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Re: Re: Resent-*

2004-09-25 11:30:25

I note that this all confirms that use of Resent- headers as originally 
invisioned by marid-core drafts is incorrect as these headers are more 
appropriate for use in manual MUA level resending of the message then
for automated MTA forwarding. This is basicly what Pete Resnick said 
during the beginning of the Monday's jabber session.

On Sat, 25 Sep 2004, John A. Martin wrote:

"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

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