Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!vu-vlsi!dsinc!syd
From: syd@dsinc.UUCP (Syd Weinstein)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: Missing text when printing
Summary: ELM is an RFC 822 mailer
Message-ID: <63@dsinc.UUCP>
Date: 18 Feb 89 17:30:27 GMT
References: <447@ciss.Dayton.NCR.COM>
Reply-To: syd@dsinc.UUCP (Syd Weinstein)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Datacomp Systems, Inc., Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006
Lines: 52

In article <447@ciss.Dayton.NCR.COM> tmoore@ciss.Dayton.NCR.COM (Tom.Moore@ciss.Dayton.NCR.COM) writes:
:
:We have run into an interesting problem with mail from cron and the Elm
:mail system.  Given that the following message from cron placed in 
:your mailbox:
:
:+ From ciss.Dayton.NCR.COM!root Wed Feb 15 23:58 EST 1989
:+ chmod: can't change dead.letter
:+ /usr/lib/uucp/deadletter.sh: dead.letter: cannot create
:+
:+
:+ *******************************************
:+ Cron: The previous message is the standard output
:+       and standard error of one of your cron commands.
Ah, yes, the USG not following RFC822 problem.  Here is the
problem with this message: Header lines are defined as
all lines up to the first empty line.  Elm showed you the
header because those items weren't on your weedout list.

What you have is that the standard Unix mailer in USG (system V)
systems does not apply RFC822 standards, yet Elm does.
Thus Elm cannot tell where the header stops.
:
:The raises the questions:
:
:1. Should Elm discard things that it does not understand.
Elm thought it did understand them, they were 'RFC822 Headers'
 
:2. Should Elm show me one thing on the screen and then print something
:   else on the printer.  This is particularly unfortunate since it is not
:   noticed until after deleting the messages, exiting Elm, and strolling over
:   to the printer to pick up the hard copy you thought you had.
Yes, Elm does not send all the headers to the printer if you tell
it not to (and I assume you did since it didn't copy the entire message)

:3. Is there some reasonable way around this that someone already knows.  
From, cron, no, in general, it won't be a problem as the standard user
headers end up with a blank.

How we solved this problem for the future is we extended Elm to try
and cope with non RFC 822 mailers.  We now define the end of the
header as the first line that doesn't look like a header or a header
continuation line.  We can still get confused by lines that look
like headers, so it isn't a total fix.
(A header is a line starting in column 1 and containing a :, or a line
following a header line that starts with whitespace)

-- 
=====================================================================
Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP                   Elm Coordinator
Datacomp Systems, Inc.				Voice: (215) 947-9900
{allegra,bpa,vu-vlsi}!dsinc!syd	                FAX:   (215) 938-0235