Missing message bodies

[Steve Dyer]

Is there a known problem with UUCP mail dropping the message body of a mail
message? In the last month, I have received several messages which arrive
with only their headers. This has occurred on two different systems with
disparate mail software, so I don't think it is a local problem. On the other
hand, it's been infrequent enough that I haven't yet had a chance to see a
pattern in the path that the mail travels.

I thought perhaps someone out there has already noticed this and prescribed a
fix. In any event, I'll try to save the messages in the future.

/Steve Dyer
decvax!bbncca!sdyer

[be...@drux3.uucp]

I have had the same experience. In the past 3 months, I periodically
receive a message header, with no text. The headers have all contained
news article information, so I assume they have been the product of
the reply 'r' command in readnews. Also, each time I receive one of
these, I reply to the sender telling them that I received the header
(which I include), but the body of the message was lost. I have never
received a second reply from any of them. Some of the messages have
been from persons in Denver, where the mail would have been sent via
an NSC Hyperchannel, and some have been from other sites, where uucp
would have been used.

Ray Davis AT&T Information Systems Laboratories Denver
{ihnp4|hogpc}!druxy!bees (303)538-3991

[s...@ulysses.uucp]

My guess is that someone accidentally started to reply to a news item,
or started to reply but then changed their minds. The reply command
will kick you into an editor, then try to mail the remaining text body.
Since there's no graceful way to abort in that situation (though truncating
the file works), it becomes very easy to send a letter with a null body.
We can leave to another time a discussion of whether it's a bug or feature
that the mail module doesn't look for null bodies and abort the message.

[e...@machaids.uucp]

A number of articles which have been received here with null message
bodies had a "Lines:" header line which indicated that at one point
the article DID have a body. Obviously, it is getting trashed
somewhere along the line.
--
= Eric Bustad (BTL-HO)
ihnp4!machaids!ekb

[Greg Woods]

I too have received empty messages. I suspect that it is due to people
who don't know how to abort a reply once "readnews" has dumped them into the
editor. In that case, exiting the editor results in an empty message being
sent. For those "responsible" for these empty messages, one kludge to abort
a reply is to edit the To: line and make the message go to yourself.

GREG
--
{ucbvax!hplabs | allegra!nbires | decvax!brl-bmd | harpo!seismo | ihnp4!kpno}
!hao!woods

[l...@umcp-cs.uucp]

What I would like is for the system to put you in the regular mailer
to reply to an article. Then you could use commands like ~q which
in the Berkeley mailer allows you to cancel the letter...

There is "rd" in readnews which lets you do something like that except
you don't get the Subject set up automatically -- it could if it was
called with "mail -s '<subject>' <person>...

Just extending the readnews wish list...

-Liz
--
Liz Allen, Univ of Maryland, College Park MD
Usenet: ...!seismo!umcp-cs!liz
Arpanet: liz%umcp-cs@CSNet-Relay

[Dave Martindale]

I suspect that most of these are from people getting into readnews'
"reply" function, either by choice or accidentally, and then deciding
that they don't want to send the letter. If they just quit from the
editor, the automatically-generated header is sent anyway as the mail
message.

[r...@pyuxn.uucp]

Apparently a few of the decapitated articles are indeed aborted attempts
at news followups. But it seems that the vast majority are not, rather
they are truly decapitated or dismembered at some point in their travels.
(Don't you just love the imagery??) Articles that claim to have 42 lines
arrive with only three, often looking like:

Newsgroup: net.uselessness,net.sludge
Subject: The existence of God scientifically proven
Lines: 42

f the other one.
The answer is seventeen. Comments?
Ted Useless (dippo!leppo!putzo!tedu)

It would also appear that this newsgroup (and others) have seen a flurry
of articles just like this one, complaining about the problem, but no
solutions or explanations have been posted. (The explanation involving the
aborted followups only applies to some cases.) Are there any answers??
Guidelines?? Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr
(not reachable thru leppo, which is not delivering mail)

[Guy Harris]

The "anti-truncated article problem" (what *is* the word for chopping off
the beginning of something? I checked in a dictionary and "frustrated" doesn't
seem to be it) has been identified, and two fixes had been posted a while
ago.

It seems any article whose body begins with a tab (or possibly with white space
in general) loses the first block (512/1024 bytes) of the article due to a
bug in some versions of "news". A fix to this has been posted, but I guess
not all sites have been Good Citizens and dropped it in. A second fix was
posted; this fixes it on the other end by fiddling with articles being
sent out with white space at the beginning. A third fix is not to submit
articles which begin with a tab...

Guy Harris
{seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy

[Ray Davis]

Speaking of needed words for things (like truncation of article beginnings),
I have always felt a need for a simple word that identifies and distinguishes
electronic mail. If I tell some one I will send them "mail" or that I sent
a "letter", I don't know if that means paper mail, or electronic mail. To me,
"letter" means paper mail. We need a similar word for electronic mail.
Since we of USENET are (of course) the ultimate in computer technology (heh,heh)
let's invent this needed word, and impose it upon the world! What ya say?

[John Diamant]

In response to the need for a word to distinguish between a letter and
electronic mail: this word exists. It is EMAIL (for electronic mail,
of course).

John Diamant Usenet: ...decvax!cwruecmp!diamant
Case Western Reserve University CSNet: diamant@Case
Cleveland, Ohio ARPA: diamant.Case@Rand-Relay