Administrative topics

From: Sarasvati (root@unicode.org)
Date: Wed Mar 28 2001 - 16:01:29 EST


Two administrative topics.

One:

The [unicode] tag on this mail list has been removed. The ratio of users
who politely expressed delight to users who vehemently expressed disgust
was approximately 4:7. An interesting ratio. Thank you for your
participation in this experiment.

Two:

Recently, there have been several messages sent through this list that
have been returned as undeliverable to nearly 30 subscribers. In attempting
to track this down, I have learned several things.

<geekspeek>
RFC 822 defines the message id field as follows:

     msg-id = "<" addr-spec ">" ; Unique message id
     addr-spec = local-part "@" domain ; global address
     local-part = word *("." word) ; uninterpreted
                                                 ; case-preserved
     domain = sub-domain *("." sub-domain)
     sub-domain = domain-ref / domain-literal
     domain-ref = atom ; symbolic reference

Message ids are supplied by whatever mail program originates the message.
I have learned that some ISP mailers are producing "illegal" Message-ID
headers, and recently some mail gateways have begun responding by refusing
to relay the mail to their users. I do not know how widespread this problem
is. Messages originating at Unicode.ORG should have valid message ids, but
messages to the list may originate at an ISP that produces illegal
headers. When this happens, I receive many bounces with error messages like
the following:

           553 5.0.0 Illegal Message-Id
           554 We don't accept mail with invalid message ids
           553 Header Error.Please check with your postmaster your Message ID.
           553 Header error
           553 5.0.0 Header error
           553 Header error (msgid)
           554 Your message has been returned by our UCE/spam filter. (#5.7.1)
           553 5.0.0 Header Error MsgID

Here is an example of a legal Message-ID header:
        Message-id: <15035.49694.945549.19724@helion.crl.nmsu.edu>

and of an illegal Message-ID header:
        Message-id: <000d01c0b2ec$f58cb840$0c680b41@c1340594a>

Some mail gateways are apparently refusing messages for which the domain
part of the ID cannot be resolved to an actual domain. I am merely
reporting this because some users may be affected.
</geekspeek>

Cheery regards from your,
        -- Sarasvati



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