AlHall.osbunorth@XEROX.ARPA (05/30/85)
Do any of you depend upon the ordering of ARPA headers ? The answer to this question would help me decide how much of the "extra" information of the ARPA header needs to be preserved when the header is parsed into X.400 Attributes. For example, I assume that a set of Received: fields should be kept in order, but does it make a difference to anyone if the entire block was moved to, say, the end of the ARPA header ? Thanks, Al
dpk@BRL.ARPA (Doug Kingston) (05/31/85)
Ordering of Received lines should be preserved. Although they are normally dated, having them in order prevents confusion and protects against bad dates. -Doug-
greep@rand-unix.ARPA (Steve Tepper) (06/01/85)
Following the general guidelines about being a "strict constructionist" about what you send but a "liberal" about what you accept, you should be prepared to accept out-of-order "received" fields from other hosts. I'm pretty sure I've seen mail come in with "received" fields out of order (i.e. after other fields, not just out of chronological order among themselves), so it's a pretty safe bet that you'll get in trouble if you count on everyone doing the right thing.