On Fri, 11 Apr 1997 00:48:46 -0400,
Lars Kellogg-Stedman <lars(_at_)bu(_dot_)edu> wrote:
On Thu, 10 Apr 1997 22:11:39 -0400 (EDT) bias(_at_)pobox(_dot_)com (Liston
Bias)
wrote:
1) I would like to automatically detect all message which have any
type attachment. I can wait to read these when I return.
For MIME attachments, I guess you could look for the
Content-Type: MULTIPART...header, which identifies a multipart
message (which *may* be a message with an attachment):
There's also multipart/alternative, which e.g. NeXTmail transmits --
there's the message in text-only, followed by a rendering in some
richtext scheme. In these cases, though, you probably want to ditch
the "alternative" (HTML, RTF, whatever) version if you are using
normal mail.
Another issue altogether is the wording about "ALL messages which have
ANY type [of] attachment". Where exactly do you draw the line? Sure,
it would be nice to catch everything that contains uuencode, xxencode,
Macintosh BinHex, DOS debug scripts ... Well, you get the picture.
Also note that it's perfectly valid for a MIME message to consist
solely of an encoded body part, i.e. you could receive a MIME message
which is not "multipart" but only one part, only the part is some sort
of base64 porridge or whatever.
Finally, the world of MIME formats is growing all the time. Take a
look at the listing in the comp.mail.mime FAQ and try to make an
estimate of how many of those are messages you might want to forward
under some circumstances. (This is +not+ easy.)
Personally, I might set up a separate address altogether and use a
vacation type script at my normal address which asks correspondents to
submit urgent matters to the "mobile" address when I'm away.
Hope this helps,
/* era */
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