lost headers

[Erik Bixby]

RFCs aside, wouldn't something changing the message two users are
sending two each be considered a bug?  Funny characters, and all...
-Erik

On 8/4/05, Technomage <technomage-hawke at cox.net> wrote:
> : this is a test header
> : this is not an actual header
> : if this had been a real header, you would have been instructed
> : on what to do with them.
> 
> 
> ok. this is new to me.
> 
> so, if I were to place a number of lines above that started with a ":"
> followed by a comment, some clients would interpret that as header info?
> 
> btw, this e-mail is also a test.....
> 
> On Thursday 04 August 2005 02:21, Joseph Sinclair wrote:
> > I'm not missing anything, the information is just hidden from view.
> > The first few lines (the ones with ":" characters) are being *properly*
> > interpreted by Thunderbird as header lines, and those don't show unless I
> > do a view source.
> >
> > The "tool" that's compressing out the blank lines between header fields is
> > somewhere in the SMTP cloud between you and me.  I have no idea where, and
> > no way of hunting that down.
> >
> > BTW Section 4.2 of RFC 2822 on the IETF web site states:
> >     In the obsolete syntax, any amount of folding white space MAY be
> >     inserted where the obs-FWS rule is allowed.  This creates the
> >     possibility of having two consecutive "folds" in a line, and
> >     therefore the possibility that a line which makes up a folded header
> >     field could be composed entirely of white space.
> >
> > The EBNF in the spec states that a line with nothing but whitespace (i.e.
> > tab or space) is allowed on input (compliant software should NEVER generate
> > such a header), but a lot of older MTA's interpret that as "Blank Lines Are
> > Allowed" on incoming messages. I know that's not perfect behavior, but
> > speaking as someone who worked on MTA's about 15 years ago when the
> > standing spec was RFC 822, a LOT of MTA's allowed completely blank lines,
> > and a lot of other MTA's would remove those extra "fold" lines as a way of
> > reducing message size without harming the content.  There are still a lot
> > of MTA's out there that follow this, admittedly obsolete, reasoning, but
> > there's also very little I can do to fix it, since I don't know which
> > servers they are, and I couldn't do much about obsolete proprietary
> > software even if I did.
> >
> > The point of all this is that it's a simple fix to just DON'T PUT LINES
> > WITH ":" CHARACTERS IN THE FIRST LINE OF YOUR MESSAGE. Is it that hard to
> > just accept that there are bad MTA's out there and take simple steps to
> > avoid having them munge your message?
> >
> > I'm not asking you to do something terribly hard here, just to be a little
> > more considerate when you put links in a message by prefacing them with
> > something simple, like a line stating what the link is for.  It's not hard,
> > and we're all used to doing simple things like this to work around flaws in
> > widely used, but flawed, proprietary software (like IE).
> >
> > ==Joseph++
> >
> > Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
> > > On Wed, 3 Aug 2005, Joseph Sinclair wrote:
> > >> The User Agent isn't the only actor here.  The intervening mail
> > >> servers are permitted to interpret the headers of the message as
> > >> provided under section 4.2 of RFC 2822, and they're permitted to
> > >> modify those headers to add trace information, reorder fields,,
> > >> etc...  This is what's happening for me, and probably for some other
> > >> people as well.
> > >> One of more servers between you and me (at least 7 for the message
> > >> below) is removing the blank line before your "fake" headers, and
> > >> Thunderbird sees it, properly, as part of the header block.  According
> > >> to the RFC 2822 spec, all conforming UA's SHOULD accept messages with
> > >> blank lines between headers to accommodate sending UA's that are
> > >> designed to the RFC 822 spec (which allowed this behavior).
> > >
> > > 4.2 is the wrong section (unless different rfc2822 are sectioned
> > > differently).
> > >
> > > The problem is that my two extra lines are not part of the header :)
> > >
> > > Please quote the specific section that allows putting "a line with
> > > nothing preceding the CRLF" between the real headers and more headers.
> > >
> > > I'll admit that I don't know the mail specs perfectly. But I do have
> > > experience with email message parsing: I have done POP3 server
> > > development for around six years and have maintained vm-pop3d for over
> > > four years; taught mail server administration for over four years; and I
> > > have read a lot of exim, postfix and sendmail MTA code and mail.local
> > > MDA code (and other SMTP mailers) and wrote and use "mailout" SMTP-out
> > > sendmail replacement.
> > >
> > >> Note, the replied messages below are NOT modified in any way, and your
> > >> "fake" headers are not shown.  I don't just make this stuff up, and I
> > >> rather resent your implication that I did.
> > >
> > > We should track down specifically what mail *tool* lost my important :)
> > > email message. I agree with Kurt: it's a bug that needs to be reported.
> > >
> > > Please see
> > > http://lists.plug.phoenix.az.us/lurker/message/20050804.005401.9719e855.e
> > >n.html
> > >
> > > and
> > > http://lists.plug.phoenix.az.us/lurker/message/20050804.013243.964e82c1.e
> > >n.html
> > >
> > >
> > > Does anyone know where the lines were lost?
> > >
> > > I am interested in solving this. Other readers: please let me know if my
> > > two lines were missing for you.
> > >
> > >  Jeremy C. Reed
> > >
> > >                  BSD News, BSD tutorials, BSD links
> > >                 http://www.bsdnewsletter.com/
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