Ben and Alex,

Ben Parker wrote:

> I suppose I'm going to this trouble because while I agree the MIME headers
> are not correct, I do not share your assumption that the fault must be in
> LISTSERV.  I think the change is being done by some agent outside of
> LISTSERV.  I'm sure there would be lots more noise from a lot more unhappy
> users if this were a widespread problem.  

> Further, my efforts to reproduce the exact steps in your case on 3 different
> servers (including one running 14.3 and two running 14.4) all produce a
> consistent subject: line "Delivery error report from (FQDN of server)" for
> both your original error (PW REPL) and Dan Wheeler's and my (slightly easier
> to test) error on the PW ADD command.  i.e. the nature of the kind of error
> did not produce a change in the Subject: line.  Further, none of my tests
> had a subject line of simply "Subject: Undelivered mail".  Since I cannot
> reproduce either the erroneous MIME headers or the 'interesting' change in
> Subject: line, I am not statisfied we have sufficient proof that this is an
> error in LISTSERV.  I remain open to further information from your
> investigation on your installation where the problem is occurring.

My gut feeling is that it is unlikely that Princeton's email system is 
changing the subject lines and messing up the MIME dividers. My working 
hypothesis is that something on the Princeton system is triggering a 
different part of LISTSERV that sends the "undelivered mail" reports 
rather than the "Delivery error report from..."

I've repeated the test I did using the same "[log in to unmask]" that 
was in Alex's original report. Here are the first two sections of the 
"Undelivered mail" messages that Alex sent:

 > --HQMTEQaJeNcOPZUAIbccPKHJWVUALb
 >
 > --> Error description:
 > Error-For:  [log in to unmask]
 > Error-Code: 5.1.1
 > Error-Text: 550 5.1.1 <[log in to unmask]>... User unknown.
 >
 > Error-End:  One error reported.
 >
 > --HQMTEQaJeNcOPZUAIbccPKHJWVUALb
 > Content-Type: message/delivery-status
 >
 > Reporting-MTA: dns; LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU
 >
 > Final-Recipient: RFC822; [log in to unmask]
 > Action: failed
 > Status: 5.1.1 (550 5.1.1 <[log in to unmask]>... User unknown)
 >
 > --HQMTEQaJeNcOPZUAIbccPKHJWVUALb

Here are the corresponding sections of the message I get with "Delivery 
error report from..." in the subject line:

 > --j8GFgn9l029521.1126885369/home.oln.org
 >
 > The original message was received at Fri, 16 Sep 2005 11:42:42
 > -0400 (EDT)
 > from home.oln.org [198.30.124.126]
 >
 >   ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
 > <[log in to unmask]>
 >    (reason: 550 <[log in to unmask]>: Recipient address rejected:
 > No such user ([log in to unmask]))
 >
 >   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
 > ... while talking to emfw2.princeton.edu.:
 > >>> DATA
 > <<< 550 <[log in to unmask]>: Recipient address rejected:
 > No such user ([log in to unmask])
 > 550 5.1.1 <[log in to unmask]>... User unknown
 > <<< 554 Error: no valid recipients
 > Message delivered to mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
 >
 > --j8GFgn9l029521.1126885369/home.oln.org
 > Content-Type: message/delivery-status
 >
 > Reporting-MTA: dns; home.oln.org
 > Received-From-MTA: DNS; home.oln.org
 > Arrival-Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 11:42:42 -0400 (EDT)
 >
 > Final-Recipient: RFC822; [log in to unmask]
 > Action: failed
 > Status: 5.1.1
 > Remote-MTA: DNS; emfw2.princeton.edu
 > Diagnostic-Code: SMTP; 550 <[log in to unmask]>: Recipient
 > address rejected: No such user ([log in to unmask])
 > Last-Attempt-Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 11:42:49 -0400 (EDT)
 >
 > --j8GFgn9l029521.1126885369/home.oln.org

I would expect these sections to be the same; they are based on error 
reports to exactly the same bad address at Princeton. But my system is 
getting a lot more information about the delivery failure (or at least a 
lot more verbiage).

I also note that the message Alex gave was from owner-LISTSERV. The 
messages I got were from just LISTSERV, not owner-LISTSERV.

I've reached these tentative conclusions:

1) Alex and I are getting messages generated by different code in LISTSERV.

2) There probably is a bug in the code for the MIME separators in the 
section that generates the "Undelivered mail" messages.

3) The code that generates the "Delivery error ..." messages is fine.

4) No one else has complained about the MIME separator problem because 
the "Undelivered mail" messages are rare. I don't think I have ever seen 
one.

5) Something in the way error messages are handled at Princeton is 
triggering the "Undelivered mail" script for all (many of?) the message 
for which the rest of us get "Delivery error ..." messages. Thus people 
at Princeton do have a serious problem.

These are tentative conclusions, subject to revision in the light of new 
evidence.

                                     Peace,  Dan

=>  Daniel D. Wheeler - Education & Psychology, Univ. of Cincinnati
==>  Email: [log in to unmask]      URL: http://wheeler.uc.edu
===>  Teaching Human Rights Online: http://oz.uc.edu/thro
====>  KIDLINK: http://www.kidlink.org