[Mailman-Users] Using mailman to take care of mailer-demons

[Barry A. Warsaw]

>>>>> "JCL" == J C Lawrence <claw at kanga.nu> writes:

    JCL> The problem is that Mailman attempts the parse the body of a
    JCL> bounce to determine subscriber address.  As the message body
    JCL> format is not standardised this is an error prone process
    JCL> (which also explains the attraction of VERP).

Actually, the bounce format /is/ standardized in RFC 1894,
i.e. Delivery Status Notifications (DSN), and of course Mailman groks
DSN.  It's just that many MTA authors hate this RFC for being overly
complex (can't completely blame them), and decide to roll their own
instead.  VERP works because of RFC 2821 which they can't ignore!

A special place in hell is reserved for the authors of MSExchange who
not only decided to roll their own, but also made the brilliant
decision to include absolutely nothing in the bounce message which
even hints at the remotest morsel of a clue as to the intended
recipient.  VERP to the rescue!

-Barry