Mime-Version and no Content-Type

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@ifi.uio.no>]

All messages sent out by Message these days bear a "Mime-Version: 1.0" 
header, whether the contents of the message is exciting or not.  From
my reading of RFC2045, this is how things are supposed to be.  A
message that does not contain a Mime-Version header should be assume
by the recipient to be something that is sent out by an agent that is
not MIME-aware, and no assumptions can be made of the body of the
message.

A message with a Mime-Version header and without a Content-Type header 
(RFC2045 says) should be interpreted as a "text/plain;
charset=us-ascii" message.  Furthermore, a message that is
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii" and
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit" should have neither of these headers 
actually included, since they are the default values and carry no
information.  (But I'm unable to see where RFC2045 says this right now 
-- did I imagine it?)

So, naturally, some MTAs, when faced with a message that has a MV
header and no CT header slap on a "text/plain; charset=unknown-8bit"
header.

Eh.

So.  Should message start plonking in CT and CTE headers on all
messages it sends out to make these MTAs happy?

(For instance, people who use Outlook to read their mail will have all 
mail from Gnus users presented as attachments.  *snicker*)

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@ifi.uio.no * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen