From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
To: 9fans@9fans.net
Subject: Re: [9fans] store 9p session-only values using lib9p
From: "Russ Cox" <rsc@swtch.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:10:28 -0700
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> why not?  the "From " line is written when the message is delivered to a
> mb.  but it's not part of the message proper.

that may be your mental model, but it's not mine.
to me, the From line is as much part of the message
as the rest of the mail.  like i said before, it is a
postmark.  it indicates the time the mail was originally
delivered along with the mail system's idea of the sender.

there was a time, in the calm pre-rfc822 days
when the from line was all the header you had.

for example, here's an entire message locally
delivered on plan 9 in 1992:

	From ken Tue Sep  8 03:42:43 EDT 1992
	i finally got my copy.

personally, when i've used mail systems without from lines,
i've always been annoyed, because then the dates
on the message are relative to someone else's clock,
not my local one.  i don't mean just time-zone
variations; plenty of people have their clocks set wrong.
i like that nedmail shows me the time the message
arrived, not the claimed date in the header.

if you view the date that way, as an integral part
of the delivered message, it would sure be strange
if saving the message to a different folder altered
the delivery date.  receiving a message and filing
a message are two very different things.

> so copying a message
> really copies the rfc/822 part.  the from line is an awkward appendage.
> it is strange to carry it forward in the special case of copying a mail
> from one box to another.

the rfc822 part is the awkward appendage.
mail used to be simple.

russ