procmail
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Message split in Two

1998-11-19 12:28:40
Note: It makes sense to somehow "disarm" message headers you quote to
the list, as people's MTA:s (including mine) will mangle stuff that
looks "dangerous". One way to get past such mangling is to quote,
instead of just include, the headers.

On Thu, 19 Nov 1998 09:58:26 -0600 (CST), "Matthew G. Saroff"
<msaroff(_at_)sparc-119(_dot_)re-ro(_dot_)com> wrote:
     I just got a message sent to me.  It was a forward of another
message.  I have procmail set up to forward mail to me, and at this
account, I got it as two messages.
     On my home account, the headers and the headers of the fowarded
message look like:

From owner-staff(_at_)arisia(_dot_)org  Thu Nov 19 01:32:55 1998
Return-Path: owner-staff(_at_)arisia(_dot_)org
<...>
Reply-To: staff(_at_)arisia(_dot_)org

From Eristocracy(_at_)merrymeet(_dot_)com Wed Nov 18 20:49:22 1998
X-Sender: jon(_at_)merrymeet(_dot_)com
<...>

Because my local Sendmail has inserted wedges in some places, I'm
quoting this back the way I am seeing it. I assume the wedge in front
of the second From_ was there already when you sent this (judging from
what you write below).

(Actually, I just checked in the Rosat archive, where your own
followup was also already; I haven't received that yet on my personal
account. I believe Rosat uses MH which doesn't need to escape From_
lines -- <http://www.rosat.mpe-garching.mpg.de/mailing-lists/procmail/>
for those of you who don't have this in your bookmarks already.)

     On my forwarded account, and on my procmail backup mailbox (it
keeps a copy of the most recent 50 messages, the headers look like
this:
From owner-staff(_at_)arisia(_dot_)org  Thu Nov 19 01:32:55 1998
Return-Path: owner-staff(_at_)arisia(_dot_)org
<...>
Reply-To: staff(_at_)arisia(_dot_)org

From Eristocracy(_at_)merrymeet(_dot_)com Wed Nov 18 20:49:22 1998
X-Sender: jon(_at_)merrymeet(_dot_)com
<...>

Notice that these look identical here. I assume there was +not+ a wedge on
the second From_ in the message you sent.

     I see where the > has been deleted from the 2nd from line, and I
am assuming that this is what caused the split.

And so the explanation sort of gives itself -- the fact of the matter
is that +none+ of these had wedges to start with, but some of the
artificially intelligent systems along the way have inserted wedges
precisely because some artificially less intelligent systems tend to
break up messages if they see an unmangled From_ line.

You should probably explain the problem to the sysadmin for the site
where you have the forwarded account (or somebody who can help you
out, if you are the sysadmin :-)

Hope this helps,

/* era */

-- 
.obBotBait: It shouldn't even matter whether    <http://www.iki.fi/~era/>
I am a resident of the state of Washington. <http://members.xoom.com/procmail/>

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