From: dawson@willard.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.bbs.waffle
Subject: Re: TRUNCATED BATCH(es)
Date: 21 Aug 92 01:48:20 GMT
Organization: Willard's House BBS, Atlanta, GA -- +1 (404) 664 8814

rat@ruth.UUCP (David Douthitt) writes:

> I was getting the same messages during my testing of my Fidonet-Usenet
> gateway.  After generating messages to port, rnews complained about truncated
> batch, and also "echoed" the last read data from the file again.
> 
> After some investigation, I determined that the problem was that I was
> generating files with CRLF pairs instead of the UNIX-style LF terminators.
> After fixing my software to generate LFs, this problem went away.
> 
> Moral: ask your host to use LF-terminated lines, not CRLF-lines and
> send a bug report to Tom. ("YO! TOM!"  :-)
> 
> 
> --
> UUCP: ....!remote.halcyon.com!ruth!rat  |  Network XXIII - +1 608 222 9253
> InterNet: rat@ruth.UUCP                 |  32 Megs of Usenet/Fidonet programs
> ==== Apple II Forever! ====             |  Files available more ways than
>                                         |  any other BBS in America!
> Files via: anon uucp, Fidonet FREQ, mail to archive-server@ruth.uucp, etc.


I have just recently had a rather heated discussion with a new Unix uucp
connection.  He claimed that elm, running on his ISC 2.2 w/ smail system
was barfing on my Waffle-generated mail messages.  I didn't want to believe
him, as we were using email to conduct this little argument, and as I have
sent mail to my own ISC 3.2 system (yes, those are really two different
versions of Unix).

Perhaps, before we go off yelling <BUG!>, just perhaps we ought to review
what really is defined by RFC-822.  I don't claim to be an expert on that
topic, but just for opening the discussion, I'd like to offer my last letter
to the aforementioned Unix sysadmin:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, I'm not sure, but my reading of RFC-822 (which is, I think, the current
RFC re: Internet Text Messages) leads me to question your interpretation of the
use of <CR><LF> to terminate headers... or was it in the message body that you
saw and questioned the <CR><LF> pairs?

You write:

> I didn't imply that you were less than adequate as a software engineer.  I di
> imply that the designer of waffle is less than adequate.  It's just plain
> irresponsible to send email to Unix systems with <CR><LF> line terminators
> PERIOD.  It's not your fault.

>From RFC-822 (January 13, 1983 !!!), 3.1, pages 5-6:

3.1.  General Description

          A message consists of header fields and, optionally, a body.
     The  body  is simply a sequence of lines containing ASCII charac-
     ters.  It is separated from the headers by a null line  (i.e.,  a
     line with nothing preceding the CRLF).

     ........

3.1.2.  Structure of Header Fields

        Once a field has been unfolded, it may be viewed as being com-
        posed of a field-name followed by a colon (":"), followed by a
        field-body, and  terminated  by  a  carriage-return/line-feed.
        The  field-name must be composed of printable ASCII characters
        (i.e., characters that  have  values  between  33.  and  126.,
        decimal, except colon).  The field-body may be composed of any
        ASCII characters, except CR or LF.  (While CR and/or LF may be
        present  in the actual text, they are removed by the action of
        unfolding the field.)
----------------------------------------
I interpret these (and others within the document) entries to mean:

  1)  A line is actually to be terminated by <CR><LF>.
  2)  There are no restrictions on what is in the content of the message
      body, other than it may be one or more lines containing ASCII chars.

So, several questions:

  1)  Is this the latest RFC with regard to Internet email?
  2)  Do either of us really care, as neither of us is likely to implement an
      alternative Internet email messaging program?  Except, of course, to
      evaluate software that we may use...

-- 
dawson@willard.UUCP (Willard Dawson)
Willard's House BBS, Atlanta, GA -- +1 (404) 664 8814