🚀 go-pugleaf

Well,  a  while  ago  I  decided  to  bite the bullet and write my own
mail-header munger, so I wouldn't have to spend so much  time  in  the
future  constantly  editing  headers to generate a reply.  The idea of
course is to write a little (perl) program that  grovels  through  the
headers  and  extracts  sufficient  info that it can figure out how to
generate a proper reply that stands a good chance  of  getting  there.
While  I'm at it, I've decided that it really isn't too hard for it to
recognize bounced mail and generate a second (or third or  ...)  guess
as to how to trick the email "system" into delivering.  Lots of fun.

One result of this so far is  a  high  degree  of  bemusement  at  the
interesting and amusing variety of headers that are flying about these
days.  Some of  the  authors  of  email  software  are  getting  quite
imaginative in the things they put into headers.

Does anyone know of any sort of good summary of what  to  expect  from
email  headers?   Of course, there's the RFC (let's see, which one was
it, now?) But this is just a start.  The Real World clearly  sees  any
such  "standard"  as  just  a rough guideline as to how headers should
look, and many email software developers clearly have  a  Better  Idea
than  just  slavishly  following the silly spec.  It's fun to rant and
rave about nonconforming implementations, but  that  doesn't  get  the
mail  delivered.   But then, learning about it in an ad-hoc, "what the
hell does THAT header mean?" fashion takes time.  There's Gotta  Be  A
Better Way.

Any good hints?  Has  someone  written  the  definitive  tome  on  the
subject?   Does  someone  have a useful (however sketchy) summary?  Or
should I just continue to collect new cases in my program, and try  to
guess what each might mean?

(I think I actually saw some X.400 headers the other day, but I'm  not
really too sure what the identifying field marks are; it's too hard to
extract them from the hype ...  ;-)

--
All opinions Copyright (c) 1992 by John Chambers. Inquire for licensing at:
1-617-647-1813 ...!{bu.edu,harvard.edu,eddie.mit.edu,ruby.ora.com}!minya!jc 
--
Pensu tutmonde; agu loke.
-- 
All opinions Copyright (c) 1992 by John Chambers. Inquire for licensing at:
1-617-647-1813 ...!{bu.edu,harvard.edu,eddie.mit.edu,ruby.ora.com}!minya!jc 
--
Pensu tutmonde; agu loke.