[imp] Some problems with attachemnt and POP3

[Joseph Brennan]

--On Friday, November 24, 2000 08:21 +0100 Thomas GUTHMANN 
<tom@calixo.net> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Yes I'm using POP3, the error messages are not a problem, only some
> line in the error log but the no_description attachments is a problem
> because the clients will not understand what it means ... If I click
> to see what are these multipart/mixed attachments, I see Mime + src
> message, so it's the same as the source message ... When there are
> multiple no description attachments (because forward)
> So the first attachment - no description - is composed of the forward
> + original message + MIME (msword)
> The second one attachment -no description- is composed of the
> original msg + MIME without the forward message!
> And the last one , hopefully, is the word attachment
>
> To sum up, multipart/mixed attachment contain only source message
> (with smtp dialog), more are the redirection, more there will be
> attachment ...


It may clarify MIME to realize there is really no such construct as an
attachment; there are only messages with multiple parts.  That is, if I
send the text "Here's my file" and "attach" a Word file, what I am
really sending is a MIME message with two parts; the message is
multipart/mixed, part 1 is text/plain, and part 2 is
application/msword.

This appears to be a forwarded message, where the original had
a Word file as part 2:

> > Pièces jointes
> >          [pas de description]   multipart/mixed         476.32 KB
> > 2      [pas de description]   multipart/mixed         475.30 KB
> > 2.2  document.doc           application/msword  474.84 KB
> > (source du message)

The structure appears to be really:

entire message:  multipart/mixed  total 476.32 KB
  part 1: plain text (or blank?)
  part 2: multipart/mixed  total 475.30 KB
    part 2.1: plain text (or blank?)
    part 2.2: application/msword  size 474.84 KB

Part 2 is the original message, so parts 1 and 2 of the original become
parts 2.1 and 2.2 of the forwarded message.  I think the quoted French
display is confusing to read.  My rewrite above is based on the way
Pine and Mulberry would list the parts, hierarchically.

It is normal for the text parts not to have a "description".  This is
the suggested file name to use in saving the part separately.  Text
parts won't have a file name.

(If there is really no text in the original, it could have been sent as
one part, and likewise for the forward.  But if the client software uses
the "attachment" concept, it may always create a multipart message when
the user "attaches" a file to an outgoing message.  I very rarely see a
message with one part that is not text.)


Joseph Brennan                           postmaster@columbia.edu
Academic Technologies Group, Academic Information Systems (AcIS)