"Graham" == Graham Murray "Re: Resent-*"
Sat, 25 Sep 2004 07:57:45 +0100
Graham> Frank Ellermann <nobody(_at_)xyzzy(_dot_)claranet(_dot_)de> writes:
>> Bouncing MUAs, shudder. Is that a pre-MIME MUA, or do you know
>> why it doesn't use message/rfc822 ? I'm just curious, because
>> I've never seen a Resent-* message.
Graham> I cannot speak for Pine, but gnus also allows resending
Graham> which will insert Resent-* headers. It also (and more
Graham> commonly) allows the forwarding as a message/rfc822 MIME
Graham> attachment. The difference is that when forwarding you are
Graham> creating a new message, which is shown as coming from you,
Graham> and can add your own text, or other MIME parts. When
Graham> resending, the message is sent unaltered (apart from the
Graham> addition of Resent-* headers) and the (forwarded to)
Graham> recipient sees the message as coming from the original
Graham> sender.
Graham> From the point of view of the recipient of the
Graham> forwarded/resent message, any reply to the forwarded
Graham> message will go to the forwarder but a reply to the resent
Graham> message goes to the original sender.
Graham> Thinking of it in terms of 'snail' mail. Using forwarding
Graham> as a message/rfc822 attachment is like receving a letter,
Graham> opening it, writing a covering note (something like, "I
Graham> think you might be interested in this", or "this was sent
Graham> to me by mistake") and enclosing the contents of the
Graham> original letter and the covering note in a new
Graham> envelope. Using the 'Resend' is like crossing out the
Graham> address on the envelope, writing the correction and
Graham> putting it back in the mail without opening the
Graham> envelope. (I know that this analogy is not quite right as
Graham> the original recipient of the email can see inside the
Graham> "envelope" before redirecting it)
Excellent explanation.
For years I have had a policy of PGP signing all my outgoing mail with
only trivial and clearly delineated exceptions. When I "bounce" a
mail to someone else without change, Gnus (and other MUAs I have used,
such as for example MH) adds resent header fields as per rfc2822 but
the Message-Id is unchanged and I do not sign the message. Had the
original author signed the entire body of the mail, my "bouncing" the
mail, or, more accurately, my _resending_ the mail would not modify
the signature nor the signed material. When I modify the message body
in any way I sign it and the message gets, among other things, a new
Message ID. I believe this to have been a respectable practice since
early on, and apart from signing, from long before PGP.
Resending, or "Bouncing", is, IMHO, indispensable.
jam