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.
--
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