Space inserted in emails at char. 990

[antic]

I've just noticed something odd about emails being handled by Jodo's servers.
This doesn't happen if I test it with a Yahoo or Gmail address, just addresses on client accounts.

When I write some code to send an HTML email, sometimes the body of the email contains long lines - that is, lines of HTML unbroken by a CRLF. When such an email arrives at a an account on a Jodo server, something (perhaps DSPAM?) is inserting a SPACE character at position 990 of all such long lines.

Attached is a simple ASP script to demo the issue. Run it, enter the email address to send the test to. I'd like to hear back from other people, if they see the second-last word "undoubtable" split in two by a space character which shouldn't be there.

[ed] also added a screenshot of how the resulting email looks.

 

[nzkiwi]

I think the Jodo servers are following the guidelines of RFC 821. The maximum line length is 1000 Characters. See page 42 of http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0821.txt.

Many mail applications seem to force line breaks at 990 character intervals by adding CRLF followed by a space. The solution is to have your script insert CRLF at intervals of slightly less than 990 characters.

 

[Stephen]

I think the Jodo servers are following the guidelines of RFC 821. The maximum line length is 1000 Characters. See page 42 of http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0821.txt.

Many mail applications seem to force line breaks at 990 character intervals by adding CRLF followed by a space. The solution is to have your script insert CRLF at intervals of slightly less than 990 characters.

I think you are right the author of qmail is a stickler to published policy. and we use qmail

 

[antic]

Ah, fair enough, thanks guys. I'll make the necessary change.
Seems a bit arbitrary though.. especially as the RFC is dated August 1982.

On page 42 it says, "The maximum total length of a text line including the <CRLF> is 1000 characters." However, at the top of the page defining the object sizes, it says (in mad caps), "TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT POSSIBLE, IMPLEMENTATION TECHNIQUES WHICH IMPOSE NO LIMITS ON THE LENGTH OF THESE OBJECTS SHOULD BE USED."

So if Mr QMail wants to adhere to the policy, there should be no imposed max length.
Can't imagine any good reason for it these days.

 

[nzkiwi]

Let's face it, the entire set of standards for email are truly out of date. They were created in the days when a big email was a few kilobytes long and spam was canned meat