Errors-to: owner-drums@CS.UTK.EDU
Message-Id: <199508151531.IAA07758@mastodon.CS.Berkeley.EDU>
To: perry@piermont.com
From: Eric Allman <eric@CS.Berkeley.EDU>
cc: ietf-drums <drums@CS.UTK.EDU>
Subject: Re: "Reply-To" 
In-reply-to: Mail from "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@panix.com> 
	dated Tue, 15 Aug 1995 11:19:23 EDT
	<199508151519.LAA23133@panix4.panix.com> 
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995 08:31:00 -0700
Sender: eric@mastodon.CS.Berkeley.EDU

"My own" mailer (by which I assume you mean sendmail) makes no such
restriction and never has: it restricts you from setting the
_envelope_ from address, but not the _header_ from address, which
is what we are talking about.  Obviously, the Reply-To: header has
no impact at the envelope level.

Given that the standards already make it clear that the From:
_header_ can be set by the user (and we are talking about standards
here -- getting the implementations (typically of user agents, not
MTAs) in line is another matter entirely.  I am simply agreeing with
Robert: the standards already permit what Jacob originally proposed,
and a more useful semantic (to my mind, at least -- obviously not to
yours) is to override, per the mailing list example I first used.

eric


============= In Reply To: ==============================================
: From:  "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@panix.com>
: Subject:  Re: "Reply-To" 
: Date:  Tue, 15 Aug 1995 11:19:23 -0400

: 
: Eric Allman writes:
: > I'm not arguing that there are many _possible_ semantics -- but as
: > Robert pointed out, you CAN change your From: line to have the
: > appropriate address (which would work even for UAs that don't grok
: > Reply-To) -- just because you don't choose to do it this way doesn't
: > mean you couldn't.
: 
: It isn't entirely a matter of choice -- most modern MTAs like your own
: only trust certain users to set the From: address. As such, most
: ordinary users aren't in a position to do this in order to assure
: appropriate handling.
: 
: What *might* work nicely would be to have such MTAs switch to a policy
: of inserting a Sender: line if the From: has been set and otherwise
: permit arbitrary munging of the From:
: 
: .pm