On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 04:25:03PM -0500, Kurt Hackenberg wrote: > On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 02:47:40PM -0500, Derek Martin wrote: > > > Yes. I seem to recall having a discussion about the from line's exact > > format being unpredictable, and for that reason (IIRC) mutt quite > > intentionally did not try to parse it. Too much variation in too many > > clients, and also the info in it was not interesting. IIRC the date > > in a From_ line is not interesting because the e-mail should carry the > > Date header, and the from line's date may indicate nothing especially > > useful, if it even exists, which is not required. > > The reason to parse an mbox From_ line is not that the data is useful; it's > not useful. The reason to parse it is to identify it as an mbox From_ line, > rather than a message line that starts with "From " but is not escaped with > '>'.
This is categorically false, for reasons you actually quoted above. The From_ line has no standard format and is not reliable. If you want robust behavior (I do!) you should only parse it insofar as it starts with "From " and there is something after that, and the data that follows should be ignored. -- Derek D. Martin http://www.pizzashack.org/ GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02 -=-=-=-=- This message is posted from an invalid address. Replying to it will result in undeliverable mail due to spam prevention. Sorry for the inconvenience.
