#714: Lines starting From aren't escaped saving from Maildir to mbox Comment (by vinc17):
Replying to [comment:17 rtc]: > From_ must be quoted in some way; if not, the end of the message cannot be uniquely determined anymore. No, with some formats, it doesn't need to be quoted. Also, if a line starting with "From" doesn't have the expected format, it doesn't need to be quoted. Mutt does this check when reading a mailbox (if the Content- Length is either incorrect or missing). > To the best of my knowledge, procmail, exim and postfix never read from a mailbox (correct me if I am wrong), but only append to it, so they never have to assume a mailbox format, but only write messages in one. To write a message, they need to assume a format. For instance, if some message contains a line starting with ">From ", it will have to be written as ">From " in mboxo (this is what procmail, exim and postfix do), but it will have to be written as ">>From " in mboxrd. > Assuming mboxrd format when reading a mail from a mboxo format mailbox has not more problems than assuming mboxo format when reading a mail from a mboxo format mailbox. This is incorrect. Assuming that in general, a line starting with "From " doesn't need to be quoted (see above), assuming mboxo format will lead to fewer message "corruptions". > > No information is lost when the mail is written. It is lost only when the mail is stored to some mbox format. > > In fact, it is only lost when the mail is stored to some mbox format other than mboxrd. No (see above). > There is no such thing as "the mbox format". It is always better to assume mboxrd. It has the clear advantage that the message is retrieved correctly at least for one case: The case that the file was written in mboxrd format. No, this is wrong (see above). > I am not exactly sure whether you have understood the problem that mboxrd solves. mboxo mailboxes always involve a loss of information. No, this is wrong. If you have no lines starting with "From " (or if the software is smart enough to detect that they don't need to be quoted, that is, most of the time), there is no loss of information. -- Ticket URL: <http://dev.mutt.org/trac/ticket/714#comment:18>
