"mhshow: invalid BASE64 encoding in --"
I'm also on a mailing list that has the same problem. And yes, it is
totally invalid MIME due to the mailing list software appending a header
to the bottom of a base64-encoded part, as everyone else has mentioned.
And yes, that mailing list software should be fixed.
I am aware of Postel's maximum, and the arguments against it. I am
actually in agreement that being strict is probably for the best in
protocol implementation, because it forces everyone to fix their broken
implementations. But unfortunately that ignores the reality that we are
facing.
I believe all MUAs other than nmh handle this fine. There isn't enough
momentum to force everyone to fix stuff like this that is broken. So
for cases like this, I think we have to make some accompdations in the
name of usability.
I'm personally not interested in writing any code at this time to fix
this (when I finally get around to re-architecturing the MIME support,
then yes). What I would PERSONALLY propose to fix this is that for the
specific case of text/plain objects (which are normally interpreted
directly by a human, as opposed to being handled by another program),
base64 decoding continues as long as possible, and if an error is
encountered then the error message is written out as part of the
text/plain content, and further base64 encoding is stopped. For any OTHER
MIME type (including things like text/html), we generate an error and
abort as we do now. I think this is reasonable behavior. I'm open to
being persuaded otherwise.
--Ken
--
nmh-workers
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