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Re: [cobalt-users] Qube2 Bcc: issues.....

At 09:21 AM 1/4/00  Jason Aspinall wrote:

Does anyone experience simliar problems with their Qube2 with not fully
parsing
the Bcc: header fields?
Though I've got a RaQ2 and not a Qube, these issues are Internet-related issues. Linux, the Qube, the RaQs, and even NTs and Apples, when used on the Internet, should all work the same way. (If they didn't, email wouldn't work.) 

Incoming email lesson:
No email program, server or client, can parse the Bcc: header field on incoming email. Simply, it DOES NOT exist. That's why it's a "Bcc" header rather than a "Cc:" header. It's NOT sent along with the email. It's stripped. 

That said, what does exist is the "envelope".
Think of an email as a letter. It comes to you in an envelope. The envelope shows who the mail is going to.
In a snail mail letter you can have one return address on the envelope, one recipient's address on the envelope, and yet completely different recipient and return addresses on the inside letter, right? 

Same thing with email.
Some program on YOUR system is doing something with that header before your copy of sendmail is getting it. No other way I can think of, since without the envelope address the email would never have gotten to your system, and sendmail always reads email envelopes and attempts delivery based on them. 


Very regularly we receive emails from various
list-servers/organisations or whatever, with valid email addresses within
the header, but without the To: field being a valid user within our Qube2
user list.
As I've already said, the "To:" field has abolutely NOTHING to do with email delivery. 


Each and every time we get these emails, they come through through to the
admin account to be dealt with, which is becoming tiresome :|
Is your admin account set as a default for any nonexistent email addresses sent to your domain? If so, then the mail in question is being sent to a non-existent address. If not, do you forward email from any addresses to the admin account? If so, then the email is being sent to one of those addresses.
If neither of the above seems obvious remember that one of the above is most likely true, and do some serious digging.
First place to look is the "Received:" headers on one of those received emails. For example, here's the "Received:" headers from your post to the list: 


Received: from list.cobalt.com (IDENT:root@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [63.77.128.170])
        by jeff.cari.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id JAA21788
        for <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Tue, 4 Jan 2000 09:24:51 -0800
Received: from list.cobalt.com (IDENT:mail@localhost [127.0.0.1])
        by list.cobalt.com (8.9.3/8.8.7) with ESMTP id JAA14748;
        Tue, 4 Jan 2000 09:23:32 -0800
Received: from mail.lion-breath.com (mail.lion-breath.com [62.172.76.135])
        by list.cobalt.com (8.9.3/8.8.7) with ESMTP id JAA14718
        for <cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Tue, 4 Jan 2000 09:23:28 -0800
Received: from hardeng1 ([192.168.42.100])
        by mail.lion-breath.com (8.9.2/8.9.2) with SMTP id RAA08974
        for <cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Tue, 4 Jan 2000 17:21:33 GMT
The received headers, from bottom to top, represent the path taken by the email.
Short version of explanation: Look at the topmost header. Is there a part of the field with something like ...for <address@xxxxxxx>?
If there is, that's the address the email was sent to. Is there a destination for this address on your system? If not, it may be going to your default "catchall" address. 

If there isn't one, then a bit more study is in order...
I don't know about the Qube; on my RaQ2 the mail log is at /var/log/maillog; it's a text file. Read the bottom of it; look for the date/time that's the same as the date/time in your topmost "Received:" field (the format won't be the same). There may be more than one entry for that time. It'll show you the address on the incoming email. 


Is there anyway to filter on header contents for email address/user names so
that they can pass on merrily to their intended recipient, as it's quite
clear the Qube2 is ignoring the Bcc: field that would normally have the
valid email/user address?
You can only read what you've got. You don't get a "Bcc:" header. You DO get an envelope. Sendmail, the pop daemon, and Linux 5.2 all work properly in this regard. I suppose it's possible that Cobalt has introduced something in the Qube that would break this, you'd find it by reading headers and logs as suggested above.
Mail CAN be filtered, using Procmail, but I don't see why you'd have to. If you do, however, you can filter on the "From:" address or the list-identifier (i.e.: [cobalt-users]" in the subject field. This is how I sort incoming list-mail into various folders in my email client. 

Jeff
--
Jeff Lasman, nobaloney.net
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