[KLUG Members] MIME and mail

[Adam Tauno Williams]

>Recently, I got this email:
> X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on pbgirusntsm3/ingerrand(Release 5.0.9a 
>	|January 7, 2002) at 03/05/2003 07:07:17 AM
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
> X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by mx0.mx.voyager.net 
>	id h25Bi2E2034060
>Whoa! Now, going from quoted-printable to 8 bit ISO-8859-1 isn't rocket
>science, but... is it normal to autoconvert MIME messages to 8 bit

I see MIME conversions in e-mail headers all the time,  I'd consider it normal.

>encoding on the MTA (mx0.mx.voyager.net was the first MTA at my ISP to
>get this message)? Is it a space-saving issue? exim says:

Not certain how it would save space.

>    This [option makes] exim advertise the 8BIT-MIME option. According to
>    RFC1652, this means it will take an 8bit message, and ensure it gets
>    delivered correctly. exim won't do this: it is entirely 8bit clean
>    but won't do any conversion if the next hop isn't. Therefore, if you
>    set this option you are asking exim to lie and not be RFC compliant.
>    But some people want it.
>Is exim being too conservative about transfer-encoding?

I've seen this hash out on other lists.  Generally sendmail fols say "Yes, not
all hosts are 8bit clean.",  Exim people say "It isn't a problem and all you
sendmail nancy boys worried about communication with a PDP 11 need to get a
grip."  Exchange folks are more like: "Huh?  Encoding? MIME? What are those?"