[Mailman-Developers] SF bug report #223533

[Barry A. Warsaw]

I'm in a mad quest to reduce the number of open Mailman bugs to under
50 so it fits on one page.  I'm nearly there.

I'd like to get some feedback on bug #223533:

    http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=223533&group_id=103&atid=100103

It's fairly old <blush> but it's complaining that there is no way to
tell the difference between a list posting and an administrative
message via the List-* headers.  I think it's actually recommending to
add another header(!) only to list postings.

I'm basing my opinion on RFCs 2919 and 2369:

    http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2919.html
    http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2369.html

The former outlines the List-ID: header and the latter outlines all
the other List-* headers.  Both of them describe when to add the
headers to an outgoing message:

[language taken from RFC 2369, but 2919 is the same -BAW]

3. The List Header Fields

      This document presents header fields which will provide the
      command syntax description for the 'core' and key secondary
      functions of most email distribution lists. The fields implemented
      on a given list SHOULD be included on all messages distributed by
      the list (including command responses to individual users), and on
      other messages where the message clearly applies to one distinct
      list. There MUST be no more than one of each field present in any
      given message.

      These fields MUST only be generated by mailing lists, not end
      users.

My interpretation of this paragraph says that Mailman is doing the
right thing by adding all those headers to all outgoing messages.  The
complaint is that you can't reliably set up something like a procmail
filter to distinguish between admin messages and postings, but I think
we're being standards compliant here and I'm inclined to close this
bug report as Won't Fix.

I'm open to other opinions.
-Barry