[Mailman-Users] Strange E-mail Message About List Description

[Mark Sapiro]

On 5/6/2011 1:17 PM, Ralf Hildebrandt wrote:
> * Barry Finkel <bsfinkel at anl.gov>:
>> I created a new list today at 13:42 (Mailman 2.1.14), and the
>> "Description" field contained a "+" character, per the
>> customer's request.  At 14:00 I received an e-mail from
>>
>>     From: root at lists.anl.gov
>>     Subject: + in description for LISTNAME
>>
>> I cannot find anywhere in the source where this mail is
>> generated, and I do not know why Mailman objects to a
>> "+" character in the "Description" field.  There also is
>> a "+" character in the "Info" field, but there is no complaint
>> about that.  What generated the e-mail message, and what is
>> the problem with a "+" character in the "Description" field?
>> Thanks.
> 
> Depending on your setup of your MTA (which one?) mailing addresses
> with a "+" may be handle in unforeseen ways.
> 
> Which is why I had to change the mailinglist c++-sig into
> cplusplus-sig here at python.org :|


However, that would affect the use of a '+' in the listname. It would
have no effect on the use of '+' in the list's description. The list's
description is used as the "real name" portion of the list posting
address that can be added to a Reply-To: or Cc: or in the case of an
anonymous list From: header, but it should be properly encoded or quoted.

Mailman doesn't send this "+ in description for LISTNAME" message and
doesn't generate messages From: root in any case. I suspect a non-GNU
Mailman hourly cron.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan