[Mailman-Developers] Use of tabs when folding header lines -- increasing subject length as a test

[Nathan Herring]

On 12/2/05 1:42:35 AM, "Brad Knowles" <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org> wrote:

> At 3:20 PM -0800 2005-11-28, Nathan Herring wrote:
> 
>>  I am a member of a list which uses mailman 2.1.2, and I am experiencing
>>  strangeness in Outlook as a result of the modifications mailman performs
>>  on list posts.
> 
> Note that the latest released version of Mailman is 2.1.6, and
> there have been a number of improvements made since 2.1.2.  It is
> possible that whatever problem you are experiencing has already been
> fixed, but you should check the latest code.

I admit to not having installed it myself, nor looked at any code (a
behavior which is frowned upon by my current employer). However, I did
review the archive of this list back through to the 2.1.2 relase mail, and
then went through the bug reports without seeing any mention of this problem
or a fix that would be relevant.

>>  Specifically, when it (re)folds the Subject: and/or Thread-Topic: headers,
>>  it replaces a space character in the original subject with a tab character.
> 
> Also keep in mind that Mailman uses a lot of built-in Python
> routines for handling stuff, and some of those routines might include
> the handling and formatting of e-mail messages.  You want to make
> sure that you're using the latest version of Python that is
> compatible with the version of Mailman you've got.  Unfortunately,
> while the people working on Mailman tend to be pretty well aware of
> the various mail-related RFCs, the people writing the code and
> libraries within Python itself may not be.

I'll try to find out what versions of the OS and Python are running on my
list administratrix's server, in case that makes a difference.

> You should at least try to check the code to make sure where the
> fault lies.

Aye, there's the rub. If I were permitted, I'd have done it already. :/

> Other than that, I can't provide any specific assistance to you,
> but I would be very curious to know what the real problem is, and
> where the fault lies.

I've increased the subject length of this mail, and removed the
"[Mailman-developers]" attribution, so we can see firsthand whether or not
this list, which purports to be running 2.1.6, and I presume is running a
suitable version of Python, has the same issue.

-nh