[tlug] gpg, RFC2046 and the TLUG mail footer

[simon colston <simon@example.com>]

I noticed that gpg signed mails did not have the TLUG mail footer
displayed.  Looking at the mail files directly with vi, the footer was
there but Sylpheed did not display it.

After some investigation I found this in RFC 2046:

[Talking about multipart types]
 There appears to be room for additional information prior to the first
boundary delimiter line and following the final boundary delimiter line.
These areas should generally be left blank, and implementations must
ignore anything that appears before the first boundary delimiter line or
after the last one.

So, because signed mail is multipart and the footer is inserted after the
last boundary line, the footer is ignored by RFC 2046 compliant MUAs.

I don't know much about this but I would think that inserting the footer
in the right place would be quite tricky?  

BTW, this is just an observation not a complaint.

-- 
simon colston
simon@example.com

gpg key: 54078502 (pgp.mit.edu)

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