On Wed, 20-08-2014, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> text files always used a single linefeed newline terminator.
> An email message is a plain text file.
> I don't think this needs any documentation.
> maildirs originated with Qmail. There's quite a bit of history there. Qmail,
> like every other sane Linux/Unix software, stored mail in plain text files.
I understand there are historical reasons for courier to use LF-emails.
Note however that rfc 2822/5322 explicitely state that lines must end in CRLF,
further supported by the rfcs of the transmission protocols (SMTP, POP, IMAP…).
It's true that the MUA/MDA _may- choose to strip the CR from CRLF, but that's a
local decision, just like it could transcode it to EBCDIC.
> Even the old Berkeley mail, with an mbox files, used LF-deliminated lines..
I have seen CRLF-delimitated mboxes, and -even worse- mboxes with some
messages using CRLF and others LF.
Files are moved around, what you access locally today, may have an imap
frontend
tomorrow, your maildir can be network mounted... Supporting both line endings
seems appropriate.
In fact it would have been simpler for the server if the files used CRLF, as it
wouldn't need to reencode them, worry about virtual & phisical offsets, etc
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