[ python-Bugs-1590744 ] mail message parsing glitch

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Bugs item #1590744, was opened at 2006-11-05 04:21
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by bwarsaw
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Category: Python Library
Group: Python 2.5
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Mike (mcspang)
Assigned to: Barry A. Warsaw (bwarsaw)
Summary: mail message parsing glitch

Initial Comment:
There's something wrong with the handling of line
continuation in headers.

In the attached mbox the 'Message-id' header is read
and stored with a leading space. So message_id = '
<9B09D75DF5B3494BA06E6FE478CE9CC10526CFAF at mgtserver3.ontario.int.ec.gc.ca>'
when it's first read.

If you write this message out to a new mbox, it is
written with the leading space and without the newline.

THEN, if you read it in AGAIN, the parser ignores the
leading space.

One of these steps is buggy, I'm not sure which. It
seems to me that the value returned by
msg['Message_id'] should not change when the file is
written then re-read. In the initial read and final
reads above the value differs by a space.

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>Comment By: Barry A. Warsaw (bwarsaw)
Date: 2007-03-12 09:51

Message:
Logged In: YES 
user_id=12800
Originator: NO

This makes some sense, although it may not be ideal.  The "leading space"
is really an RFC 2822 continuation line, so that whitespace at the start of
the second line is folding whitespace.  Technically those two lines should
(and do) get collapsed.

The question is whether this message should be printed idempotently.  In
general the email package tries hard to maintain this principle, so I think
it's probably a valid bug.  However, it doesn't affect the semantics of the
message so it's not a high priority fix.

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