Avoiding expansion of mail's metacharacters

[Stan Barber]

This seems more like a discussion for net.mail.headers....

In article <138 at maynard.UUCP> campbell at maynard.UUCP (Larry Campbell) writes:
>
> Conceptually, the mail
>command line is the "envelope", containing delivery instructions.  The
>message header lines are part of the message, ignored by intermediate
>delivery agents, and used only by the final recipient.  (I'm speaking
>simplistically and ideally here...)
>
>To avoid shell metacharacter expansion, we just need to add an "envelope"
>portion of the message that contains delivery instructions.  The "To:"
>field in the message is for the recipient's benefit only;  the envelope
>portion would control delivery actions.
>
>
>Larry Campbell                     

Perhaps I am wrong, but my understanding of headers (from the RFC 822
point of view, at least), is that they form the envelope of the message
and the "To:" line is for the benefit of the mailer as well
as the recipient. The uux command line is generated from data contained in
the header (on my systems, at least).

I also think that it is a bit naive to assume that any site will
just forward a message without "looking" at it. This implies that
systems will look at the "To:" line before forwarding. 

Now, I am not advocating that all sites be RFC822-compliant, but many are
and will continue to be. I am mearly pointing out that the "To:" field is
not ignorable for anyone wishing to route messages through sites that
are RFC-822 compatable.



-- 
Stan		uucp:{ihnp4!shell,rice}!neuro1!sob     Opinions expressed
Olan		ARPA:sob at rice.arpa		       here are ONLY mine &
Barber		CIS:71565,623   BBS:(713)660-9262      noone else's.