bug#25436: 25.1; sendmail does not add a Date: header in FCC

bug#25436: 25.1; sendmail does not add a Date: header in FCC

[Francesco Potortì]

When mail-user-agent is set to 'sendmail-user-agent, email saved to FCC
files does not include a Date: header.  Don't know if this happens for
other user agents as well.

I work around this bug by doing:

;; Work around 25.1 bug, who does not add a Date: header
(add-hook 'mail-send-hook
	  (lambda ()
	    (save-excursion
	      (goto-char (point-min))
	      (when (not (re-search-forward
			  "^Date: " (search-forward mail-header-separator) t))
		(insert "Date: " (mail-rfc822-date) "\n"))))
	  'append)



In GNU Emacs 25.1.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2016-10-24, modified by Debian built on trouble
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11900000
System Description:	Debian GNU/Linux testing (stretch)

Configured using:
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 --sharedstatedir=/var/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib
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 'CFLAGS=-g -O2
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Major mode: Emacs-Lisp

Minor modes in effect:
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Recent messages:
(ask-if-fcc ask-for-from-address mime-send-hook-function (lambda nil (save-excursion (save-restriction ... ...))) (lambda nil (save-excursion (goto-char ...) (insert "Date: " ... "
") (save-restriction ... ...))))
Mark set
Make carbon copy before sending? (y or n) y
Unfrobbing selective-display...
Sending...
Added to /tmp/a
Added to /home/pot/Mail/backup/SMAIL
Sending...done
Mark set [2 times]

Load-path shadows:
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~/elisp/bhl hides /usr/share/emacs25/site-lisp/bhl
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup hides /usr/share/emacs25/site-lisp/debian-startup

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bug#25436: 25.1; sendmail does not add a Date: header in FCC

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2017 15:15:23 +0100
> From: Francesco Potortì <pot@gnu.org>
> 
> When mail-user-agent is set to 'sendmail-user-agent, email saved to FCC
> files does not include a Date: header.

Works for me here, so some other factor is at work in your case.

Can you produce a full recipe, starting with "emacs -Q", and including
the necessary customizations of mail-related variables, until you can
send a message which exhibits this problem?  I'd like to compare that
with what I have here.

Thanks.

bug#25436: 25.1; sendmail does not add a Date: header in FCC

[Francesco Potortì]

>> Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2017 15:15:23 +0100
>> From: Francesco Potortì <pot@gnu.org>
>> 
>> When mail-user-agent is set to 'sendmail-user-agent, email saved to FCC
>> files does not include a Date: header.
>
>Works for me here, so some other factor is at work in your case.
>
>Can you produce a full recipe, starting with "emacs -Q", and including
>the necessary customizations of mail-related variables, until you can
>send a message which exhibits this problem?  I'd like to compare that
>with what I have here.

Here you are:

$ emacs -Q
M-: (setq mail-user-agent 'sendmail-user-agent)
C-xm
add a recipient, subject and text at will
C-cC-fC-f
specify an FCC file at will
C-cC-c
transport RET

Now if I look at the FCC file, I see that the sent mail does not contain
a Date: header.

Thank you for looking into this

bug#25436: 25.1; sendmail does not add a Date: header in FCC

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2017 15:41:07 +0100
> From: Francesco Potortì <pot@gnu.org>
> Cc: 25436@debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> $ emacs -Q
> M-: (setq mail-user-agent 'sendmail-user-agent)
> C-xm
> add a recipient, subject and text at will
> C-cC-fC-f
> specify an FCC file at will
> C-cC-c
> transport RET
> 
> Now if I look at the FCC file, I see that the sent mail does not contain
> a Date: header.

I did the above, and I do see the "Date" header.  However, I needed a
few additional settings before I could proceed after "C-c C-c".  Here
are the variables I needed to set:

  user-full-name
  user-mail-address
  smtpmail-smtp-server
  smtpmail-smtp-service
  smtpmail-stream-type

Not sure if any of the above is relevant to the issue at hand.

Can you step through sendmail-send-it, and see what happens there with
the date header?  According to my reading of the code, by the time
mail-do-fcc is invoked, the Date header is supposed to be already in
the mail buffer, and that buffer is inserted verbatim into FCC.

bug#25436: 25.1; sendmail does not add a Date: header in FCC

[Francesco Potortì]

>> Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2017 15:41:07 +0100
>> From: Francesco Potortì <pot@gnu.org>
>> Cc: 25436@debbugs.gnu.org
>> 
>> $ emacs -Q
>> M-: (setq mail-user-agent 'sendmail-user-agent)
>> C-xm
>> add a recipient, subject and text at will
>> C-cC-fC-f
>> specify an FCC file at will
>> C-cC-c
>> transport RET
>> 
>> Now if I look at the FCC file, I see that the sent mail does not contain
>> a Date: header.
>
>I did the above, and I do see the "Date" header.  However, I needed a
>few additional settings before I could proceed after "C-c C-c".  Here
>are the variables I needed to set:
>
>  user-full-name
>  user-mail-address
>  smtpmail-smtp-server
>  smtpmail-smtp-service
>  smtpmail-stream-type

Hm.  It seems you did not send using sendmail (which is what 'transport
does in my recipe), but you used 'smtp instead.  In my running Emacs,
the last three variables are not even defined.

user-full-name is initialised (if I am not wrong) from /etc/passwd

user-mail-address, in may case, is taken from the $EMAIL env var

bug#25436: 25.1; sendmail does not add a Date: header in FCC

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:17:05 +0100
> From: Francesco Potortì <pot@gnu.org>
> Cc: 25436@debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> >> Now if I look at the FCC file, I see that the sent mail does not contain
> >> a Date: header.
> >
> >I did the above, and I do see the "Date" header.  However, I needed a
> >few additional settings before I could proceed after "C-c C-c".  Here
> >are the variables I needed to set:
> >
> >  user-full-name
> >  user-mail-address
> >  smtpmail-smtp-server
> >  smtpmail-smtp-service
> >  smtpmail-stream-type
> 
> Hm.  It seems you did not send using sendmail (which is what 'transport
> does in my recipe), but you used 'smtp instead.

This is MS-Windows; there's no sendmail here.

But that's the MTA, which should not matter in this case, I think.
The mail-user-agent is set to sendmail-send-it here, which is what
should matter.  The important question is why Date is not generated in
the mail buffer in your case.

> user-full-name is initialised (if I am not wrong) from /etc/passwd
> 
> user-mail-address, in may case, is taken from the $EMAIL env var

Yes, but that shouldn't matter.

bug#25436: 25.1; sendmail does not add a Date: header in FCC

[Glenn Morris]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:

> The important question is why Date is not generated in
> the mail buffer in your case.

Are you sure?
emacs -Q
C-x m
  -> No Date: header in mail buffer.

This seems correct, because if Date was added then, it might have no
relation to when the message was sent.

smtpmail-send-it adds Date: at sending time.

sendmail.el has always relied on "sendmail" adding Date:, AFAICS.
mail-do-fcc only adds Date: for Babyl files.
Perhaps the date in the mbox From line was assumed to be good enough for
the alternative case.

bug#25436: 25.1; sendmail does not add a Date: header in FCC

[Francesco Potortì]

>Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>
>> The important question is why Date is not generated in
>> the mail buffer in your case.
>
>Are you sure?
>emacs -Q
>C-x m
>  -> No Date: header in mail buffer.
>
>This seems correct, because if Date was added then, it might have no
>relation to when the message was sent.
>
>smtpmail-send-it adds Date: at sending time.
>
>sendmail.el has always relied on "sendmail" adding Date:, AFAICS.
>mail-do-fcc only adds Date: for Babyl files.
>Perhaps the date in the mbox From line was assumed to be good enough for
>the alternative case.

Ok, thanks for checking.  That's exactly what I was thinking, but had no
time to verify.

As far as I understand, the only change needed is in mail-do-fcc:


--- sendmail.el	2017-01-13 14:46:08.715407789 +0100
+++ sendmail.el.orig	2017-01-13 14:46:18.735581196 +0100
@@ -1408,7 +1408,6 @@ just append to the file, in Babyl format
 	(require 'mail-utils)
 	(insert (mail-rfc822-time-zone time) " ")
 	(goto-char (point-max))
-	(insert "Date: " (mail-rfc822-date) "\n")
 	(insert-buffer-substring mailbuf)
 	;; Make sure messages are separated.
 	(goto-char (point-max))

bug#25436: 25.1; sendmail does not add a Date: header in FCC

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2017 19:38:41 +0100
> From: Francesco Potortì <pot@gnu.org>
> Cc: 25436@debbugs.gnu.org, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
> 
> >smtpmail-send-it adds Date: at sending time.
> >
> >sendmail.el has always relied on "sendmail" adding Date:, AFAICS.
> >mail-do-fcc only adds Date: for Babyl files.
> >Perhaps the date in the mbox From line was assumed to be good enough for
> >the alternative case.
> 
> Ok, thanks for checking.  That's exactly what I was thinking, but had no
> time to verify.
> 
> As far as I understand, the only change needed is in mail-do-fcc:
> 
> 
> --- sendmail.el	2017-01-13 14:46:08.715407789 +0100
> +++ sendmail.el.orig	2017-01-13 14:46:18.735581196 +0100
> @@ -1408,7 +1408,6 @@ just append to the file, in Babyl format
>  	(require 'mail-utils)
>  	(insert (mail-rfc822-time-zone time) " ")
>  	(goto-char (point-max))
> -	(insert "Date: " (mail-rfc822-date) "\n")
>  	(insert-buffer-substring mailbuf)
>  	;; Make sure messages are separated.
>  	(goto-char (point-max))

Thanks, I preferred to use message-make-date instead.

I'm closing the bug, feel free to reopen if something else is missing.

bug#25436: 25.1; sendmail does not add a Date: header in FCC

[Francesco Potortì]

Date: 13 Jan 2017 19:38:41 +0100
>Perhaps the date in the mbox From line was assumed to be good enough for
>the alternative case.

By the way, the problem would be much less important if
rmail-sort-by-date resorted to the date from the From header when a
Date: header is not found, rather than assuming a date of -Inf.