[ On Saturday, March 2, 2002 at 12:07:35 (+0000), Philip Hazel wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [Exim] Proper autoresponder behavior
>
> This is all analgous to paper mail. My son no longer lives at home. If
> mail arrives for him, I "resend" it by re-addressing the envelope. I
> don't expect him to reply to me. If mail arrives for me with something
> I think is of interest to him (e.g. family news), I might send it on
> with a covering letter ("forwarding" in email-speak).
There's a flaw in your analogy w.r.t. the differences between the SMTP
envelope addressing and the header addresses. If we are to continue to
use the analogy of "envelope" addresses ("destination" and "return"
addresses), and it has served very well to date as far as I can tell,
even though a lot of people don't seem to grasp its full implications,
then we need to understand the different roles of MTAs and MUAs in
forwarding (of any kind), and in responding, either to delivery errors
or to the indented reply address(es).
In e-mail terms the only equivalent of "forwarding" in the postal sense
is when you set up a forwarding alias such that the MTA immediately
re-addresses just the envelope and sends the message on its way again.
If you forward a message using some kind of encapsulation (eg. MIME
message/rfc822) then you are giving the message a new envelope (as well
as a new cover letter even if you don't write anything on the letter).
A message resent with "resent-*" headers also gets a new envelope
regardless of whether there's a cover letter in it or not (you can in
fact include summary comments, a new subject header, etc.).
Both forms of MUA forwarding (bounce, forward, or resend, or whatever
your MUA happens to call them) are similar to what might happen with
when you receive an envelope containing some letter or other message.
It may be opened and then the original message, maybe the original
envelope if it had been opened, and maybe an additional note or other
new enclosure, are all stuffed into another envelope and it's addressed
to a new recipient. It really doesn't matter what manner of things are
stuffed into the new envelope -- suffice it to say there's a new
delivery address, and hopefully a new "return" address, as well as
likely one or more reply addresses, perhaps at least one being "new" on
the enclosed materials. The original envelope return address may be in
there too.
Now if the new recipient's secretary opens the new envelope and then
wishes to respond on behalf of the intended recipient, who does he or
she address the response to?
Keep in mind that traditionally written letters will have the sender's
reply address written at the top (particularly if it's sent on
pre-printed letterhead), as might the additional new message enclosed
with the original. This is what I mean above by "reply addresses", and
they're possibly distinct from the "return" address on the envelope.
I think it depends on what kind of message the response is intended to
convey. A "the recipient is out of the office" kind of response might
need to go to both the reply address on the original letterhead, as well
as to the reply address on the forwarder's letterhead. A "thanks for
bringing this to my attention" kind of response might only go to the
reply address on the forwarder's letterhead.
--
Greg A. Woods
+1 416 218-0098; <gwoods@???>; <g.a.woods@???>; <woods@???>
Planix, Inc. <woods@???>; VE3TCP; Secrets of the Weird <woods@???>
