Re: [Exim] Re: Partly solved: Strange line break problem and…

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Author: Philip Hazel
Date:  
To: Christian Dysthe
CC: nic, Exim-users
Subject: Re: [Exim] Re: Partly solved: Strange line break problem and broken attachment s (Postilion and exim)
On Wed, 18 Aug 1999, Christian Dysthe wrote:

> >> I then changed "Send via" to SMTP, and set SMTP host to "localhost".
> >> Problem solved. The line breaks are normal, and all attachments gets
> >> through unbroken.


What was the original problem? You mention line breaks. Is this
something to do with CR and LF? When Exim accepts non-SMTP mail, it
expects to be sent a normal Unix file on its standard input, with lines
terminated by LF, just like in all Unix text files. If Postilion is
using some other convention (e.g. CRLF) to terminate lines, then because
Exim is 8-bit clean, you'll see the CRs as data. In SMTP input, of
course, Exim expects CRLF terminators, because that's what RFC 821
specifies for the SMTP protocol. There doesn't seem to be any standard
for "within-same-machine" message transfers, though common sense
suggests it should be the usual conventions of the operating system.
Does sendmail document this anywhere? There's nothing in the docs for
Solaris sendmail.

> > I use the command "/usr/lib/sendmail -oi" and it works just fine.If
> > exim is masquerading as sendmail, it should produce exactly the same
> > results as sendmail - or it is not masquerading properly.
>
> I have used the command /usr/lib/sendmail -i. Just now I tried -oi but
> the same problem came returned.


-i and -oi are synonymous in Exim (and I think in sendmail). They just
stop a dot on a line by itself from terminating the input.

> As I said, this might have to do with
> the Postilion/Exim combo. I do not blame Postilion, but the fact remains
> that Postilion doesn't work with exim like some other mailers do for some
> unknown reason.


Many MUAs work happily with Exim: Pine, Elm, MH to name but a few. There
must be something subtle going on here.

Regards,
Philip

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