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A question about Message-ID+References

2005-02-27 13:21:33
Greetings, 

I have a question about the Message-ID, References, and 
In-Reply-To: headers.  Although this may not directly 
relate to SPF, it is an unfortunate example of how message 
headers may change in transit.  

From reading RFC2822, I understand how the syntax and value 
of a msg-id is governed by the ABNF semantics, 

This would be a valid header in the initial message, 

        Message-ID: 
<a06110403be36e65087ef(_at_)[209(_dot_)86(_dot_)7(_dot_)86]> 

These headers would be valid as part of one reply, 

        In-Reply-To: 
<a06110403be36e65087ef(_at_)[209(_dot_)86(_dot_)7(_dot_)86]>
        References: <a06110403be36e65087ef(_at_)[209(_dot_)86(_dot_)7(_dot_)86]>

These headers would also be valid as part of another reply, 

        In-Reply-To: 
<42117B3E(_dot_)3070106(_at_)sitka(_dot_)engin(_dot_)umich(_dot_)edu>
        References: <a06110403be36e65087ef(_at_)209(_dot_)86(_dot_)7(_dot_)86> 
                    
<42117B3E(_dot_)3070106(_at_)sitka(_dot_)engin(_dot_)umich(_dot_)edu>

The examples above are from actual message traffic.  

The issue I see here (but don't understand) is that in some 
cases, the square brackets ("[" and "]") are dropped out of 
the msg-id(s) that appear in the In-Reply-To: and References: 
headers

That doesn't seem to be correct ... and it wreaks havoc on 
message threading.  

Am I correct in thinking that if the original message-id had 
square brackets in the id-right, those characters have to be 
included in every reply?  

Can anyone shed some light on this?  

Thanks for your attention and interest.  

-- 
Martin G. Diehl


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