automatically) route the messages to these machines.
The exproute keyword (short for "explicit routing") tells IMTA that the associated channel requires explicit routing when its addresses are passed on to remote systems. If this keyword is specified on a channel, IMTA adds routing information containing the name of the local system (or the current alias for the local system) to all header addresses and all envelope From: addresses that match the channel. noexproute, the default, specifies that no routing information should be added.
The EXPROUTE_FORWARD option can be used to restrict the action of exproute to backward-pointing addresses, if desired. Another scenario occurs when IMTA connects to a system via a channel that cannot perform proper routing for itself. In this case, all addresses associated with other channels need to have routing inserted into them when they are used in mail sent to the channel that connects to the incapable system.
Implicit routing and the improute keyword is used to handle this situation. IMTA knows that all addresses matching other channels need routing when they are used in mail sent to a channel marked improute. noimproute, the default, specifies that no routing information should be added to addresses in messages going out on the specified channel. The IMPROUTE_FORWARD option can be used to restrict the action of improute to backward-pointing addresses, if desired.
The exproute and improute keywords should be used sparingly. It makes addresses longer, more complex, and may defeat intelligent routing schemes used by other systems. Explicit and implicit routing should not be confused with specified routes. Specified routes are used to insert routing information from rewrite rules into addresses. This is activated by the special A@B@C rewrite rule template.
Specified routes, when activated, apply to all addresses, both in the header and the envelope. Specified routes are activated by particular rewrite rules and as such are usually independent of the channel currently in use. Explicit and implicit routing, on the other hand, are controlled on a per-channel basis and the route address inserted is always the local system.