Re: Who sets Sender:?

[Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net>]

* prj@po.cwru.edu (Paul Jarc)  on Tue, 21 May 2002
| > 2. RFC 2822 requires a Sender header be generated when the identities of
| >    the originator and sender differ.

| By "generated", do you mean automatically?  I would disagree with
| that.  Even if not, this is only a matter of SHOULD, not MUST, so I
| wouldn't say "required".

In some circumstances the Sender MUST appear, such as when the From field
contains more than one mailbox.  In others it says that the header SHOULD
appear.  It does not say who MUST or SHOULD generate the header.  It is
presumed that the MUA will do so if the user does not, just as the MUA
fills in the From header as necessary.

| > I choose to use a definition of "identity" that meets the criteria given by
| > both RFC 2822 and

| Which criteria are those, specifically?

That it identify the agent who hits the button that initiates the process
of connecting to the the MTA or news server and handing off the message,
and that an attempt has been made at getting the address correct if the
user has not done so himself.

[...]
| You give me the impression that that goal is worth more to you than
| using a reasonable reading of RFC 2822.  If you care about that goal,
| that's fine, but I don't see anything in RFC 2822 to back you; you can
| promote that sort of configuration without claiming that RFC 2822
| demands it.

Correct me if I am mistaken, but it seems to me that you read RFC 2822 as a
Gnus user.  You see a small problem with Gnus and you fix it.  There is
nothing wrong with that, but...

I read RFC 2822 as a systems administrator, and I have to make RFC 2822 --
the format of a mail message -- work with all of the other protocols
necesssary to get your message delivered.  Where you see a small problem, I
see a symptom of a greater problem, one that affects all users on a
network.  Your solution is to configure the client.  That is not a good
solution for systems administrators who may have to deal with hundreds or
thousands of users.  We want to fix the problem once and be done with it.
My solution is to configure the network and mail gateway to function
correctly for everyone who uses them.  What you see as my goal is the
solution to your problem.

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