Mailing List Archive: Probably just an RFC question...

Hi all,

I don't *think* this is a problem with QMAIL, although it might be, so maybe I
should ask this someplace else, but it seems many on this list have the RFC's on
email committed to memory, so...

I'm using Eudora Light to read email using POP, and I find it can't read
messages from the QMAIL server that I send (testing) without putting a
"From:" line after the DATA command. Looking closing between such a message
and one sent with said "From:" line, it appears that the difference is that,
in the first case, the "From:" is inserted before the last of the "Received:"
lines are done.

Actual header differences:

[Without "From:" after DATA] [With "From:" after DATA]
------------------- 8 ------------------------------------- 8 -----------------
Thu, 6 Feb 1997 10:49:11 -0 | Thu, 6 Feb 1997 10:49:29 -0
Received: (qmail 25803 invoked by ali | Received: (qmail 25819 invoked by ali
Date: 6 Feb 1997 15:46:11 -0000 | Date: 6 Feb 1997 15:46:30 -0000
Message-ID: <19970206154611.25793.qma | Message-ID: <19970206154630.25809.qma
From: ring@unsw.switch.com | Cc: recipient list not shown: ;
Cc: recipient list not shown: ; | Received: (qmail 25805 invoked from n
Received: (qmail 25789 invoked from n | Received: from unsw.switch.com (192.6
Received: from unsw.switch.com (192.6 | by proxy2-new.switch.com with SMTP;
by proxy2-new.switch.com with SMTP; | From: ring@unsw.switch.com

I note that if I use my Sendmail host as with example #1, the "From:" statement
is inserted after the last of the "Received:" lines, also, and I can also read
it with Eudora Light.

So, it seems that Eudora Light chokes if it sees a "Received:" line occur after
the "From:" line. So the question is if such a message is RFC legal. If it
is, it's a problem with Eudora Light; if not, it's QMAIL's (or my setup of it)
that's at fault.

-------------------------
John C. Ring, Jr.
jcring@switch.com
Network Specialist
Union Switch & Signal Inc.

-------------------------
John C. Ring, Jr.
jcring@switch.com
Network Specialist
Union Switch & Signal Inc.

At 11:20 AM 2/6/97 -0500, John C. Ring, Jr. wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I don't *think* this is a problem with QMAIL, although it might be, so maybe I
>should ask this someplace else, but it seems many on this list have the RFC's on
>email committed to memory, so...
>
>I'm using Eudora Light to read email using POP, and I find it can't read
>messages from the QMAIL server that I send (testing) without putting a
>"From:" line after the DATA command. Looking closing between such a message
>and one sent with said "From:" line, it appears that the difference is that,
>in the first case, the "From:" is inserted before the last of the "Received:"
>lines are done.
>
>Actual header differences:
>
> [Without "From:" after DATA] [With "From:" after DATA]
>------------------- 8 ------------------------------------- 8 -----------------
> Thu, 6 Feb 1997 10:49:11 -0 | Thu, 6 Feb 1997 10:49:29 -0
>Received: (qmail 25803 invoked by ali | Received: (qmail 25819 invoked by ali
>Date: 6 Feb 1997 15:46:11 -0000 | Date: 6 Feb 1997 15:46:30 -0000
>Message-ID: <19970206154611.25793.qma | Message-ID: <19970206154630.25809.qma
>From: ring@unsw.switch.com | Cc: recipient list not shown: ;
>Cc: recipient list not shown: ; | Received: (qmail 25805 invoked from n
>Received: (qmail 25789 invoked from n | Received: from unsw.switch.com (192.6
>Received: from unsw.switch.com (192.6 | by proxy2-new.switch.com with SMTP;
> by proxy2-new.switch.com with SMTP; | From: ring@unsw.switch.com
>
>So, it seems that Eudora Light chokes if it sees a "Received:" line occur after
>the "From:" line. So the question is if such a message is RFC legal. If it
>is, it's a problem with Eudora Light; if not, it's QMAIL's (or my setup of it)
>that's at fault.

Looking at RFC822, I found:

4. MESSAGE SPECIFICATION

4.1. SYNTAX

Note: Due to an artifact of the notational conventions, the syn-
tax indicates that, when present, some fields, must be in
a particular order. Header fields are NOT required to
occur in any particular order, except that the message
body must occur AFTER the headers. It is recommended
that, if present, headers be sent in the order "Return-
Path", "Received", "Date", "From", "Subject", "Sender",
"To", "cc", etc.

Of course, the "From" being put *between* different "Received" fields
certainly doesn't meet what the RFC recommends.

So, unless there's something I'm missing, it's Eudora Light's problem,
although it's shows yet another point where, unfortunately, people writing
software wrote as if Sendmail=SMTP email=RFCs and/or presume an RFC
recommendation will alway be followed...

Anyone know who to bug about Eudora Light :)

P.S. Yes, I know I'm answering (correctly, I hope) my own question!
-------------------------
John C. Ring, Jr.
jcring@switch.com
Network Specialist
Union Switch & Signal Inc.