djb@cbnews.att.com (David J. Bryant) (02/01/91)
From what I can tell, there are several mail headers that contain information
useful in determining the reply address for a message received (Sender:,
Reply-to:, Return-Path:, From: and From_). Not all of these are provided
by mail agents I know and use, though 'mush' is capable of adding header
lines like Sender: and Reply-to:, and can be told in which order to check for
these fields in formulating the reply address.
Two (compound) questions, then:
1) What is the "standard" order in which these fields should be checked to
formulate a reply? (In other words, what should I set reply_to_hdr to
be?) If there's not a standard, is their a best choice you mail gurus
would recommend? Is mush's default setting the best one for me to use?
2) Which of these fields should I set using mush's my_hdr command? I can,
for example, set the Sender: header to be my preferred send-to address,
but is that better than setting Reply-to:? Are either (or both) of these
fields guaranteed to be untouched by mail agents, or is it the case that
one (or both) may be re-written at will by mailers through who my mail
passes?
What made me curious about this was an observation that some mail I receive
has dissimilar values for From:, From_ and Return-Path:, with few using
Sender: or Reply-to:. In some cases, the values seem to depend on which
hosts the mail traversed, producing different sets of headers for two mail
messages to me from the same person.
What do all these fields mean? To which ones should I give most weight
in deciding how to reply to a message, and how to tell other people the
best way to reach me?
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Columbus, Ohio 43213 FAX: (614) 868-4302andrew@calvin.doc.ca (Andrew Patrick) (02/01/91)
In article <1991Jan31.203213.21271@cbnews.att.com> djb@cbnews.att.com (David J. Bryant) writes: > >From what I can tell, there are several mail headers that contain information >useful in determining the reply address for a message received (Sender:, >Reply-to:, Return-Path:, From: and From_). Not all of these are provided >by mail agents I know and use, though 'mush' is capable of adding header >lines like Sender: and Reply-to:, and can be told in which order to check for >these fields in formulating the reply address. > >Two (compound) questions, then: > >1) What is the "standard" order in which these fields should be checked to > formulate a reply? (In other words, what should I set reply_to_hdr to > be?) If there's not a standard, is their a best choice you mail gurus > would recommend? Is mush's default setting the best one for me to use? I have had the most luck with: set reply_to_hdr='reply-to from return-path sender from_' > >2) Which of these fields should I set using mush's my_hdr command? I can, > for example, set the Sender: header to be my preferred send-to address, > but is that better than setting Reply-to:? Are either (or both) of these > fields guaranteed to be untouched by mail agents, or is it the case that > one (or both) may be re-written at will by mailers through who my mail > passes? I just set the Reply-To header: my_hdr Reply-to: andrew@calvin.doc.ca -- Andrew Patrick, Ph.D. Department of Communications, Ottawa, CANADA andrew@calvin.doc.CA "The interface IS the program."
murray@motto.UUCP (Murray S. Kucherawy) (02/04/91)
andrew@calvin.doc.ca.UUCP writes: >djb@cbnews.att.com (David J. Bryant) writes: >>Two (compound) questions, then: >> >>1) What is the "standard" order in which these fields should be checked to >> formulate a reply? (In other words, what should I set reply_to_hdr to >> be?) If there's not a standard, is their a best choice you mail gurus >> would recommend? Is mush's default setting the best one for me to use? > >I have had the most luck with: > >set reply_to_hdr='reply-to from return-path sender from_' That's roughly what I use as well... with a "return-receipt-to" in there as well. >>2) Which of these fields should I set using mush's my_hdr command? I can, >> for example, set the Sender: header to be my preferred send-to address, >> but is that better than setting Reply-to:? Are either (or both) of these >> fields guaranteed to be untouched by mail agents, or is it the case that >> one (or both) may be re-written at will by mailers through who my mail >> passes? > >I just set the Reply-To header: > >my_hdr Reply-to: andrew@calvin.doc.ca Normally you should just put your userid in there, and sendmail/smail/whatever will add the rest, be it hostname! before your userid, or @machine.site.domain after your userid. >-- >Andrew Patrick, Ph.D. Department of Communications, Ottawa, CANADA >andrew@calvin.doc.CA > "The interface IS the program." =============================== Murray S. Kucherawy ========================== Motorola Canada, Ltd. Communications Division, Toronto [on work term] University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada 2B Math/Computer Science Internet: murray@motto.UUCP (work) mskucherawy@watmath.UWaterloo.ca (UW) UUCP: uunet!utai!lsuc!motto!murray uunet!watmath!mskucherawy