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Re: unquoted period in display-name in address field?
From: |
David Levine |
Subject: |
Re: unquoted period in display-name in address field? |
Date: |
Sun, 2 May 2021 16:06:34 -0500 |
Greg wrote:
> i occasionally get e-mail messages to which i can't just reply, because
> i get an error
> ----
> post: no at-sign after local-part (<) gre.minshall <minshall@umich.edu>:
> Success, continuing...
> ----
The nmh address parser seems to handle that address if you insert a
space after the period, if that helps.
> today, i looked at the newer rfc5322. if i'm reading it correctly, it
> appears that the term "obs-phrase" (which is produced by "phrase', if
> i'm using "produced" in the right sense; phrase is produced by
> display-name), "suddenly" (well, at least since rfc2822, circa 2020)
> allows unquoted periods.
Right (in incoming, but not newly created, messages). This note in
RFC 5322 Sec 4.1 is kinda interesting, esp. in light of the comment
below:
Note: The "period" (or "full stop") character (".") in obs-phrase
is not a form that was allowed in earlier versions of this or any
other specification.
> if that's the case. is post then not obeying the spec? or, am i
> configuring something incorrectly?
You're right, post doesn't obey the spec. The relevant MH/nmh code is
in sbr/mf.c, which has this comment near the top:
* We should not allow addresses like
*
* Marshall T. Rose <MRose@UCI>
*
* but should insist on
*
* "Marshall T. Rose" <MRose@UCI>
*
* Unfortunately, a lot of mailers stupidly let people get away with
It's been that way since at least January 1990. I'm reluctant to
touch that code. If anyone is, it might be a useful project.
Coincidentally, I added an RFC 5322 address parser on a branch today,
in docs/contrib/ (not for integration into nmh proper). It doesn't
currently handle obs-phrase.
David