On Fri, 18 Jul 1997, Steve Hole wrote:
Making sure that this is consistent between the DRUMS (correct!)
definition and SIEVE is very important. User's will regularly use the
definition that best fits their need of the moment and try to argue the
point of what a forward truly is. SIEVE must define it's operation as
a "resend" operation, not a DRUMS "forward" operation. The name of the
operation should reflect exactly what it does.
The real problem here is that there are two operations called "forward"
which are distinct from the "resend" operation.
There is an "MTA forward" -- which simply alters the envelope recipients
with no changes to the message. This is what the Sieve draft is referring
to and this is what a ~/.forward file does on Unix. Think of this as what
happens when you tell the post office to "forward" your snail mail.
There is an "MUA forward" -- which is the forward operation provided by
MUAs. This is the one where new recipients are entered, new text is
added, and the old message is enclosed (as message/rfc822). Think of this
as what happens when you take a message out of the envelope, add a cover
letter and drop it in a new envelope.
Then there is "Resend" -- an MUA action which doesn't alter the message
body, but adds new Resent-* headers and creates a new envelope.
The key point, IMHO, is that MTAs don't add Resent-* headers, and Sieve
is run by an MTA.
- Chris