On Fri, 16 Oct 1992 09:57:28 EDT Geert K. Marien said:
>   Hello folks ...  I  was wondering if anyone can see  why this item of
>mail was rejected  and if it is  because of the From: in  the mail body,
>why should Listserv reject  it if it has the > in front  of it?  Does it
>help to have Listserv (this requires some opinion here) reject such mail
>items - i.e. are there any legitimate reasons for that to be the case?
 
 The loop check code translates several characters to blanks before scanning
 for "From:" etc...  Both '<' and '>' are among them, so you're absolutely
 correct.  Preceeding a header line with a '>' isn't sufficient.  If the
 reply was formtted by a piece of software, I'd suggest changing it if
 possible.  Using some other character in place of '>' ('*' for instance)
 will work fine.  Alternatively, just change the ':' in the ">From:<user..."
 line to a blank to avoid tripping up the loop detection code.  If it's not
 possible to change the e-mail software, you could ask the user to type a
 blank over the ':' in the encapsilated header line.  This is the first time
 I've seen a "reply to this letter" function duplicate a header line exactly
 in the body of the mail message.  Usually they reformat the information
 somehow.  For example, the first line of this mail message is a redisplay
 of the information in the header of your mail.
 
 You also ask if this specific behavior is helpful in trapping loops.
 I believe it is, since some gateyways format delivery notices with
 encapsilated mail headers.  Since there's no foolproof method of recognizing
 delivery errors, heuristics like those employed by LISTSERV are important.
 
>   Or, did I miss some other obvious problem?
>
>Thanks,
>
>/Geert
 
 -jj