Re: [Exim] maximum size allowed in headers_add

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Author: Philip Hazel
Date:  
To: David Powers
CC: exim-users
Subject: Re: [Exim] maximum size allowed in headers_add
On Tue, 3 Jun 2003, David Powers wrote:

[I have been away in Uganda for two weeks, teaching at an Internet
workshop, and am just catching up on a backlog of email. Hence this late
response to your message.]

> I am attempting to add an extremely long header containing a list of
> addresses (the expansion of the $recipients variable) to messages
> being saved in an internal folder for various compliance purposes. I
> have a system filter setup that does this without a hitch - but I have
> 2 questions:
>
> 1. Is there a way to do it that does not require me to add the
> headers with a system filter and then remove them on every outgoing
> router?


Probably. :-) If you alias every recipient to
"takecopy@???,$local_part@$domain" and then have an unseen
router that routes takecopy@yourdomain to your folder, that might do it.

> 2. More importantly, some users are using very long sender lists and
> the system filter fails on those messages with a message about the
> string being too long for headers add. Does anyone know what the size
> limit for headers add is, and if so, is it set in the RFC's?
> Arbitrarily in the code? Can it be safely circumvented?


It's an arbitrary limit in the code. The RFCs apply to messages on the
wire; what is done inside a host is up to it. I presume you are hitting
the stringlength limit in a filter, which I think is 1024.

Philip

--
Philip Hazel            University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@???      Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
Get the Exim 4 book:    http://www.uit.co.uk/exim-book