Subject: Message-ID

From: [email-masked] (Prem Sumetpong - CC)
Date: 4 Apr 1995 05:00:54 GMT

I would like to know is it the MUA (Pine) or sendmail that creates the 
message-id. I am getting (xxxxx@host) rather than ([email-masked])
and want to track how to solve this problem.

I get different results if my /etc/hosts has

   host IP       host   host.domain
   
and 
 
   host IP	host.domain host

the former gives a Message-ID  <xxxxx@host>
the latter gives a Message-ID  <[email-masked]>

Thanx
Prem

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Prem Sumetpong                               Tel (Off) : (662) 247-0333
Mahidol University Computing Center              (Fax) : (662) 246-7308 
Faculty of Science, Mahidol University  email : [email-masked]
Rama 6 Rd, Bangkok 10400 , Thailand.           [email-masked]

---

From: Rahul Dhesi <[email-masked]>
Date: 6 Apr 1995 00:43:51 GMT

>I had the same 
>problem until I read the PINE technical docs!  always have the 
>fully-qualified domain name first and then any aliases for the /etc/hosts 
>entry.

After some experimentation I found that although pine will use any
specified 'user-domain' when forming the reply address, it will still
use the local host name for the message-id, and apparently does not 
check to make sure that the part after the '@' is a fully-qualified
domain name.  It *could* append the 'user-domain' after the host name
if the host name does not contain a dot, but does not do so.  The basic
problem is that the MTA is not being given an opportunity to do the
things it knows most about, such as setting the correct reply address
and message-id.  The MUA is trying to do the MTA's job.

A similar design flaw exists in the MH mail system, though it's not as
acute, becaue MH tries to form the reply address but not the
message-id.

What saves the user is that in almost all cases, syntactically-invalid
message-ids will be accepted by receiving software.  I don't believe I
have ever observed email to be bounced or dropped because of an invalid
message-id.  The only likely exception is that if a mail-to-News
gateway preserves the message-id, the gatewayed posting will likely be
dropped by inn sites, unless the gateway takes steps to correct the
syntax in the message-id or generate a new one.  Fortunately most such
gateways just replace the old message-id with a new valid one.

This issue is something to think about, but not worth losing sleep
over.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi <[email-masked]>
"please ignore Dhesi" -- Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>

---

From: [email-masked] (Carsten Zimmermann)
Date: 6 Apr 1995 21:57:03 +0200

Rahul Dhesi ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In <looong-message-id> Mike Lipscomb <[email-masked]> writes:

: >> the former gives a Message-ID  <xxxxx@host>

: >I had the same 
: >problem until I read the PINE technical docs!  always have the 
: >fully-qualified domain name first and then any aliases for the /etc/hosts 
: >entry.
For Linux i had to change the entry in /etc/HOSTNAME to the FQDN to get
it work. But it still adds my hostnames to the message ID that isn't known
to the net. (I'm just a UUCP Site)

: What saves the user is that in almost all cases, syntactically-invalid
: message-ids will be accepted by receiving software.  I don't believe I
: have ever observed email to be bounced or dropped because of an invalid
: message-id.  The only likely exception is that if a mail-to-News
: gateway preserves the message-id, the gatewayed posting will likely be
: dropped by inn sites, unless the gateway takes steps to correct the
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^	
: syntax in the message-id or generate a new one.  Fortunately most such
: gateways just replace the old message-id with a new valid one.
I don't understand that. Why is it dropped ?
Btw inn generates also wrong message-ID's for me. It also adds the Hostname
to my domain. So perhaps my messages will be dropped also ?

Carsten
-- 
*****************************************************************************
*Carsten         *        [email-masked]        * "Problem ... ->      *
*Zimmermann      *                                   *  Loesung ...   "     *
*Hamburg-Barmbek * [email-masked] * (Al Bundy)           *

---

From: Mike Lipscomb <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 1995 13:47:29 -0500

> the latter gives a Message-ID  <[email-masked]>

You definitely want the latter case in /etc/hosts.  I had the same 
problem until I read the PINE technical docs!  always have the 
fully-qualified domain name first and then any aliases for the /etc/hosts 
entry.

-Mike-
******************************************************************************
Michael Lipscomb
Computing and Telecommunications, Room 789                 voice: 901 448 5042
University of Tennessee, Memphis                           fax:   901 448 8199
877 Madison                                internet: [email-masked]
Memphis  TN  38163
******************************************************************************