Re: Is ASCII 0 valid in a message body?

[Matti Aarnio <mea@nic.funet.fi>]

> This line is from an "inbox" mail file (wherever "mailbox" delivers mail)
> 
> fax:  55 5 5555555From coombs.anu.edu.au!owner-pacific-islands-l Sun Jul 23...
>                  ^^
> Note how the message from coombs.anu.edu.au starts on the same line as the
> end of the previous message.  I'm guessing a NUL character (ASCII 0) was
> at the end of the previous message, which in UNIX means end of input/file/etc.
> This often happens with mail coming from auckland.ac.nz and sent with Pegasus 
> Mail/Mac.  It causes most mail user agents (Pine, MM) to misparse the mail file
> and display two messages as one, or sometimes skip all messages after that 
> altogether.

	You don't say which version of ZMailer you are running ?

> Questions:
> 
> 1) What range of ASCII characters are allowed in the body of a message 
>    sent via SMTP?

	1-255 IF you use extended SMTP.  The use of zero is DANGEROUS,
	though legal, and many systems (most of them written in C) treat
	it as end-of-string...

	ZMailer should be able to handle it, though.

> 2) Has anyone else experienced this?  How are you handling it?

	I faintly recall something from years back, but I can't say
	what it was about.

> Thanks.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Julio Polo                                  University of Hawaii
>                                             Information Technology Services
> julio@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu                2565 The Mall, Keller Hall
> (808) 956-2405                              Honolulu, HI 96822
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

	/Matti Aarnio <mea@nic.funet.fi>