From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/46831 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stainless Steel Rat Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: Why does Gnus generates Lines: header in mail? Date: 29 Sep 2002 21:31:40 -0400 Organization: The Happy Fun Ball Brigade Sender: owner-ding@hpc.uh.edu Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1033349637 1461 127.0.0.1 (30 Sep 2002 01:33:57 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 01:33:57 +0000 (UTC) Return-path: Original-Received: from malifon.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.13]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 17vpRb-0000NR-00 for ; Mon, 30 Sep 2002 03:33:55 +0200 Original-Received: from sina.hpc.uh.edu ([129.7.128.10] ident=lists) by malifon.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 17vpPv-0005QA-00; Sun, 29 Sep 2002 20:32:11 -0500 Original-Received: by sina.hpc.uh.edu (TLB v0.09a (1.20 tibbs 1996/10/09 22:03:07)); Sun, 29 Sep 2002 20:32:52 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: from sclp3.sclp.com (qmailr@sclp3.sclp.com [209.196.61.66]) by sina.hpc.uh.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id UAA23960 for ; Sun, 29 Sep 2002 20:32:41 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: (qmail 19941 invoked by alias); 30 Sep 2002 01:31:50 -0000 Original-Received: (qmail 19936 invoked from network); 30 Sep 2002 01:31:49 -0000 Original-Received: from h0060978d8c91.ne.client2.attbi.com (HELO peorth.gweep.net) (sqnsvv@24.218.202.161) by gnus.org with SMTP; 30 Sep 2002 01:31:49 -0000 Original-Received: (from ratinox@localhost) by peorth.gweep.net (8.11.6/8.11.6) id g8U1VfE03124; Sun, 29 Sep 2002 21:31:41 -0400 Original-To: "(ding)" X-Attribution: Rat In-Reply-To: Original-Lines: 29 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) XEmacs/21.1 (Cuyahoga Valley) Precedence: list X-Majordomo: 1.94.jlt7 Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:46831 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:46831 * Simon Josefsson on Sun, 29 Sep 2002 | X-* is blessed by the standard to contain experimental stuff, so I don't | see a problem there. Mail-Copies-To has value and even interoperates | fairly well. If Lines: has value, I won't continue argue it should be | removed, but I haven't understood where that value is. The purpose of Lines is quite simple: it gives a ballpark estimate as to the size of a message, thus allowing the client the ability not to download messages that exceed a particular size. For example, POP does not have a mechanism by which it can determine the size of messages. But it can get all the headers. A POP client can grab the headers of all messages, check the Lines headers for each, and skip any messages that exceed a user-defined threshold. This is useful, for example, if you happen to be a travelling sales engineer currently somewhere in India using a cellular/gsm phone at 9600 baud to download your mail but don't want the 150MB PowerPoint presentations that your manager sent out to everyone, at least not until you get back to your office and a T1. I am not making this up. I have an SE who routinely does this. On the Usenet side of things, Gnus Agent uses Lines headers the same way, to determine if a message qualifies as "long" and does not automatically retrieve articles that exceed the "long" threshold. -- Rat \ Happy Fun Ball may stick to certain types Minion of Nathan - Nathan says Hi! \ of skin. PGP Key: at a key server near you! \ That and five bucks will get you a small coffee at Starbucks.