Re: Bcc not working?

[Brian Stafford <brian stafford uklinux net>]

On Mon, 18 February 09:01 Frank Crawford wrote:

> I've seen the same problem.  It was fine with Balsa-1.2.3 and libesmtp-0.8.4
> (i.e. RedHat 7.2 standard) but appeared when I upgraded to Balsa-1.2.4 and
> libesmtp-0.8.9 from the web site.  I don't know which part causes it.

Seems the protocol traces would be useful then.  Does Bcc work correctly when 
latest libesmtp (0.8.10p1) is used with Balsa-1.2.3 ?

> Looking at libesmtp's web site, it seems to now be up to 0.8.10p1, but I
> can't see any mention of any Bcc related problems.

libESMTP does not implement the bcc behaviour.  That is part of balsa.

> > > Thanks. I tried this (with the libesmtp downloadable from
> > > http://www.balsa.net), but it didn't help.
> > >
> > > How can I see the messages exchanged by Balsa and the SMTP server?
> >
> > Compile libbalsa/send.c with DEBUG defined. (CFLAGS=-DDEBUG ./configure
> > <options> is sure-shot but probably overdoing).
> >
> > Basically, when Bcc is set, the message is being sent twice, first to the
> > primary recipients, and secondly to the Bcc recipients.
> 
> What!  This is just plan wrong.

So Where do you get your information?  Balsa's behaviour regarding Bcc: is 
correct.  Go and read the standard (RFC 2821).

>  I don't know what libesmtp does, but it
> should just include the addresses in the envelop and not in the headers of
> the message.  Sending twice is a sure recipe for disaster, from crashes
> cause only one and not the other going, through to different message ids on
> the two messages.

Read the balsa-list archives.  This topic was discussed at length.  Frankly 
this sort of suggestion that either balsa or libesmtp fails to work correctly 
when in fact they diligently implement the relevent standards is deeply 
offensive.