Re: Who sets Sender:?

[prj@po.cwru.edu (Paul Jarc)]

Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net> wrote:
> 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.

Is the MUA supposed to be able to determine when Sender is needed?

> | > 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,

That criterion is satisfied equally well by either of our definitions.

> and that an attempt has been made at getting the address correct if the
> user has not done so himself.

I can't find that criterion in RFC 2822.  Can you point it out?

Even assuming this criterion, the MUA is extremely limited in its
ability to construct a correct address.  user@hostname is often not a
working address - I'd say it's wrong more often than right.  It seems
to me that even for an MUA that wants to satisfy your position, it
cannot do any better, on average, than leaving From and Sender
entirely to the user.

> 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's the only way I have to fix my instance of the problem.  I would
like to see MUAs changed to never add Sender automatically, but that's
outside my scope.

> My solution is to configure the network and mail gateway to function
> correctly for everyone who uses them.

Yes, but you also (seem to) take the extra step of claiming that RFC
2822 demands this of you.  I'm not saying that you shouldn't configure
your network that way, or that RFC 2822 claims that you shouldn't.
I'm saying that RFC 2822 *doesn't* say that you *should*; it is silent
on this issue.


paul