Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!smsc.sony.com!dce
From: dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Format of mail file in /usr/ucb/mail?
Message-ID: <1991Feb20.171440.12059@smsc.sony.com>
Date: 20 Feb 91 17:14:40 GMT
References: <12372@darkstar.ucsc.edu> <1991Feb15.023018.960@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Sender: dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott)
Reply-To: dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott)
Organization: Sony Microsystems, San Jose, CA
Lines: 37


In article <1991Feb15.023018.960@mp.cs.niu.edu>, rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
|>  I don't know where it is documented.  But my experience show the following:
|> 
|> It consists of a sequence of messages.
|> 
|> Each message begins:
|> 
|> 	From sender date_and_time

In System V release 4, there is an addition that is important for
people to know about, especially if software being developed is to
be compatible.

In BSD, lines beginning with "From " have the character '>' prepended
to them so they don't look like the beginning of a new message (this
may only happen after a blank line -- I'm not absolutely sure).

In SVR4, two new headers exist: Content-Type and Content-Length.  The
former is used to indicate whether the contents of the mail message
is text, general binary, or some specific format binary data.  The
latter is used to indicate the length of the message body.  Because of
this information, lines beginning with "From " are not modified.

Many existing mail systems don't handle this situation.  I have
modified MH and my own mail browser to handle this, and at least one
person has made modifications to GNU Emacs to handle this.

I'm sure some people will disagree with this change to the mail
message format, but my purpose here is to inform, not to argue a
case.

--
...David Elliott
...dce@smsc.sony.com | ...!{uunet,mips}!sonyusa!dce
...(408)944-4073
..."His lower lip waved poutily with defiance..."