RMAIL: decoding messages read via movemail

RMAIL: decoding messages read via movemail

[Eli Zaretskii]

It sounds like rmail.el currently doesn't bother to look at the
Charset= header before it decodes a message in Babyl format; it only
does that for mbox-format messages.  This backfires when one fetches
email via POP with movemail, since movemail writes Babyl-format
messages in that case.  Quoted-printable decoding is also not done for
Babyl-format messages, so movemail/POP loses again.

In addition, if the message is encoded in base64, rmail doesn't decode
it as it does with quoted-printable.  This loses with some wacky mail
servers (such as Exchange) that tend to encode messages with non-ASCII
characters in base64, even if the message has only a single part and
uses 8-bit charsets perfectly suitable for quoted-printable.

Would it be a good idea to fix these deficiencies?  I have a patch to
rmail.el that fixes all of them (I'm using the patched rmail for the
last couple of months).  If the idea sounds reasonable, I will install
the changes in the CVS.

Re: RMAIL: decoding messages read via movemail

[Paul Michael Reilly]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:

> It sounds like rmail.el currently doesn't bother to look at the
> Charset= header before it decodes a message in Babyl format; it only
> does that for mbox-format messages.  This backfires when one fetches
> email via POP with movemail, since movemail writes Babyl-format
> messages in that case.  Quoted-printable decoding is also not done for
> Babyl-format messages, so movemail/POP loses again.
> 
> In addition, if the message is encoded in base64, rmail doesn't decode
> it as it does with quoted-printable.  This loses with some wacky mail
> servers (such as Exchange) that tend to encode messages with non-ASCII
> characters in base64, even if the message has only a single part and
> uses 8-bit charsets perfectly suitable for quoted-printable.
> 
> Would it be a good idea to fix these deficiencies?  I have a patch to
> rmail.el that fixes all of them (I'm using the patched rmail for the
> last couple of months).  If the idea sounds reasonable, I will install
> the changes in the CVS.

It sounds reasonable to me.

-pmr

Re: RMAIL: decoding messages read via movemail

[Richard Stallman]

    Would it be a good idea to fix these deficiencies?  I have a patch to
    rmail.el that fixes all of them (I'm using the patched rmail for the
    last couple of months).

It sounds good to me, assuming one possible problem case is not really
a problem.  The case is, what if you use the g command to get mail
from one Rmail file (really written by Rmail) into another?  Will it
do the right thing?  Will charset= headers that exist in that case be
correct, or not?  (I don't know, I didn't write that code in Rmail.)

The other point worth mentioning in this connection is that PMR has
made a branch which has a modified version or Rmail which uses Mail
format and no longer uses Babyl format.  Would you like to look
at these issues for that branch?

Re: RMAIL: decoding messages read via movemail

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
> Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 16:00:02 -0400
> 
> It sounds good to me, assuming one possible problem case is not really
> a problem.  The case is, what if you use the g command to get mail
> from one Rmail file (really written by Rmail) into another?  Will it
> do the right thing?  Will charset= headers that exist in that case be
> correct, or not?  (I don't know, I didn't write that code in Rmail.)

I think the code handles this case separately, because there's a
special header Emacs writes in such files.  But I will check (I use
those files myself, so it's important to me they work).

> The other point worth mentioning in this connection is that PMR has
> made a branch which has a modified version or Rmail which uses Mail
> format and no longer uses Babyl format.

Is movemail modified as well on that branch?

> Would you like to look at these issues for that branch?

I will look.  Is there any estimate when that branch will be merged
with the trunk?

Re: RMAIL: decoding messages read via movemail

[Richard Stallman]

    I think the code handles this case separately, because there's a
    special header Emacs writes in such files.  But I will check (I use
    those files myself, so it's important to me they work).

Thanks.

    > The other point worth mentioning in this connection is that PMR has
    > made a branch which has a modified version or Rmail which uses Mail
    > format and no longer uses Babyl format.

    Is movemail modified as well on that branch?

I don't think so, but movemail just copies the file, right?
Is there a case in which movemail converts to Babyl format?
If so, it needs to be changed so in that case it just outputs
mailbox format.

    > Would you like to look at these issues for that branch?

    I will look.  Is there any estimate when that branch will be merged
    with the trunk?

Whenever it is ready, I guess, except when in a feature freeze.

Re: RMAIL: decoding messages read via movemail

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
> Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 17:45:50 -0400
> 
>     > The other point worth mentioning in this connection is that PMR has
>     > made a branch which has a modified version or Rmail which uses Mail
>     > format and no longer uses Babyl format.
> 
>     Is movemail modified as well on that branch?
> 
> I don't think so, but movemail just copies the file, right?

Not in the POP3 mode, since there's no file to copy in that case.  In
that case, movemail itself creates the file, by writing each message
it gets via POP3.

> Is there a case in which movemail converts to Babyl format?

Yes, the POP3 case.

Re: RMAIL: decoding messages read via movemail

[Richard Stallman]

    > Is there a case in which movemail converts to Babyl format?

    Yes, the POP3 case.

Would someone like to change movemail, in Paul Reilly's branch,
to write the messages in mbox format instead?