[Exim] exim non-bug, does it need fixing?

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Author: Peter D. Gray
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: [Exim] exim non-bug, does it need fixing?
Version: 4.30

I have been having troubles with corrupted attachments
and I think I have tracked it down to exim. The problem
seems to be the -oi option.

With sendmail, -io means "IgnoreDots" and the docs say
"The IgnoreDots option tells sendmail to treat any line
that contains only a single period as ordinary text, not
as an EOF indicator." (page 1005, 3rd edition).

However, that is not what sendmail actually does. What it does do
is control whether sendmail treats leading dots as per RFC821. If set,
dots are left alone, but the default behaviour is to convert
.. to . if at the beginning of line.

It appears exim does what sendmail says it does, rather than
what it actually does. MUA's which call sendmail without
the ignoredots option use RFC821 dot handling and double dots if thay
occur at the beginning of line knowing that sendmail will
convert the double dot to a single dot.

I have such a MUA and it assumes sendmail behaviour.
This could be considered a bug in the MUA.

So the question is, should exim do what sendmail does
or what it says it does?

Regards,
pdg

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