Message problems with this list

[coder at ibm.net]

We got a couple truncated messages at the list in the last couple
days, so I looked into the problem again as well as the prior broken
messages.

There are two problems:

  1) Multi-part MIME as I mentioned earlier.

  2) A bug with IBM's new mail servers.  This is the corker that's
been biting lately.

IBM recently upgraded their mail servers for greater capacity, applied
various patches etc.  Along the way they introduced an old old POP3
bug.  Those of you familiar with Solaris' POP3 server and its
content-length problems will know exactly what I'm referrring to.  The
problem:

  The POP3 server will erroneously interpret lines within the 
  body of the message as header lines.  

The classic case is to have a line in the middle of your text starting
with the word "From" (case sensitive).  The POP3 server will split the
message at that point turning it into two messages -- one with
headers, and one without.

I've reported this to IBM along with a full explanation of exactly
what is happening.  They are aware of the problem and its exact cause. 
The solution is not going to happen immediately (lotta servers and
testing).  A work-around for now:

If you must start a line in your message with "From": Don't.  Add a
space and make it " From".  That will be enough to skip by the bug. 
The requirement for the bug to hit is that the very first characters
on the line must be "From".  

Or just rephrase the sentance or some such similar.

<grrrr>

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder at ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...