tlug: Problem with 'fetchmail'?

[Dennis McMurchy <denismcm@example.com>]

  Anyone using 'fetchmail' 5.0.0 (the standard RedHat 6.0 issue) as
their popmail client will be interested in the following apparent bug.

  I've been using this version of 'fetchmail' for almost a year now and
have never seen this kind of behaviour before.  I run 'fetchmail' in 
verbose mode, so the dialogue with the mailserver(s) is displayed in
a kterm window (and also captured to a file using 'tee'), so I'd have
noticed this if it had ever happened before.

  Suddenly, fetchmail appears to choke on some Shit-JIS in the From:
header  and the rest of the output from the transaction is 'bakemoji'
on the kterm (but not in the logfile made with tee).  This wouldn't
bother me at all, except that, although the messages before and after
it in the queue come through just fine, the message with the header in
question simply ISN'T THERE when I check my mail in Pine, so this is
_deeply_ disturbing.  

  Fortunately, the email in question was from a friend and so I was
able to experiment a bit.  In three of four runs with the same piece
of email (each one on a separate day), we had the same behaviour
everytime.  In the third of four runs - this time with an ASCII From:
header - the message came through with no problem.  
  
  Here's what the kterm looks like:

  fetchmail: POP3> DELE 3
  fetchmail: POP3< +OK Message 3 has been deleted.
  fetchmail: POP3> TOP 4 99999999
  fetchmail: POP3< +OK 2470 octets
  reading message 4 of 5 (2470 octets)
  fetchmail: SMTP> MAIL FROM:<¥ï¥È¥­¥ó¥ºÍµ»Ò ÂÏÄÙ½·ÂÉÓÉÚŽ²´· ...
  
  The tee'd logfile is more informative (since there's no kanji or
'bakemoji'): 
 
  fetchmail: POP3> DELE 3
  fetchmail: POP3< +OK Message 3 has been deleted.
  fetchmail: POP3> TOP 4 99999999
  fetchmail: POP3< +OK 2470 octets
  reading message 4 of 5 (2470 octets)
  fetchmail: SMTP> MAIL FROM:<$B%o%H%-%s%:M5;R> BODY=7BIT SIZE=2470
  fetchmail: SMTP< 553 <$B%o%H%-%s%:M5;R>... Colon illegal in host name part
  fetchmail: SMTP> RSET
  fetchmail: SMTP< 250 Reset state
  fetchmail: SMTP error: 250 Reset state
  fetchmail: SMTP< 220 tangrending.localdomain ESMTP Sendmail 8.9.3/8.9.3; Sat, 6 May 2000 17:57:55 +0900
  fetchmail: SMTP> HELO localhost
  fetchmail: SMTP< 250 tangrending.localdomain Hello IDENT:denismcm@example.com [127.0.0.1], pleased to meet you
  fetchmail: SMTP> MAIL FROM:<FETCHMAIL-DAEMON@example.com>
  fetchmail: SMTP< 250 <FETCHMAIL-DAEMON@example.com>... Sender ok
  fetchmail: SMTP> RCPT TO:<$B%o%H%-%s%:M5;R>
  fetchmail: SMTP< 553 <$B%o%H%-%s%:M5;R>... Colon illegal in host name part
  . flushed
  fetchmail: POP3> DELE 4
  fetchmail: POP3< +OK Message 4 has been deleted.
  ...[my ellipsis]
  fetchmail: SMTP< 221 tangrending.localdomain closing connection
  fetchmail: normal termination, status 0
             ^^^^^^
  That 'Colon illegal in host name part' seems like a telltale indication,
but I'm really not sure what to make of this.  Anything that loses a whole
piece of email without so much as an error message makes me _very_ uneasy.

  I hope some of you will have some ideas or suggestions about what to
think and do about this.  I wonder if the bug ought to be reported as
such to the 'fetchmail' developers as well.  

  Cheers,  Dennis

Dennis McMurchy, 
Sointula, B.C. / Tojinmachi, Fukuoka
Canada           Japan


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