[MUD-Dev] Generalized AI Resend

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <c=US%a=_%p=EA%l=MOLACH-970806145951Z-17000 at molach.origin.ea.com>,
on 08/06/97 
   at 08:32 AM, "Koster, Raph" <rkoster at origin.ea.com> said:

>On Tuesday, August 05, 1997 3:47 PM, our esteemed list owner wrote 
>wrote:

>> [[List Owner Note: Original post fragmented by broken mail server.
>> Post re-assembled at this point.  Some lines may be missing.]]

>Here's the post again to replace any missed lines... - Raph

Writing as list owner:

It used to be that the mail servers just upline from me had an old
(and very well known and documented) bug where the improperly
processed the content_length headers on messages with the result that
the ended up scanning the bodies of messages for possible header lines
to locate the start of the next message.  This resulted in messages
getting fragmented at lines starting with things like "From",
"Subject" etc.

They claim to have fixed this bug, and indeed, testing proves that
that bug is fixed.  Hurrah.  Cheers.  Wow.

They've also introduced a more pernicious bug that seemingly fragments
messages where ever and when ever it damn well feels like it.  I've
been unable to define the rules on *when* it fragments.  The rules are
certainly different than before.  However it still fragments mail,
repeatably, and extremely annoyingly.  

The most annoying part is that we now seem to be losing whole lines
when the posts fagment, meaning that even when I re-assemble the posts
there are bits missing.  I've complained to my up-streams.  I've
logged problems.  I've provided logs and example cases.  They admit
there is a problem.  They state that they're working on it.  I don't
know when anything will happen.

In the mean time, *if* one of your posts gets fragmented, and you
consider that my re-assembly job is not quite good enough, then please
feel more than free to repost your message with one caveat:  change
the offending/broken lines!  Reposting the same message again will
just get it fragmented again in the same place.  Repeatably.  Not fun. 


I can't give solid reccomendations on what to do to change the lines,
but I'd suggest doing all of the following:

  a) Insert a blank line where the mail server broke your mssage.
  b) Ensure that the line starts with a white space character.
  c) Break the first word of the line up with spaces, possibly 
     into individual letters, but at least into two fragments.
     (we'll graciously forgive the resultant spelling errors)

Other than that, I'll keep yelling upstairs and trying to get this
fixed.  Sorry for the bother.

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...