On Fri, 9 Sep 1994 10:28:00 CDT you said:
>A subscriber to one of my lists is receiving truncated messages.  Is
>there any reason why they wouldn't be getting the whole thing?
>
>Jim Mott
>
 
   The most common "classic" problem (ie. old) is that some system along
the way isn't handling a period in the DATA (mail) correctly.  Below is
the test / error message I send to folks complaining about this.  However,
the path taken by mail from a list may be different from direct mail so
results may vary.  You can also send the test data to various hosts along
the way to help find the system causing the error.
 
                                             Marty Hoag
 
--- canned error message: ---
 
Possible Problem Description:
 
   When sending e-mail via SMTP (and maybe other protocols) the end of
the "DATA" portion of the mail is a single period (".") on a "line" by
itself (ie.  CR LF . CR LF ).
 
   When mail containing a period is sent out it is "escaped" by adding
another period in front of it.  Then on receipt if the line starts with
two periods one is removed.  If it is a single period then the body is
terminated.
 
Test Data:
 
   I will include three sections below each identified with a one
letter (A, B, C) Test ID.  Let me know which is the last one you
received.  There may be other conditions which contribute to the
problem but often a simple test will "flush it out".  Marty
 
Test
ID
 
A.  Start of test - I hope you got this one!
    The next line will have TWO periods in it.
..
B.  Line after the two periods at the start of the line.
    The next line with have exactly ONE period in it.
.
C.  This is the line after the line with ONE period in it.
    This is the last section.  If you got this then we didn't trigger
    the error.
    End of test.   Marty