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From: Vshank%Weizmann.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA (Henry Nussbacher)
Newsgroups: net.mail.headers
Subject: Need for new field in RFC and MHS standards
Message-ID: <423@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 9-Dec-85 10:47:42 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.423
Posted: Mon Dec  9 10:47:42 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Dec-85 03:54:20 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Lines: 62

Does a field exist in the MHS specification to specify whether a program
has created the mail?

Allow me to give an example:  More and more programs (call it server
machines or deamons or whathaveyou) are learning to process RFC822
(RFC920) mail and to perform some function for the user (Database
search, batch FTP request, auto-reply, gateways, etc.).

Another feature becoming more common is for mail systems to return
bounced mail to the original user for various reasons (userid no
longer valid, disk quota used up, unable to connect to host, etc.)
We have all seen these bounced mail files.  We read them and can
discern right away that the mail arrived via program generation and
not via a human being.

Scenerio:  user@Uclamvs.Bitnet sends mail to a server/deamon.  The
server/daemon processes the request and sends some output back to the
user.  For some reason the mail software at Uclamvs cannot deliver the
mail and rejects it back to the sender.  The mailer builds a From:,
To: and Subject: line in most cases and then imbeds the rejected mail
inside its own envelope.  The mail is sent back to the server/daemon
which doesn't know that the incoming mail was computer generated
and attempts a reply.  In most cases the syntax/format will not
be valid and the server/daemon will generate a piece of mail giving
some error message back to the mail system at Uclamvs.  Infinite
network loop.  Currently, I have a table built into my software; if
mail arrives with a character string of Daemon, Mailer, Mailman,
Postmast, System, Smtpuser (just to name a few of those I have
observed) then my software throws the mail into a wastebasket for
human processing at a later date.  But quite often, some new node
in some network comes online and decides to send out it's mailer
generated mail with a From: line that is foreign to my table.  Network
loop - until I spot it and add it in.

Users are starting to write programs/daemons to run on their ids
while they are away for vacation that sends out a predefined piece
of mail saying that they are on vacation until mm/dd/yy but don't
worry, your mail has been logged and will be read when they return.

What is needed is an additional field in RFC822 and a field in
MHS that indicates that the mail was computer generated rather
than human generated and therefore do not reply to it.

Example:
From: Network Mailer <mal%cornella.bitnet@Wiscvm.Wisc.Edu>
Auto: MAILER

where Auto: could be one of the following values:
      MAILER
      REPLY
      PROGRAM

or anything else people could think of.

In Kille's chapter 2.3 he discusses Non-Delivery Notification and
Prevention of Non-Delivery Notification.  If these fields are standard
X.400 then perhaps it is just the Internet that needs to come up with
a new field.

Comments encouraged.

Hank