Jude DaShiell wrote: > This year I have been running into so many broken message headers I'm about > to give up on both e-mail and newsgroups. nettamer can't handle these well > at all and
I've noticed issues with headers in this group lately, with a particular run of broken Date: headers that make sorting a mess. I've had other weirdness that seems to break MS Outlook Express via IMAP, but I'm not sure it's due to headers. It is limited to this group (which is kinda ironic) but no doubt it's a common problem. > I'm also curious to know if any software utility other than the > dos delete command can be used to fix up the files so those broken message > headers are replaced by at least an arbitrary message header that has broken > message header as the subject: of the message and probably from nobody > courtesy of microsoft on the from: line. Under Unix, the "formail" program can do just that. Formail can be used to generate a "minimally correct" set of headers, as well as fix/add/replace various headers. It can also intelligently remove extraneous headers, which is handy when "header bloat" gets annoying. I realize you probably want a DOS version. I've done a quick search, but don't see any ports, but the source for formail is readily available. (Are there any Unix-DOS porters on the list? I used to do quite a bit, but I don't have the tools now.) The source might be worth a perusal if only to get some ideas for sed massaging. > Missing information can be filled > in by arbitrary info by software utilities if they're written to do so. Formail can create missing From_, Message-ID: and Date headers: (though I haven't used it for that yet myself). > I > can do some of this with sed, but what I'm wondering is if the octette count > has to be accurate too. If so, this'll be a real challenge for sed unless > sed can count bytes and do the math conversions. As far as the mail format itself goes, no. I routinely mangle messages as they come in, or I file them off to various IMAP folders. However, your mail reading software may have some expectations.I guess you could test easily enough by copying a "good" message, then adding to it. > By the way, does anyone > know what an octette is in relation to a byte and a kilobyte? Ben nailed it. Octet -- at least in techie-talk -- is just an unambigous way of specifying an "8 bit" byte/character/pattern. I first came across it in networking documents, where they needed to get past confusion relating to machine word size, transmission protocols and such. Do you have a wc (wordcount) program? - Bob To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
