procmail
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: formail -ds or -s

1996-08-04 14:58:01
David W. Tamkin <dattier(_at_)wwa(_dot_)com> wrote:
|        -m minfields
|             Allows  you  to  specify  the  number  of consecutive
|             fields formail needs to find  before  it  decides  it
|             found the start of a new message, it defaults to 2.

I always wondered about -m.  I didn't know whether it set (1) how many lines
that look like headers it takes for formail -ds to decide another article is
starting or (2) how many fields of a From_ line are needed for formail -s to
decide that a line beginning with "From " truly marks the start of another
message.

Stephen, if the man page spoke of "records" there or of "headers" instead of
"fields", or if it specifically stated that -m relates to the -d facility,
that would be clearer.  Please consider rephrasing it.

Well, I could substitute "headerfields" for "fields".  Substituting "headers"
would be incorrect.  In RFC822 terminology, there is only one header,
there is only one body, and there are several headerfields (in that 
one header).

| >I don't think digests come with built-in "Content-Length:" headers.

| If the digest generator is MIME compatible, it would contain
| Content-Length fields (e.g. a SmartList managed mailinglist).

      -d   Tell  formail  that  the  messages  it is supposed to

           mailbox formats).  This disables recognition  of  the
           Content-Length: field.  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
So if a digest article contains another piece of mail with unindented
headers, a Content-Length: header at the beginning of the article won't
help.

Indeed.  Forgot about that.  That's why there are man pages :-).
The only recourse would be to teach formail a bit more of
MIME (or use a real MIME-tool to split the digests).
-- 
Sincerely,                                                          
srb(_at_)cuci(_dot_)nl
           Stephen R. van den Berg (AKA BuGless).

"<Clarions sounding> *No one* expects the Spanish inquisition!"

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>