Re: e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
Threaded to the OP, rather than a private message. On Sun 11 Dec 2022 at 18:56:24 (-0600), Greg Marks wrote: > Dear David, Thanks, but please keep replies on list so others can see solutions or join in with suggestions. Rather than appending a piece of free-standing text to the rest of the email, in mutt you could attach it as a file: At the Compose Menu where you type y to send, press a and then give the filename. Highlight the attachment in the list, and press Ctrl-E. Change the encoding from whatever it says, like 7-bit, to base64, and press Return. It now doesn't matter what was in the free-standing test: it will arrive intact. Even though encoded, the receiver's mutt will typically display the text attachment straight after the email text without needing any extra commands, but it can also be saved like any other attachment. I've attached a mutt documentation sample file as an example. Its entry in mutt's Compose Menu looks like: A 2 sample.mailcap[text/plain, base64, us-ascii, 0.1K] displays after email because I set this Note that when sending attachments, the filename may appear incomplete as it has to include the full path. The receiver doesn't see the path at their end, but only the filename. Cheers, David. # $Id$ text/html; netscape -remote openURL\(%s\) image/gif; xv %s image/jpg; xv %s application/pgp-keys; pgp -f < %s ; copiousoutput
Re: e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
On Sat 10 Dec 2022 at 20:45:37 (-0500), pa...@quillandmouse.com wrote: > On Sun, 11 Dec 2022 09:49:54 +1100 > David wrote: > > > On Sat, 10 Dec 2022 at 19:05, wrote: > > > On Fri, 9 Dec 2022 20:39:34 -0600 Greg Marks > > > wrote: > > [snip] > > > > > > I don't know the RFCs involved, but I'm guessing they mandate or > > > suggest this treatment. > > > > Here's a reference describing 'mbox' format, which provides > > reference RFCs: > > https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/mutt/mbox.5.en.html > > > > Excellent reference. Just the thing. I'm guessing it's useful when . everyone is using systems that agree to do that type of escaping, so that it's safe to undo it, even to many levels, . the messages are for humans to read, and they can judge from the context whether the content has become mangled at all (which is why I enquired of the OP whether the precise format is important to the recipient). But now that there are fail-safe methods of encoding "From ", there doesn't seem much point after two decades in treating this part of the document as much more than historical. As for the RFCs cited within, *822 are both concerned only with From: headers, not what are termed From_ postmarks. And, without an excessively careful reading of 976 (hardly justified by its 3½ decade age), the escaping of From is only discussed in the context of message envelopes, without any consideration of what's contained within the message. Note that mbox(5) says "A /variant/ of this format was documented in RFC976" (my emphasis), and 976 starts by saying "It does not address the format for storage of messages on one machine". Cheers, David.
Re: e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
On Sun, 11 Dec 2022 09:49:54 +1100 David wrote: > On Sat, 10 Dec 2022 at 19:05, wrote: > > On Fri, 9 Dec 2022 20:39:34 -0600 Greg Marks > > wrote: [snip] > > > I don't know the RFCs involved, but I'm guessing they mandate or > > suggest this treatment. > > Here's a reference describing 'mbox' format, which provides > reference RFCs: > https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/mutt/mbox.5.en.html > Excellent reference. Just the thing. Paul -- Paul M. Foster Personal Blog: http://noferblatz.com Company Site: http://quillandmouse.com Software Projects: https://gitlab.com/paulmfoster
Re: e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
On Sat, 10 Dec 2022 at 19:05, wrote: > On Fri, 9 Dec 2022 20:39:34 -0600 Greg Marks wrote: > > In a recent instance, the body of the e-mail contained a line > > beginning with the word "From"; the sendmail program prefixed the > > line with the character ">" and a space (evidently interpreting > > "From" as a header line that needed to be quoted). This was more > > than just a trivial annoyance, since it rendered my digital signature > > on the e-mail invalid. > > Is there a way to tell the Postfix sendmail command not to alter any > > such lines in the body of the message? (I'm afraid I wasn't able to > > discern an answer in the man page for sendmail or by searching the > > postfix.org site.) > You don't want to do this. Consider an MUA which stores your mail in > "mbox" format-- one email right after another in one file. The > delimiter is a line which starts at the left margin with the word > "From". For this to work, any other line which starts with "From" must > be "armored". And the way you do that is to precede it with "> ". > I don't know the RFCs involved, but I'm guessing they mandate or > suggest this treatment. Here's a reference describing 'mbox' format, which provides reference RFCs: https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/mutt/mbox.5.en.html
Re: e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
On Sat 10 Dec 2022 at 08:24:05 (+0200), Teemu Likonen wrote: > * 2022-12-09 20:39:34-0600, Greg Marks wrote: > > > > I occasionally send e-mail from the command line via Postfix, using a > > script containing the command > > > >/usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -f -t < file > > Is there a way to tell the Postfix sendmail command not to alter any > > such lines ["From" lines] in the body of the message? Not knowing what prompts these occasions, it difficult to advise. If the precise format is unimportant, then passing through a filter to eleminate any occurrences would be one method: it could be the first step in a script that calls whatever method you're using to sign the email. If format precision matters, see the next quoted paragraph. As was pointed out, it's only "From " at the start that matters. > Probably Mutt email client can automatically do all the encoding and > pass the fully compliant message to sendmail. Mutt can be used in > command line. I didn't test it because I don't have any sendmails > installed. A lower level option for constructing valid emails is > "mime-construct". From this line, you should get confirmation of mutt's behaviour. But note that you have to turn it on with set encode_from in its muttrc. > From letters are in the beginning of this line because I want to test my > own message and email client: the file that is saved locally in my > computer and the file which comes through the mailing list. FWIW your client appears to encode the space, whereas mutt encodes the F. And mutt is cautious, as it ought to be, and encodes whether or not the From follows a blank line. Cheers, David.
Re: e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
I remember some e-mail programs automatically add an extra space in front of a From in the message body if any line starts with From. Probably Thunderbird is one of them. to...@tuxteam.de wrote: > > On Sat, Dec 10, 2022 at 08:36:39AM -0500, Greg Wooledge wrote: > > [...] > > > Technically, it's the 5-character sequence "From " (including the space) > > that matters in mbox formats. If you begin a line with "Fromage" [...] > > I thusly propose to drop the '>' escaping of "From" and change every From > at a line start to "Fromage". > > Hmmm. Now I'm hungry. > > (Thanks for the laugh :-) > > Cheers > -- > t
Re: e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
> On Sat, Dec 10, 2022 at 02:57:42AM -0500, pa...@quillandmouse.com > wrote: > > You don't want to do this. Consider an MUA which stores your mail in > > "mbox" format-- one email right after another in one file. The > > delimiter is a line which starts at the left margin with the word > > "From". > > Technically, it's the 5-character sequence "From " (including the > space) that matters in mbox formats. If you begin a line with > "Fromage", or "From:", or even "From" followed by a tab, it won't > need to be escaped/armored. There also has to be a blank line before it (unless it's the first five letters in a mailbox) so effectively it has to be the start of a paragraph that starts with 'From'. (and then has a particular address format after it. :)
Re: e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
On Sat, Dec 10, 2022 at 08:36:39AM -0500, Greg Wooledge wrote: [...] > Technically, it's the 5-character sequence "From " (including the space) > that matters in mbox formats. If you begin a line with "Fromage" [...] I thusly propose to drop the '>' escaping of "From" and change every From at a line start to "Fromage". Hmmm. Now I'm hungry. (Thanks for the laugh :-) Cheers -- t signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
On Sat, Dec 10, 2022 at 02:57:42AM -0500, pa...@quillandmouse.com wrote: > You don't want to do this. Consider an MUA which stores your mail in > "mbox" format-- one email right after another in one file. The > delimiter is a line which starts at the left margin with the word > "From". Technically, it's the 5-character sequence "From " (including the space) that matters in mbox formats. If you begin a line with "Fromage", or "From:", or even "From" followed by a tab, it won't need to be escaped/armored.
Re: e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
Hi, pa...@quillandmouse.com wrote: > [...] any other line which starts with "From" must > be "armored". And the way you do that is to precede it with "> ". > I don't know the RFCs involved, but I'm guessing they mandate or > suggest this treatment. It does not look like being fully specified by an RFC. RFC 4155 "The application/mbox Media Type" mentions Many implementations are also known to escape message body lines that begin with the character sequence of "From " and points to http://qmail.org/man/man5/mbox.html where ">From quoting" is described in more detail. Debian's man 5 mbox stems from package mutt and describes quoting schemes "MBOXO", "MBOXRD", "MBOXCL". RFC 4155 decries the situation but then says Also note that this specification does not prescribe any escape syntax for message body lines that begin with the character sequence of "From ". Have a nice day :) Thomas
Re: e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
On Fri, 9 Dec 2022 20:39:34 -0600 Greg Marks wrote: > I occasionally send e-mail from the command line via Postfix, using a > script containing the command > >/usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -f -t < file > > In a recent instance, the body of the e-mail contained a line > beginning with the word "From"; the sendmail program prefixed the > line with the character ">" and a space (evidently interpreting > "From" as a header line that needed to be quoted). This was more > than just a trivial annoyance, since it rendered my digital signature > on the e-mail invalid. > > I think I encountered a similar problem a couple decades ago using the > "mail" command on a FreeBSD machine, but I don't remember any solution > to the problem. > > Is there a way to tell the Postfix sendmail command not to alter any > such lines in the body of the message? (I'm afraid I wasn't able to > discern an answer in the man page for sendmail or by searching the > postfix.org site.) > > Best regards, > Greg Marks You don't want to do this. Consider an MUA which stores your mail in "mbox" format-- one email right after another in one file. The delimiter is a line which starts at the left margin with the word "From". For this to work, any other line which starts with "From" must be "armored". And the way you do that is to precede it with "> ". I don't know the RFCs involved, but I'm guessing they mandate or suggest this treatment. Paul -- Paul M. Foster Personal Blog: http://noferblatz.com Company Site: http://quillandmouse.com Software Projects: https://gitlab.com/paulmfoster
Re: e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
* 2022-12-09 20:39:34-0600, Greg Marks wrote: > Is there a way to tell the Postfix sendmail command not to alter any > such lines ["From" lines] in the body of the message? I can't answer your actual question but I think Postfix and other "sendmails" do the right thing. In my opinion you shouldn't change them do the wrong thing but fix the problem elsewhere. Prepare your message in such way that it is encoded in quoted printable or base64 so that there is no plain "From" in the beginning of any line in the body. Letters in "From" don't need encoding in quoted printable but email clients may still encode it because they know what sendmail programs do. Probably Mutt email client can automatically do all the encoding and pass the fully compliant message to sendmail. Mutt can be used in command line. I didn't test it because I don't have any sendmails installed. A lower level option for constructing valid emails is "mime-construct". From letters are in the beginning of this line because I want to test my own message and email client: the file that is saved locally in my computer and the file which comes through the mailing list. -- /// Teemu Likonen - .-.. https://www.iki.fi/tlikonen/ // OpenPGP: 6965F03973F0D4CA22B9410F0F2CAE0E07608462 signature.asc Description: PGP signature
e-mail with line in body beginning with "From"
I occasionally send e-mail from the command line via Postfix, using a script containing the command /usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -f -t < file In a recent instance, the body of the e-mail contained a line beginning with the word "From"; the sendmail program prefixed the line with the character ">" and a space (evidently interpreting "From" as a header line that needed to be quoted). This was more than just a trivial annoyance, since it rendered my digital signature on the e-mail invalid. I think I encountered a similar problem a couple decades ago using the "mail" command on a FreeBSD machine, but I don't remember any solution to the problem. Is there a way to tell the Postfix sendmail command not to alter any such lines in the body of the message? (I'm afraid I wasn't able to discern an answer in the man page for sendmail or by searching the postfix.org site.) Best regards, Greg Marks signature.asc Description: PGP signature
