Re: [Exim] Filter rule to block multiple To: recipients

On Thu, Jun 10, 2004 at 10:49:39AM +0100, Bruce Richardson wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 10, 2004 at 10:18:15AM -0100, Peter Bowyer wrote:
> > Ricahrd wrote:
> > > Hi all
> > > I am having some problems with mail that is being addressed to hundreds of
> > > recipients, all of whom are specified in the "to" header rather than using
> > > CC or BCC. The trouble with this is that the mail servers think it is
> > > their
> > > own responsibility to deliver the message to each of the mail recipients.
>
> Heh. Sounds like GroupWise (bloody awful mail system).
>
> >
> > If that's true then they are very broken indeed. None of the headers imply
> > any repsonsibility for delivery - they are for the information of the MUA
> > and the recipients. The SMTP envelope is the only place that recipients
> > are specified.
> >
> > It's not wise to try to fix broken behaviour somewhere else with a kludge....
>
> Unfortunately, it can be the only practical solution if you have to deal
> with people who refuse to fix their mail systems.

It isn't a solution - especially when these broken mail systems then send
the message on to someone else, who then bounces the message back to a
mailing list, which then sends the bounce out to all the recipients
including the one with the broken mail system, which then forwards the
message on to the original system which bounced, which bounces that back
to the mailing list... you get the idea.

I've been there as a mailing list admin with someone using that wonderful
fetchmail program doing a similar thing.

Fixing other peoples mail systems with kludgy fixes causes more problems
for other people. Don't do it. If people refuse to fix their broken
mail systems, by definition they deserve not to be able to send mail.

--
Russell King