Xref: utzoo comp.bugs.4bsd:1130 comp.mail.headers:433 comp.sys.sequent:106 comp.unix.wizards:13349 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcmi!hdr!unocss!fritz From: fritz@unocss.UUCP (Tim Russell) Newsgroups: comp.bugs.4bsd,comp.mail.headers,comp.sys.sequent,comp.unix.wizards Subject: BSD 4.2 Mail not RFC822-compliant? Keywords: bsd mail rfc822 Message-ID: <555@unocss.UUCP> Date: 9 Dec 88 01:55:36 GMT Organization: U. of Nebraska at Omaha Lines: 76 Hi all, I recently acquired the MM mailer that Columbia has ported to Unix (it's in beta-test), and discovered a bug, for lack of a better word, in the Berkeley mail program. First off, let me set things up: this is on a Sequent Balance 8000, running Dynix 2.1.1 (BSD 4.2 and System V.2 together). I've also tried this on a Vax 8200 running Ultrix 2.3. Here's the deal: MM sends out messages with "From" headers of the form: From: Real Name which, I have come to find out, is used as an example throughout RFC822. The specific they use is "From: George Jones ". When I send a message out from MM to myself, and read and reply to it, however, Berkeley mail generates an extra, totally wrong, recipient. Here is a log of the Berkeley mail session (thanks to screen): -------------------- Mail version 2.18 5/19/83. Type ? for help. "/usr/spool/mail/fritz": 1 message 1 new >N 1 fritz@unocss.unl.edu Thu Dec 8 19:16 10/241 "Test message." & Message 1: From fritz Thu Dec 8 19:16:19 1988 Date: Thu, 8 Dec 1988 19:15:50 CST From: Tim Russell To: fritz Subject: Test message. Message-Id: Status: R This is a test message to demonstrate. & reply To: unl:fritz@edu fritz@unocss.unl.edu Subject: Re: Test message. -------------------- Notice the "To" line in the reply above? This is, as you can see, nowhere in the original message. According to RFC822, when an address of the form "
" is included in the header line, everything else should be ignored and this should be used as the address. The Ultrix mailer (fergvax.unl.edu) generated this as the "To" line under the same circumstances: To: fritz@fergvax.unl.edu fritz@fergvax.unl.edu Interestingly enough, when I tell MM to put my name in quotes, as in: From: "Tim Russell" neither of the mailers I tried had any problem at all. Wierdness abounds. Also, the problem can be fixed by including a "Reply-To" header, not of the same format, of course. People at Columbia tell me they have never had any problem of this kind. So, can anyone tell me what could be causing this? Is this a common problem? Does Berkeley know about it? Has it been fixed? Sorry for being so verbose, but I wanted to make the problem clear. Thanks for any help anyone can give me! -- ---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------- Tim Russell, Computer Operator | Internet: fritz@fergvax.unl.edu Campus Computing | Bitnet: russell@unoma1 University of Nebraska at Omaha | UUCP: uunet!btni!unocss!fritz