Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!turing.unm.edu!mike
From: mike@turing.unm.edu (Michael I. Bushnell)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.headers
Subject: Re: Mail header wishlist
Message-ID: <2179@unmvax.unm.edu>
Date: 7 Dec 88 04:16:24 GMT
References: <1005@asylum.sf.ca.us>  <2696@sultra.UUCP> <1320@ksuvax1.cis.ksu.edu>  <359@talos.UUCP>
Sender: news@unmvax.unm.edu
Reply-To: mike@turing.unm.edu
Organization: University of No Money, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Lines: 62
In-reply-to: kjones@talos.UUCP's message of 2 Dec 88 14:27:20 GMT


In article <359@talos.UUCP> kjones@talos.UUCP (Kyle Jones) writes:


   In  Karl Kleinpaste writes:
   [concerning Bounced-By: header]
   >That would be unnecessary if mailing lists would all make sure that,
   >when distributing out to the list's recipients, an Errors-To:
   >listname-request@listname-host-machine header were included.

   This works only if everyone runs a mailer that supports this header.
   There is no mention of Errors-To: in RFC822.  Sendmail claims to
   support this header, but smail (2.5) certainly does not.  I say
   'claims' because I recently had a mailing list that I run flooded with
   returned mail from a host running sendmail.  An Errors-To: line was
   present in the message in question.

Hmmm...It appears I (who said the same thing as Karl) that you are
correct.  On the other hand, the Sender: field is unquestionable the
proper location for errors to be sent.  

   For my money, the right way to avoid bounced mail hitting an entire
   mailing list is to make the From: header say -request
   instead of .  This means that recipients must edit the To:
   line if they want to reply to the list, but that's a small price to pay.

Hmmmm...yeah.  But then I suspect you will have to manually forward
lots of postings from users who didn't manually edit the To: line.  

The best way is for mail addressed like so:

To: mailinglist@foo.bar.bax
From: Joe.User@my.machine

to be transformed by foo.bar.bax when it resends the mail into

Resent-From: mailinglist-request@foo.bar.bax
Resent-Sender: mailinglist-request@foo.bar.bax
To: mailinglist@foo.bar.bax
From: Joe.User@my.machine

The mail should be delivered using the Resent-* headers in preference
to the originals...according to the RFC.  How much you wanna bet that
smail and sendmail both don't actually do this right...:-)

The best defacto solution is probably to have the mail set to
individual list subscribers be addressed

To: mailinlist@foo.bar.bax
Sender: mailinglist-request@foo.bar.bax
From: Joe.User@my.machine
Reply-To: mailinglist@foo.bar.bax

If you want the from line changed, then go ahead--but you are asking
to be filled with pain if you don't fix the Reply-To: line...


--
Michael I. Bushnell         \  	  This above all; to thine own self be true
HASA - "A" division   GIG!   \    And it must follow, as the night the day,
mike@turing.unm.edu   	     /\	  Thou canst not be false to any man.
Numquam  Gloria Deo   	    /  \  Farewell:  my blessing season this in thee!