🚀 go-pugleaf

Perhaps I missed some mention of this previously, but SysVR4 mail spool
format is different from the format of the past.  Mail message headers now
include "Content-Type" and "Content-Length" headers.  The contents of a
message should be determined by the "Content-Length" header, rather than by
a "From" starting in column 1.  Since with this format length the
"Content-Length" field indicates the length of the message "From" lines
will no longer be quoted, and therefore are no longer a valid way to split
a mail file into messages.

Here's an example generated on a 3B2 running SysVR4:

-------------start file-------------
From brennan Wed Jul 17 00:12 EDT 1991
To: brennan
Subject: test
Content-Type: text

this is a test message

--------------end file--------------

As is typical Unix (or should I say AT&T?) style, I can find no
documentation for this format anywhere.  It looks to me like the length
specified in the "Content-Length" header should be counted from the start
of the second line after it (ie: in this case the line starting with
"this").  It seems as though the headers for the message can be determined
by going back from the "Content-Length" line to the first blank line.

I'm not sure what other values are valid for the "Content-Type" field, but
mail readers might want to be be suspicious of values other than "text." 

Mail readers (like VM, elm, and Rmail) will have to be fixed to deal with
this.  There is also the issue of how to deal with existing mail folders.

I don't have solutions or patches, I just wanted to point this out.  I hope
someone can provide more detailed information.

                                          |\
Dave Brennan                              | \____oo_     brennan@rtp.dg.com
=========================================((__|  /___>    ...rti!dg-rtp!brennan
User Interfaces, Data General                | //        daveb@rpitsmts.bitnet
Research Triangle Park, NC                   |//         Phone: (919) 248-6330