[pmmail-list] [mkc] bcc: Inconvenience

[Tim Roberts]

On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 03:30:51 -0400 (EDT), Carl Gehr wrote:

>On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 17:00:58 -0700, Tim Roberts wrote:
>>
>>My expectation was that your description is correct: the e-mail client 
(i.e., 
>>PMMail) should strip the Bcc: line out before sending it via SMTP. 
>
>Then, please tell me:
>	HOW can SMTP possibly know WHO to send the BLIND copies to
>	if it never sees the 'bcc' tags because PMMail strips the
>	IDs?

There are two parts to an SMTP session: the SMTP protocol part, and the e-
mail message part.  Here is an example of a complete SMTP session:

    HELO probo.com
    MAIL FROM: <timr@probo.com>
    RCPT TO: <carl.gehr@attglobal.net>
    RCPT TO: <pmmail-list@blueprintsoftwareworks.com>
    RCPT TO: <timr@probo.com>
    DATA
    Subject: Testing BCC lists
    Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 09:09:49 -0700 (PDT)
    From: Tim Roberts <timr@probo.com>
    To: "PMMail list" <pmmail-list@blueprintsoftwareworks.com>
    Cc: "Tim Roberts" <timr@probo.com>

    This is a test message.
    .

The part with the four-letter commands ending with DATA (and the lone "." at 
the end) is the SMTP protocol.  That's called the "envelope".  The rest of it 
is just an RFC822 message.  As far as SMTP is concerned, the message is just 
an arbitrary chunk of character data without form.  Sendmail does NOT parse 
the message to figure out who to deliver to; ALL of that comes from the 
envelope, and the envelope is not transmitted to the eventual recipient.  It 
is that separation that allows for bccs.

In this example, carl.gehr@attglobal.net was a Bcc address.  He is listed in 
the envelope, but not in the message.  He will receive the message, but will 
not be able to see why.  PMMail accumulates all of the To: names, all of the 
Cc: names, and all of the Bcc: names, and converts them to "RCPT TO:" 
commands in the SMTP.  Everything else is just a convention.

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@probo.com
  Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.


- pmmail-list - The PMMail Discussion List ---------------------------
To POST to the list, send your message to:
pmmail-list@blueprintsoftwareworks.com

To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to mdaemon@bmtmicro.com 
with the first line of the message body being...
UNSUBSCRIBE pmmail-list@blueprintsoftwareworks.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------