Subject: ":;" magic not working with our sendmail and/or PP software

From: Mike Brudenell <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 17:20:05 +0100 (BST)

Hi!

Many moons ago we could happily use the magical ":;" feature that Pine
uses when you send a message to (only) recipients listed in the Bcc and/or
Lcc headers.

(For those not in the know it creates a To header of the form
	To: Undisclosed recipients:;
and then lists the recipients in the Bcc header)

However at some time or other we lost the ability.  In particular,
messages are still _delivered_ but the recipient no longer sees the
message as being:

	To: Undisclosed recipients:;

they now see:

	To: [email-masked]
	Original-To: Test.Delivery:;@york.ac.uk
	PP-Warning: Parse error in original version of preceding To line

I confess that I'm not _quite_ certain whether sendmail or PP (the
software used on our central mail hub to rewrite headers and things) is to
blame, or even a combination of the two.

If I try telnet-ing to the SMTP port of our mail server and entering
message data by hand the message is delivered with this header:

	To: Undisclosed.recipients:;@york.ac.uk

If I send it to a slightly different e-mail address (basivally adding
@york.ac.uk to the plain username I used above) it will follow this route:

	1.  Be accepted by sendmail (as above)
	2.  Be passed to our mailhub and the PP software
	3.  PP will rewrite the headers
	4.  The mailhub will pass the message back to sendmail on our mail
	    server
	5.  The mail server delivers the message to the INBOX

I *suspect* that the problem is as follows:

	-  In step 1 above sendmail "qualifies" the
		To: Undisclosed.recipients:;
	   by appending "@york.ac.uk" giving
		To: Undisclosed.recipients:;@york.ac.uk

	-  The PP software doesn't like a recipient of
		Undisclosed.recipients:;@york.ac.uk
	   and rewrites this as
		york.ac.uk
	   and also inserts a line complaining, along with the original
	   syntax.

Can anyone confirm that this seems plausible?

If so, should the "Undisclosed.recipients:;" _not_ be being qualified with
the "@york.ac.uk" (ie, the underlying problem is in our sendmail
configuration)?

Or is it _right_ to qualify it, and the problem is in the PP software not
being prepared/configured to parse the resulting
"Undisclosed.recipients:;@york.ac.uk" notation.

I'm fed up of this problem, having gone round in circles for ages with it.
Can anyone shed any light on it?

Thanks ever so!

-- 
Mike Brudenell                                         <[email-masked]>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Computing Service, University of York, Heslington, York, YO1 5DD, UK
Tel: +44-1904-433811  FAX: +44-1904-433740  http://www.york.ac.uk/~pmb1/

* Unsolicited commercial e-mail is NOT welcome at this e-mail address. *

---

From: "Robert de Bath" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 1997 10:48:11 +0100 (BST)

> 	PP-Warning: Parse error in original version of preceding To line
This is a know sendmail problem for versions before 8.7.?, the ':;' feature
has been required by rfc822 since 1982 but sendmail has always messed it up
in normal configurations.

Doesn't this give you a nice warm feeling about the reliability of sendmail.

The address "sonething:;@york.ac.uk" is NOT rfc822 compliant. PP is quite
within rights to complain about it; the conversion to 'york.ac.uk' is VERY
dubious though. IMO MTAs should not rewrite the headers unless
  1) They really, really have to.
  2) The mail address they generate is fully RFC822 compliant including both
     user and a fqdn host id.

-- 
Rob.                           (Robert de Bath <http://www.cix.co.uk/~mayday>)

---

From: Maria Fanelli <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 21:50:33 -0700

I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO FIND A RANDOM E-MAIL THAT I PUT OFF ANSWERING AT A
LATER DATE BUT NOW I CAN'T ANSWER IT B/C ALTHOUGH I DID NOT DELETE IT THE
ADDRESS & THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE CAN NOT BE FOUND

THIS WAS A RANDOM MESSAGE FROM SOMEONE WHO HAS MY IDENTICAL NAME AND I
WOULD REALLY LIKE TO WRITE HER BACK

IS IT POSSIBLE TO FIND AN E-MAIL THAT WAS SENT TO YOU ABOUT A MONTH AGO
BUT DIDN'T SAVE?????????????

if you have the answer, PLEASE e-mail me directly:

     [email-masked]

thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou