Hello, This problem is present in mailx-8.1.1-8 to mailx-8.1.1-10, which kindof leads me to believe its my fault. However, even will all configuration files removed/defaulted, it still occurs, so without further ado..... when 'mail' is run and it rewrites the messages in the spool directory, it inserts a blank line into the header of the message. This new blank indicates "hey, the message body starts here!" and other mail readers (I tested with pine and via imap) are deprived of the rest of the header information. Here is my little example: This is my spool file after I received a message ------------------------------------------------------------------- [crozierm@consumption crozierm]$ cat /var/spool/mail/crozierm From crozierm Thu Jul 13 15:08:33 2000 >From crozierm Thu Jul 13 15:08:33 2000 Received: from www.sight-n-sound.com ([198.107.30.99]) by consumption.net with esmtp (Exim 3.15 #16) id 13Cr9k-0003Uv-00 for crozierm; Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:08:32 -0700 Received: by www.sight-n-sound.com (Postfix, from userid 179) id 8E55529BB5; Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:05:50 -0700 (PDT) To: crozierm Subject: I can't get no Content-Length: 13 Message-Id: <20000713220550.8E55529BB5.com> Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:05:50 -0700 (PDT) From: crozierm (Michael Crozier) satisfaction [crozierm@consumption crozierm]$ ---------------------------------------------------------------- So the header is fully intact when I first receive the message. Now, lets invoke the mail command ---------------------------------------------------- [crozierm@consumption crozierm]$ mail Mail version 8.1 6/6/93. Type ? for help. "/var/spool/mail/crozierm": 1 message 1 new >N 1 crozierm@sight-n-sou Thu Jul 13 15:08 17/644 "I can't get no" & q Held 1 message in /var/spool/mail/crozierm [crozierm@consumption crozierm]$ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now that mail has touched it, lets see what it looks like: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- [crozierm@consumption crozierm]$ cat /var/spool/mail/crozierm From crozierm Thu Jul 13 15:08:33 2000 Status: O >From crozierm Thu Jul 13 15:08:33 2000 Received: from www.sight-n-sound.com ([198.107.30.99]) by consumption.net with esmtp (Exim 3.15 #16) id 13Cr9k-0003Uv-00 for crozierm; Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:08:32 -0700 Received: by www.sight-n-sound.com (Postfix, from userid 179) id 8E55529BB5; Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:05:50 -0700 (PDT) To: crozierm Subject: I can't get no Content-Length: 13 Message-Id: <20000713220550.8E55529BB5.com> Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:05:50 -0700 (PDT) From: crozierm (Michael Crozier) satisfaction [crozierm@consumption crozierm]$ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Uh oh! Now there is a space between the "Status" line and the ">From" line. Lets see what Pine thinks about that ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + 69 Jul 13 bugzilla (787) Your Bugzilla password. N 70 (603) [No more messages in folder] ? Help < FldrList P PrevMsg - PrevPage D Delete R Reply O OTHER CMDS > [ViewMsg] N NextMsg Spc NextPage U Undelete F Forward -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notice how the last message has no sender or subject? What do you suppose that is? Well, everything makes sense when we look at the body and find out that this information is there (ie after the blank line) rather than in the header --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PINE 4.21 MESSAGE TEXT Folder: INBOX Message 70 of 70 ALL NEW >From crozierm Thu Jul 13 15:08:33 2000 Received: from www.sight-n-sound.com ([198.107.30.99]) by consumption.net with esmtp (Exim 3.15 #16) id 13Cr9k-0003Uv-00 for crozierm; Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:08:32 -0700 Received: by www.sight-n-sound.com (Postfix, from userid 179) id 8E55529BB5; Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:05:50 -0700 (PDT) To: crozierm Subject: I can't get no Content-Length: 13 Message-Id: <20000713220550.8E55529BB5.com> Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:05:50 -0700 (PDT) From: crozierm (Michael Crozier) satisfaction ? Help < MsgIndex P PrevMsg - PrevPage D Delete R Reply O OTHER CMDS > ViewAttch N NextMsg Spc NextPage U Undelete F Forward
>From blah is not a valid header field. mail was given wrong input. Now a better question is how did it get there and what wrote it in the first place. What mailers and MTA do you use and what triggered this originally. I think you need to work out how it got there and add a bug to the cause not the effect., although mailx shouldnt be so picky.
I can't reproduce this with mailx-8.1.1-14, using the plain vanilla installation.
I'm not sure if this is related but AFAIK applies to only the mailx-8.1.1-16.i386.rpm package. on RH 6.2 After upgrading my mailx program from mailx-8.1.1-10, when I use mail to read my mail it core dumps while attempting to save mail to mbox. I had to downgrade before it would work properly. All other security updates have been applied and no error are apparent.
This report seems to describe a symptom of a MTA problem rather than a mailx problem (please open bugs for other problems like the segfault separately, although I believe you are seeing bug #15728 in action).