On Tuesday, September 07, 2004 2:31 AM, Tony Finch wrote:
Secttion 7.2 recommends a use of the Resent-From: header
field in direct contradiction to RFC 2822, which describes
how those fields are currently used.
Tony.
This was discussed way back in April. See my post of 4/20/2004 at
http://www.imc.org/ietf-mxcomp/mail-archive/msg00950.html. I've
extracted the relevent portion below:
[snip]
Unfortunately, the RFC is by no means clear on this point. In fact it's
quite ambiguous.
First the RFC states that Resent- headers SHOULD be added whenever a
user "reintroduces" a message into the transport system, without clearly
defining what "reintroduces" means or how it occurs. Now presumably
under circumstances of some description, having seen a message delivered
into my inbox I can press a hypothetical 'reintroduce' button (if not,
then what are the headers for?). Having just received the message (so
the original recipient has seen final delivery), the reintroduction must
be headed for some other location; it must be a "forward" by *some*
definition of the word.
The RFC also talks about the "user" reintroducing the message without
specifying which piece of software is acting on the user's behalf. The
key point is this: if it's OK (indeed recommended) to add these headers
when a human "reintroduces" a message into the transport stream, surely
it's OK for an automated agent to do that on a user's behalf.
It boils down to the fact that the language quoted is not consistent: it
says use the headers, but not with "forwarding" (without defining the
term) yet clearly their only utility is in conjunction with forwarding
by any reasonable definition of the word.
Lastly, the RFC states that Resent- headers are not "intended" for use
in some types of forwarding, but *does not* prescribe that they MUST NOT
be used in this way.
Thus, we believe our proposed use of Resent- headers is indeed
permissible. I would further suggest, given the threat posed to email
by the spam crisis, that this would be an "opportune moment" to broaden
the "intended" use of these fields.