Re: Who sets Sender:?

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

Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net> wrote:
> * Matt Armstrong <matt@lickey.com>  on Mon, 20 May 2002
> | The point of the Sender: header is mostly lost on me.
>
> Maybe it will help clear things up if you consider the idea that an
> individual has many identities in a networked environment.

It might also help if you quoted the part of RFC 2822 that makes you
think this is relevant.

> Consider the situation where I assume the identity samurairat@spamcop.net,
> and I am sending mail from my shell on adhara in the NUCCS cluster.

Ok:
3.6.2. Originator fields
   If the originator of the message can be indicated by a single
   mailbox and the author and transmitter are identical, the "Sender:"
   field SHOULD NOT be used.

That fact that you can be indicated by two distinct mailboxes doesn't
change the fact that you can also be indicated by a single mailbox.

> They are both me, they are in the same cluster, and mail sent to
> either will end up on the one mail server, but they are not the same
> identity.

I can't find anything in RFC 2822 to support that idea.  They are not
the same mailbox, obviously, but how did you conclude that they are
not the same identity?  Especially since RFC 2822 says things like
"mailboxes indicate originators/authors/transmitters" instead of
"mailboxes are originators/authors/transmitters", I don't understand
where your interpretation comes from.

> What Gnus is attempting to do is adhere to RFC 2822

I think, rather, that Gnus is attempting to adhere to RFC 1036, which
specifies different semantics for Sender.  Gnus sloppily uses the same
behavior for mail because it's easier than using different behavior
for mail and news, and because Sender is unimportant for mail.

> Also, be aware that the Sender header must never be used for anything but
> human consumption.

What does this mean, exactly?  If I want to reply to a message and
send the response to the Sender address, should my MUA stop me?  Or
just not provide any easy way to do this?  Or just not make it the
default reply address?


paul