Hello,
I thought I would forward a message read on a postfix mailing list.
Only because I think they mention something (maybe) important and I
hoped it would be helpful for Philip.
Zbigniew Szalbot
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Wietse Venema
Date: 19-09-2007 12:46
Subject: Re: 250-8BITMIME question
Bill Landry:
> It seems to me that it is pretty standard for MTAs to announce
> "250-8BITMIME", so what would the "opposite problem" be that they
> are referring to above? What could break if they started announcing
> "250-8BITMIME" with their ehlo reply?
In that case, EXIM would take responsibility for the message. And
when delivering to a mail server that doesn't announce 8BITMIME,
EXIM would have to either:
- Convert 8-bit to 7-bit content, thereby destroying digital
signatures.
- Return the mail as undeliverable. This is wat some mailers do.
Of course, non-delivery is even less attractive.
With the increasing use of digital signatures, EXIM's behavior will
become a problem because it forces up-stream MTAs to convert
already-signed mail and thereby destroy digital signatures.
In my opinion, EXIM people should just bit the bullet and add full
8BITMIME support. I did it for Postfix in 2002. It took a month
or so. It was not as hard as I expected, and there have been very
few changes to that code since then.
Wietse
