I have for some time gotten incomplete digests on several mailing lists
to which I belong. I recently figured out the cause. It's blank lines
containing only a period.
I recently received an incomplete digest on another list, and found the
complete message in the archives. It turned out that right after the
last line I'd received, there is a line with only a period on it. I
spoke to the guru at the UNIX-based ISP I use for personal email. He
says that a
blank line with a period is a signal in some UNIX email programs that
means, "I'm done, send this message." This explains why messages are
getting cut off.
The ISP person goes on to explain that in SMTP servers, the convention
is that when mail is being sent that already includes a line with only a
period on it, an additional period is added to "escape" the line. Then
the receiving server strips the additional period off. In our case, our
mail list server is probably not adding the extra period. If this is
so, I won't be the only one having the problem. He says I should tell
the person who runs the mail list software what's happening, and he can
correct it.
I confirmed this behavior by sending myself email with paragraphs
separated by a line containing only a period, and it behaved just as
I'd expected. All I got was the first paragraph. On my
MS-Exchange/Outlook system at work, this problem does not occur. But
since many large-scale mail systems are UNIX-based, I doubt I'm the only
person who has this problem.
So, folks, a word to the wise: Don't use lines with only a period on
them in your email, as they will terminate your message at that point on
some systems.
Would whoever manages the list/digest software look into this for the
future?
Thanks,
--Peter
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