On Wed, 7 Aug 2002, Tamas TEVESZ wrote:
> On Wed, 7 Aug 2002, John Robinson wrote:
>
> > Doesn't Exim insert its own message-id if it's missing? Why not when the
> > supplied one is invalid?
>
> 'cause it would render tracking the message impossible ?
Exim merely checks for the existence of a Message-Id: header. It does
not check the syntax. This is in line with other MTAs, which don't check
such things.
It would have been nice if all MTAs from the start (20 years ago) had
been stricter in checking syntax. It is now far too late. Attempts to do
so always cause more trouble than they are worth. I can remember that PP
at one time tried to check the format of the Date: header. What
happened? It started to reject a lot of messages and lots of people got
very angry.
Closing doors is much harder than opening them, so it is best to start
with all the doors closed. :-) Unfortunately, this has not always been
the attitude that software writers have adopted.
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
