Re[2]: [ihc] missing posts

[Richard Welty <rwelty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 08:52:54 -0700 "John M. Adams" <jma@domain.elided> wrote:

> Hmmm... Nope. I see that when one sends to ihc-digest@domain.elided,
> it gets copied back to the sender anyway. So that doesn't explain it.
> 
> Guess I'll sit down and shut up now...

here's the actual flow:

a member of the ihc list (either digest or individual posting format)
sends a message. if they include other parties on the To or CC lines,
their mail transport should take care of that delivery without ever
involving the digest.net server.

messages sent to ihc@domain.elided and ihc-digest@domain.elided are
treated identically; there is *no* functional difference between these
two addresses.

when a message is received, it is first passed through demime, a
script which strips attachments, leaving behind plain text. if someone
sends email which is only in formatted html, demime will convert it
to plain text before passing it on to the digest. this is why you can't
send pictures, word documents, etc., to the list. it's always been
considered bad form, and for a long time it's been prohibited.

the message is then passed through a script named resend, which
verifies that the message is from an actual member (part of the spam
control) and does a mild cleanup of the headers before passing it
on.

the message that makes it through resend then gets sent in
three different directions:

1) a copy is sent to all individual format readers right then and there.
(more accurately, a copy is passed to the server's mail transport
agent along with a list of all subscribers to individual format.)

2) a copy is sent to the digest script, which squirrels it away for later.
if this script sees that the thresholds for generating a new ihc-digest
have been exceeded, it assembles one and passes it on to the
server's mail transport for delivery to digest format subscribers.

3) a copy is passed to the mhonarc script, which stashes it in the web
archive.


-- 
Richard Welty                                         rwelty@domain.elided
Averill Park Networking                                         518-573-7592
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