[Django] #34753: Document how to properly escape `to` in email messages

[Django]

#34753: Document how to properly escape `to` in email messages
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Reporter: Sylvain Fankhauser | Owner: nobody
Type: Uncategorized | Status: new
Component: Documentation | Version: 4.2
Severity: Normal | Keywords:
Triage Stage: Unreviewed | Has patch: 0
Needs documentation: 0 | Needs tests: 0
Patch needs improvement: 0 | Easy pickings: 0
UI/UX: 0 |
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The documentation about sending email
(https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/email/) only provides
examples with recipients being only e-mail addresses, without the
recipient name. I believe adding the name of the recipient to the `To`
header is a standard practice, and I think Django could provide some
guidance on how to escape it properly since it can easily be misused.

For example, a naive way of doing it would be to use `f"{first_name}
{last_name} <{email}>"` (which will fail if `first_name`, `last_name` or
`email` contain special characters such as `<`, `>`, `"` or `,`. I’m
actually guilty of using this in the past, only to find out at my own
expense that this wasn’t a good idea). Another way would be to pass the
result of `sanitize_address((f"{first_name} {last_name}", email),
"utf-8")` to the `to` argument, which would work until someone has a name
that’s long enough for `sanitize_address` to add a `\n` character in the
middle, resulting in an error when `sanitize_address` will be called a
second time when actually sending the mail.

I’m still not entirely sure of the proper way to do it properly (and I’m
actually surprised I couldn’t find anything about this online). I think
the proper way to do it would be to pass the result of
`email.utils.formataddr((f"{first_name} {last_name}", email))` to the `to`
argument. If you think that’s the correct way to do it and you think the
docs could be improved by adding a note about this, I can take care of
submitting a patch.

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Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/34753>
Django <https://code.djangoproject.com/>
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[Django]

#34753: Document how to properly escape `to` in email messages

------------------------------------+--------------------------------------

Reporter: Sylvain Fankhauser | Owner: nobody

Type: Uncategorized | Status: closed
Component: Documentation | Version: 4.2
Severity: Normal | Resolution: invalid

Keywords: | Triage Stage: Unreviewed
Has patch: 0 | Needs documentation: 0
Needs tests: 0 | Patch needs improvement: 0
Easy pickings: 0 | UI/UX: 0

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Changes (by Mariusz Felisiak):

* status: new => closed
* resolution: => invalid

Comment:

Thanks for the ticket, however it's rather a support question. Django is
not a mail server and we cannot document all related caveats, best
practices, and how-to's.

Closing per TicketClosingReasons/UseSupportChannels.

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Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/34753#comment:1>

[Django]

#34753: Document how to properly escape `to` in email messages
------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
Reporter: Sylvain Fankhauser | Owner: nobody
Type: Uncategorized | Status: closed
Component: Documentation | Version: 4.2
Severity: Normal | Resolution: invalid
Keywords: | Triage Stage: Unreviewed
Has patch: 0 | Needs documentation: 0
Needs tests: 0 | Patch needs improvement: 0
Easy pickings: 0 | UI/UX: 0
------------------------------------+--------------------------------------

Comment (by Claude Paroz):

I would not be so categorical, I think that this is a common use case and
a note in the docs wouldn't hurt. Maybe the note would simply redirect to
an external reference (Python docs or RFC).

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Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/34753#comment:2>