From bal@GABRIELLE.AI.MIT.EDU Tue Jan 12 13:23:15 1988
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 88 23:49:06 est
From: bal@GABRIELLE.AI.MIT.EDU (Brian A. LaMacchia)
To: amdehon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Cc: monkey@ATHENA.MIT.EDU, kerr@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject: ~/.mailrc
Reply-To: balamac@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Address: MacGregor E121, 450 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: (617) 225-9210

Here's your problem.  In lisp/mailalias.el:

(defun define-mail-alias (name definition)
  "Define NAME as a mail-alias that translates to DEFINITION."
  (interactive "sDefine mail alias: \nsDefine %s as mail alias for: ")
  ;; Read the defaults first, if we have not done so.
  (if (eq mail-aliases t)
      (progn
	(setq mail-aliases nil)
	(if (file-exists-p "~/.mailrc")
	    (build-mail-aliases))))
  (let (tem)
;;;
;;; **** NOTE THE NOTE ****
;;;
    ;; ~/.mailrc contains addresses separated by spaces.	
    ;; mailers should expect addresses separated by commas.
    (while (setq tem (string-match "[^ \t,][ \t,]+" definition tem))
      (if (= (match-end 0) (length definition))
	  (setq definition (substring definition 0 (1+ tem)))
	(setq definition (concat (substring definition
					    0 (1+ tem))
				 ", "
				 (substring definition
					    (setq tem (match-end 0)))))))
    (setq tem (assoc name mail-aliases))
    (if tem
	(rplacd tem definition)
      (setq mail-aliases (cons (cons name definition) mail-aliases)))))


What we probably need to do here is define some enclosing structure
(suce as putting the alias in parens) to indicate that "the enclosed
text is one address".  I'll need to take a look at the format you want
to use in ~/.mailrc, then we can come up with an appropriate regexp.

					--Brian