Re: [EXIM] vacation bug found

Top Page
Delete this message
Reply to this message
Author: Philip Hazel
Date:  
To: Mark Seuffert (Pirates)
CC: exim-users
Subject: Re: [EXIM] vacation bug found
On Fri, 18 Dec 1998, Mark Seuffert (Pirates) wrote:

> Hi there!
> After hours I found the problem with Exim and the vacation(1)
> programm for linux:
> Exim generates lines with space or tab, sendmail uses space every time.


Exim does not generate tabs! I hate tabs; they cause endless problems.
This seems to be another one.

> Vacation makes somewhere a strncmp(buf, "From: ", 6), you see the space?


Yes. Stupid code. For a start, RFC822 does not require space after
"From:". Secondly, wherever it allows a space, it also allows a tab.

> Here some lines that are generated by MTAs:
>
> From:  <test@???> 
>      ^2 Spaces (with exim delivering local email)
> From: "Mark Seuffert (Pirates)" <captain@???> 
>      ^Tab (with exim delivering remote email)


Exim will only generate a From: line if you do not supply one yourself
in the message, and if it does, there should be exactly one space after
"From:". How did you create these messages? Is it some MUA that is
generating these tabs?

> From: "Mark Seuffert (Pirates)" <captain@???>
>      ^Space (with sendmail delivering local or remote email)

>
> I'm not sure what I sould do now, tell me what you think.
> * For sure I could patch vacation, it's only one line to patch.


Looks like the best solution. Maybe this should be pointed out on some
Linux group? I would change "6" to "5".

> * Or is the problem inside the Exim-code?


I don't think so. Even if Exim did generate tabs, the resulting lines
would be perfectly legal.


-- 
Philip Hazel            University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@???      Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.



--
*** Exim information can be found at http://www.exim.org/ ***