[Mailman-Users] munging the To: line?

Mark Sapiro mark at msapiro.net
Thu Dec 1 13:44:32 EST 2016


On 11/30/2016 06:16 PM, Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
> 
> I've got From: munging turned on, so posts to a list I administer come
> "from" addresses like
> John Smith via mylist <mylist at example.com>
> 
> Frequently, list users will post to the list by replying to a previous
> message, and I'll end up getting a message with a To: header like
> 
> To: John Smith via mylist <mylist at example.com>


Assuming you are not munging Reply-To:, i.e., reply_goes_to_list is
Poster, the original message from the list should have headers

To: mylist at example.com
From: John Smith via mylist <mylist at example.com>
Reply-To: John Smith <john's real address>

According to standards, Reply-To: trumps From: for replies and a simple
'reply' should be addressed to 'John Smith <john's real address>' and
'reply-all' to 'John Smith <john's real address>' and
'mylist at example.com' from the original To:.

So part of the issue here is some of your users have misbehaving MUAs,
but there's little if anything you can do about that.


> and it goes out to the list with that To: header.
> 
> Since this can be confusing, I'd like to munge the To: line as it
> comes through so it ends up saying
> 
> To: My List <mylist at example.com>
> 
> Is there a way to do this through standard configuration options (and
> how?), or do I need to write a handler?


All you can do with standard config options is enable Full
Personalization. Then messages will be personalized to each recipient
with headers like

To: <recipient's address>
From: John Smith via mylist <mylist at example.com>
Reply-To: John Smith <john's real address>
Cc: <mylist at example.com>

Then the misbehaving MUAs may still address 'reply all' To: John Smith
via mylist <mylist at example.com>, but that will be replaced in the
outgoing message with the recipient's address.

Otherwise, A custom handler could easily munge a To: (or Cc:) header to
replace any 'xxx via mylist <mylist at example.com>' with just 'mylist
<mylist at example.com>'

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


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