[Mailman-Users] FW: Spamassassin content preview ending up posted to list

Mark Sapiro mark at msapiro.net
Thu Nov 6 05:35:37 CET 2014


On 11/05/2014 08:15 PM, Mark Sapiro wrote:
> 
> OK. I poked around and found the archived message at
> <http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/birding-aus/2014-11/msg00039.html>.
> 
> Something seemed to think that the line between 'Greg Roberts? [...]'
> and 'Content analysis details:' was empty even though in your post at
> least, it contains an ascii space.
> 
> An 'empty' line, i.e. the sequence <CR><LF><CR><LF> terminates the
> headers and the rest is the body.
> 
> This is really wierd because in the archived message, the List-* and
> X-Mailman headers are all added after the X-Spam-Flag: NO header which
> says at the point Mailman added those headers, it knew that the headers
> didn't end at the point prior to the "Content preview" line, but when
> the message was archived and presumably when sent to the list, that line
> started the 'body'
> 
> Also, if you base64 decode the encoded data at the end of the archived
> message, you see the actual plain text message body with some list
> footers added, and curiously, it too is missing the dot in the URL.


Additional question.

Did the post delivered to the list look like the archived message or was
the body just

> I heard or saw 5 Lewin's Rails and 12 Spotless Crakes today at a newly
> discovered wetland at Yandina Creek on the Sunshine Coast. Other good
> birds about included Black-necked Stork, Red-necked Avocet, Little
> Grassbird and a free-flying Mallard; genuinely wild Mallards are rare
> in south-east Queensland.
> This extensive area of grassland and wetland has enormous potential
> but is threatened by development. The Sunshine Coast Regional Council
> is being urged to purchase some of the privately owned land to
> conserve and manage the wetlands.
> See here for pictures, further information and a link where people can
> contact the mayor if they want to see the area protected:
> http://sunshinecoastbirdsblogspot.com.au/2014/11/yandina-creek-wetlands-and-its.html
> Greg Roberts 
> 
> <HR>
> <BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
> <BR> Birding-Aus at birding-aus.org
> <BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
> <BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
> </HR>

as decoded from the base64 in the archive? I suspect the latter. If so,
it's only the archiving process (which appears to not be Mailman's
pipermail) which mis-interpreted the end of the headers. Then the only
mystery that remains is the missing dot in the body. I think the dot
must have been missing in at least the text/plain part of the original
post. It's too much of a coincidence to think that spamassassin dropped
it in it's report before the message even reached the list and Mailman
also dropped it. I can't explain why it was present in the text/plain
part of the message you posted, but perhaps the forwarding from Outlook
to gmail reconstructed the text/plain from the text/html, admittedly a
stretch, but I have no real explanation.

[Composed before I read your last]

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


More information about the Mailman-Users mailing list