Postfix or Gnus problem in to: header?

Postfix or Gnus problem in to: header?

[David Maslen]

I had a bounced message when trying to reply to a message with the
following headers;

Gcc: nnfolder:outgoing
To: "Wang, John" <wang@airinter.com.au>
Subject: Re: How can I register My Star office 5.1
References: <B1269DC9E646D21184830040054127B34670C4@melb_ex1.airinter.com.au>
From: David Maslen <david.maslen@iname.com>
Date: 09 Nov 1999 16:22:17 +1100
In-Reply-To: "Wang, John"'s message of "Tue, 9 Nov 1999 07:31:43 +1100"
Message-ID: <87puxkp7cm.fsf@iname.com>
--text follows this line--

Postfix tried to expand the "Wang, John" to Wang@$mydomain. Since
there is no user wang at my domain it bounced. I notice Kai used ()
instead of <> around his email address. This also causes me to get a
bounced message if I just hit reply.

So should the mail client feed the mail server a message with the to:
header in the correct format? Is there a correct format (bet there
is), and assuming the problem originates with "Wang, John", where
should the compromise come from so that the system works. Gnus or
Postfix. I think we can assume it's impractical to have all end users
do the right thing.

Re: Postfix or Gnus problem in to: header?

[Shenghuo ZHU]

>>>>> "David" == David Maslen <david.maslen@iname.com> writes:

David> I had a bounced message when trying to reply to a message with the
David> following headers;

David> Gcc: nnfolder:outgoing
David> To: "Wang, John" <wang@airinter.com.au>
David> Subject: Re: How can I register My Star office 5.1
David> References: <B1269DC9E646D21184830040054127B34670C4@melb_ex1.airinter.com.au>
David> From: David Maslen <david.maslen@iname.com>
David> Date: 09 Nov 1999 16:22:17 +1100
David> In-Reply-To: "Wang, John"'s message of "Tue, 9 Nov 1999 07:31:43 +1100"
David> Message-ID: <87puxkp7cm.fsf@iname.com>
David> --text follows this line--

David> Postfix tried to expand the "Wang, John" to Wang@$mydomain. Since
David> there is no user wang at my domain it bounced. I notice Kai used ()
David> instead of <> around his email address. This also causes me to get a
David> bounced message if I just hit reply.

David> So should the mail client feed the mail server a message with
David> the to: header in the correct format? Is there a correct format
David> (bet there is), and assuming the problem originates with "Wang,
David> John", where should the compromise come from so that the system
David> works. Gnus or Postfix. I think we can assume it's impractical
David> to have all end users do the right thing.

I am not sure what Postfix does. But there is a bug about the quoted
comma in in XEmacs mail-lib (less than 1.24). So try again after
removing the comma in the "To:" field.

-- 
Shenghuo

Re: Postfix or Gnus problem in to: header?

[Kai Großjohann]

Shenghuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:

> I am not sure what Postfix does. But there is a bug about the quoted
> comma in in XEmacs mail-lib (less than 1.24). So try again after
> removing the comma in the "To:" field.

Maybe one needs to set mail-use-rfc822 to t?

kai
-- 
This gubblick contains many nonsklarkish English flutzpahs,
but the overall pluggandisp can be glorked from context. -- David Moser

Re: Postfix or Gnus problem in to: header?

[David Maslen]

Shenghuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:
> I am not sure what Postfix does. But there is a bug about the quoted
> comma in in XEmacs mail-lib (less than 1.24). So try again after
> removing the comma in the "To:" field.

OK, tried it.
To: "dmm dmm" <dmm@imp.taz.net.au>      works
To: "dmm, dmm" <dmm@imp.taz.net.au>     fails 
To: "dmm dmm" (dmm@imp.taz.net.au)      works

The last one puzzles me. This is the format that gnus-bug generates.
Using () instead of <> around the address. Postfix doesn't seem to be
able to handle this. Is that a postfix bug?

I accept the first is a bug in the mail-lib.

Re: Postfix or Gnus problem in to: header?

[David Maslen]

Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:
> Maybe one needs to set mail-use-rfc822 to t?
> 
> kai

I've tried setting this to send a reply to you now, but I know that
only the cc: address will get through. How odd.

This must be something to do with my setup, or else everyone would be complaining.

Re: Postfix or Gnus problem in to: header?

[Kai Großjohann]

David Maslen <david.maslen@iname.com> writes:

> To: "dmm dmm" (dmm@imp.taz.net.au)      works
> 
> The last one puzzles me. This is the format that gnus-bug generates.
> Using () instead of <> around the address. Postfix doesn't seem to be
> able to handle this. Is that a postfix bug?

That's really strange.  Please note that my mail address is ``mailbox
(fullname)'' whereas you have ``fullname (mailbox)''.

Stuff in parentheses is a comment as far as RFC822 is concerned and
should not be considered at all (except maybe as whitespace).

kai
-- 
This gubblick contains many nonsklarkish English flutzpahs,
but the overall pluggandisp can be glorked from context. -- David Moser

Re: Postfix or Gnus problem in to: header?

[Rene H. Larsen]

David Maslen <david.maslen@iname.com> writes:

> To: "dmm dmm" (dmm@imp.taz.net.au)      works
> 
> The last one puzzles me. This is the format that gnus-bug generates.
> Using () instead of <> around the address. Postfix doesn't seem to
> be able to handle this. Is that a postfix bug?

IIRC, RFC822 says that anything in parentheses are comments, so the
above line does not specify a valid address, since "dmm dmm" is all
that is left after comment removal.
-- 
Echelon bait:
Area 51 quiche militia Treasury Kenneth Starr Roswell Semtex Watergate
Ortega Waco, Texas FBI bomb Kibo BATF Clinton

Re: Postfix or Gnus problem in to: header?

[David Maslen]

David Maslen <david.maslen@iname.com> writes:
> Shenghuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:
> > I am not sure what Postfix does. But there is a bug about the quoted
> > comma in in XEmacs mail-lib (less than 1.24). So try again after
> > removing the comma in the "To:" field.
> 
> OK, tried it.
> To: "dmm dmm" <dmm@imp.taz.net.au>      works
> To: "dmm, dmm" <dmm@imp.taz.net.au>     fails 
> To: "dmm dmm" (dmm@imp.taz.net.au)      works
> 
> The last one puzzles me. This is the format that gnus-bug generates.
> Using () instead of <> around the address. Postfix doesn't seem to be
> able to handle this. Is that a postfix bug?
> 
> I accept the first is a bug in the mail-lib.

To summarise, mail in the format 'address (Name)' was bouncing. The
gnus bug report system uses this format.

To follow this up myself, it was neither postfix or gnus.
The culprit was the ssmtp package from the debian gnu/linux distribution.
Gnus was calling ssmtp as the sendmail program.

The solution in case anyone else is interested is to

(setq message-send-mail-function smtpmail-send-it)