# phpBB importer fails to import anonymous users differing only by letter case

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/phpbb-importer-fails-to-import-anonymous-users-differing-only-by-letter-case/47083>\
**Category:** Bug\
**Created:** [Juillet 11, 2016, 11:01 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/phpbb-importer-fails-to-import-anonymous-users-differing-only-by-letter-case/47083 "2016-07-11T11:01:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![elijah](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/elijah/32/104055_2.png) [@elijah](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elijah)\
**Post date:** [Juillet 11, 2016, 11:31 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/phpbb-importer-fails-to-import-anonymous-users-differing-only-by-letter-case/47083/5 "2016-07-11T23:31:39Z")

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> [@palant](#):
>
> Trouble is, the generated email address violates uniqueness requirements which treat email addresses as case-insensitive

Well that’s wrong. Hostnames are case-insensitive, but usernames in email should be case-sensitive.

> **[RFC 5321: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5321)**
>
> This document is a specification of the basic protocol for Internet electronic mail transport. It consolidates, updates, and clarifies several previous documents, making all or parts of most of them obsolete. It covers the SMTP extension mechanisms...

> An address normally consists of user and domain specifications. The  
> standard mailbox naming convention is defined to be  
> “local-part@domain”; contemporary usage permits a much broader set of  
> applications than simple “user names”. Consequently, and due to a  
> long history of problems when intermediate hosts have attempted to  
> optimize transport by modifying them, the local-part MUST be  
> interpreted and assigned semantics only by the host specified in the  
> domain part of the address.

Key point: **the local-part MUST be interpreted and assigned semantics only by the host specified** , which means you are not allowed to make any assumptions (like case sensitivity) about it.

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