Found a bug in Synchronet 3.16a where if you attach a file to an attachment, it sends it oddly.

For example. I sent myself an email with file attachment, and in Thunderbird and KMail, I literally see this in the message viewer:

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.


--tSDQQe2ItIxEy0Y9c9brq25S2sLIL1WEUjfs
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Just... testing?

---

[Psi-Jack -//- Decker]

--tSDQQe2ItIxEy0Y9c9brq25S2sLIL1WEUjfs
Content-Type: application/octet-stream;
name="dhmenu.txt"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="dhmenu.txt"


So, it's not formatting the email headers and such correctly.

---

[Psi-Jack -//- Decker]

þ Synchronet þ Decker's Heaven -//- bbs.deckersheaven.com

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Psi-Jack to All on Thu Sep 18 2014 06:05 pm

Found a bug in Synchronet 3.16a where if you attach a file to an
attachment, it sends it oddly.

For example. I sent myself an email with file attachment, and in
Thunderbird and KMail, I literally see this in the message viewer:

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--tSDQQe2ItIxEy0Y9c9brq25S2sLIL1WEUjfs
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Just... testing?

If you're expecting the Synchronet mail server to decode MIME body text (in messages received via SMTP), it has never done that and it was never intended to.

I agree that it would be *nice* if when viewing MIME-encoded messages over Telnet/SSH/RLogin, that only the text/plain part was decoded and displayed to the user, but that is a significant enhancement, not a bug-fix.

Even messages without attachments may be sent MIME-encoded over SMTP, so this is not unique to messages with attachments.

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #3:
Synchronet version 3 is written mostly in C, with some C++, x86 ASM, and Pascal.
Norco, CA WX: 81.2øF, 56.0% humidity, 16 mph ESE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Digital Man to Psi-Jack on Thu Sep 18 2014 03:55 pm

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Psi-Jack to All on Thu Sep 18 2014 06:05 pm

Found a bug in Synchronet 3.16a where if you attach a file to an
attachment, it sends it oddly.

For example. I sent myself an email with file attachment, and in
Thunderbird and KMail, I literally see this in the message viewer:

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

If you're expecting the Synchronet mail server to decode MIME body text (in messages received via SMTP), it has never done that and it was never intended to.

No, I'd just expect it to format OUTBOUND email properly. This was email sent to an external email address, like gmail, my own mail server, etc, and not actually formatted properly from the start. Not a decoding issue, but an ENCODING issue on Synchronet's part. Though Decoding would be nice too, for obvious reasons that it is in fact... A mail server, but even still, mail sent from Synchronet with attachment of file to a foreign email address should definitely work as expected. Email sent TO Synchronet from an external mail server to Synchronet I could accept if it doesn't decode it, but still allows my normal email client connecting via POP3 to decode it as expected.

I agree that it would be *nice* if when viewing MIME-encoded messages
over Telnet/SSH/RLogin, that only the text/plain part was decoded and displayed to the user, but that is a significant enhancement, not a bug-fix.

Yes, that would be a definite enhancement wish in the future too. Displaying only the plain/text only portion of a multipart mime message.

---

[Psi-Jack -//- Decker]

þ Synchronet þ Decker's Heaven -//- bbs.deckersheaven.com

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Psi-Jack to Digital Man on Fri Sep 19 2014 10:03 am

No, I'd just expect it to format OUTBOUND email properly. This was email sent to an external email address, like gmail, my own mail server, etc, and not actually formatted properly from the start. Not a decoding issue, but
an ENCODING issue on Synchronet's part. Though Decoding would be nice too, for obvious reasons that it is in fact... A mail server, but even still,

i sent from bbses.info's email server to my gmail address. i attached a .png file.

with my email client poppeeper and with gmail's web interface, the emails showed up as normal and the file attachment was okay.
---
þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Psi-Jack to Digital Man on Fri Sep 19 2014 10:03 am

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Digital Man to Psi-Jack on Thu Sep 18 2014 03:55 pm

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Psi-Jack to All on Thu Sep 18 2014 06:05 pm

Found a bug in Synchronet 3.16a where if you attach a file to an
attachment, it sends it oddly.

For example. I sent myself an email with file attachment, and in
Thunderbird and KMail, I literally see this in the message viewer:

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

If you're expecting the Synchronet mail server to decode MIME body
text (in messages received via SMTP), it has never done that and it
was never intended to.

No, I'd just expect it to format OUTBOUND email properly. This was email sent to an external email address, like gmail, my own mail server, etc, and not actually formatted properly from the start. Not a decoding issue, but
an ENCODING issue on Synchronet's part.

Gotcha. Well there is a little MIME-encoding support in the Synchronet mail server for messages that were not originally MIME encoded. How did actually create and send the original email with attachment?

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #57:
The last version of Synchronet to run on MS-DOS and OS/2 was v2.30c (1999). Norco, CA WX: 71.6øF, 69.0% humidity, 4 mph SE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Mro to Psi-Jack on Fri Sep 19 2014 08:29 pm

i sent from bbses.info's email server to my gmail address. i attached a
.png file.

with my email client poppeeper and with gmail's web interface, the emails showed up as normal and the file attachment was okay.

okay so on irc he told me he was using the send file to netmail function on the bbs. and it does send the way he mentioned.

is synchronet even designed to send files to email addresses in this fashion? i'm not sure anybody even attempted to send files to email while logged onto the bbs. it got me by surprise.
---
þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Digital Man to Psi-Jack on Fri Sep 19 2014 07:28 pm

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Psi-Jack to Digital Man on Fri Sep 19 2014 10:03 am

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Digital Man to Psi-Jack on Thu Sep 18 2014 03:55 pm

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Psi-Jack to All on Thu Sep 18 2014 06:05 pm

Found a bug in Synchronet 3.16a where if you attach a file to an
attachment, it sends it oddly.

For example. I sent myself an email with file attachment, and in
Thunderbird and KMail, I literally see this in the message viewer:

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

If you're expecting the Synchronet mail server to decode MIME body
text (in messages received via SMTP), it has never done that and
it was never intended to.

No, I'd just expect it to format OUTBOUND email properly. This was
email sent to an external email address, like gmail, my own mail
server, etc, and not actually formatted properly from the start. Not a
decoding issue, but an ENCODING issue on Synchronet's part.

Gotcha. Well there is a little MIME-encoding support in the Synchronet mail server for messages that were not originally MIME encoded. How did actually create and send the original email with attachment?

Here's the gotcha part.

Using Synchronet itself to send it, not SMTP/POP3 to make the message itself.

bbs.netmail(email, WM_FILE); is the function I used to actually attach and send the email. So, Synchronet itself is the part that generated the full email, however it's formatting it in a way that will not actually work in any email client I know because it lacks certain things.

I'm going to test once more, with both an Email client actual via SMTP, then again with the Synchronet BBS to send it exactly the same way except within Synchronet telnet directly, so I can provide full examples of what's going on.

---

[Psi-Jack -//- Decker]

þ Synchronet þ Decker's Heaven -//- bbs.deckersheaven.com

On Fri, 19 Sep 2014, Mro wrote to Psi-Jack:

By: Psi-Jack to Digital Man on Fri Sep 19 2014 10:03 am

No, I'd just expect it to format OUTBOUND email properly. This was
email sent to an external email address, like gmail, my own mail
server, etc, and not actually formatted properly from the start. Not
a decoding issue, but an ENCODING issue on Synchronet's part. Though Decoding would be nice too, for obvious reasons that it is in
fact... A mail server, but even still,

i sent from bbses.info's email server to my gmail address. i
attached a .png file.

with my email client poppeeper and with gmail's web interface, the
emails showed up as normal and the file attachment was okay.

confirmed... looks fine over here when i just tested from max's sync to one of my email addresses... i attached a text file which was base64 encoded as an octet-stream...

the only thing i initially saw in the raw email was the "client" section of the
"Originator-Info:" header... my test was done when telnetted into sync... "client" says "<no name>" which is true i guess but would be nicer to maybe say
"synchronet" or "sbbs" or similar since that was the ""client"" used to generate the email ;)

)\/(ark


* Origin: (1:3634/12)

---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

On Fri, 19 Sep 2014, Mro wrote to All:

i sent from bbses.info's email server to my gmail address. i
attached a .png file.

with my email client poppeeper and with gmail's web interface, the
emails showed up as normal and the file attachment was okay.

okay so on irc he told me he was using the send file to netmail
function on the bbs. and it does send the way he mentioned.

interesting... where is that function located? is it in the classic menus? i don't find anything that seems to fit it...

)\/(ark


* Origin: (1:3634/12)

---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: mark lewis to Mro on Sat Sep 20 2014 02:01 pm

On Fri, 19 Sep 2014, Mro wrote to Psi-Jack:

By: Psi-Jack to Digital Man on Fri Sep 19 2014 10:03 am

confirmed... looks fine over here when i just tested from max's sync to one of my email addresses... i attached a text file which was base64 encoded as an octet-stream...

the only thing i initially saw in the raw email was the "client" section of the "Originator-Info:" header... my test was done when telnetted into sync... "client" says "<no name>" which is true i guess but would be
nicer to maybe say "synchronet" or "sbbs" or similar since that was the ""client"" used to generate the email ;)

That is, quite odd..

I sent email via my BBS and via Kmail to analyze the different in actual generated email content to see what the differences were.

Here's the raw code now:

Email from Synchronet w/Attach:
-BEGIN-
Return-Path: <psi-jack@deckersheaven.com>
Delivered-To: <psi-jack@linux-help.org>
Received: from dspam.linux-help.org ([10.128.221.124])
by mx1.linux-help.org (Dovecot) with LMTP id 7UFMB2K7HVRRTgAA6wyYWA
for <psi-jack@linux-help.org>; Sat, 20 Sep 2014 20:51:52 +0000
Received: from deckersheaven.com (50-88-20-140.res.bhn.net [50.88.20.140])
by mx1.linux-help.org (Postfix) with SMTP id C06221A08BC
for <psi-jack@linux-help.org>; Sat, 20 Sep 2014 20:51:51 +0000 (UTC)
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 16:51:50 -0400
From: "Psi-Jack" <psi-jack@deckersheaven.com>
Organization: Decker's Heaven
Subject: dhtest.txt
To: "psi-jack" <psi-jack@linux-help.org>
Message-ID: <541DE8E6.97@deckersheaven.com>
Originator-Info: account=1; login-id=Psi-Jack; server=deckersheaven.com; client=midgaard.home.ld; addr=172.17.3.1; prot=SSH; port=42808; time=20140920204502Z
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=IBM437
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="eFQZLFMDvJ9de3Fgj2lTGiL9jMmNVSH7hhh2"
X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.97.8 at mx1.linux-help.org
X-Virus-Status: Clean
X-DSPAM-Result: Innocent
X-DSPAM-Processed: Sat Sep 20 20:51:52 2014
X-DSPAM-Confidence: 0.9899
X-DSPAM-Probability: 0.0000
X-DSPAM-Signature: 541de8e8187734999517819

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.


--eFQZLFMDvJ9de3Fgj2lTGiL9jMmNVSH7hhh2
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Just testing a file attachment. With text.

---

[Psi-Jack -//- Decker]

--eFQZLFMDvJ9de3Fgj2lTGiL9jMmNVSH7hhh2
Content-Type: application/octet-stream;
name="dhtest.txt"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="dhtest.txt"

SnVzdCBhIHRlc3QKCg==


--eFQZLFMDvJ9de3Fgj2lTGiL9jMmNVSH7hhh2--

-END-

Email from KMail w/Attach:

-BEGIN-
Return-Path: <psi-jack@deckersheaven.com>
Delivered-To: <psi-jack@linux-help.org>
Received: from dspam.linux-help.org ([10.128.221.124])
by mx1.linux-help.org (Dovecot) with LMTP id 80FMB2K7HVRRTgAA6wyYWA
for <psi-jack@linux-help.org>; Sat, 20 Sep 2014 20:53:28 +0000
Received: from deckersheaven.com (50-88-20-140.res.bhn.net [50.88.20.140])
by mx1.linux-help.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 7F9521A08BC
for <psi-jack@linux-help.org>; Sat, 20 Sep 2014 20:53:28 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from midgaard.home.ld (midgaard.hostdruids.com [172.17.3.1])
by deckersheaven.com [172.17.6.23] (Synchronet Mail Server 1.570-Linux) with ESMTP
for psi-jack@linux-help.org; Sat, 20 Sep 2014 16:53:27 -0400
(envelope-from <psi-jack@deckersheaven.com>)
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 16:53:27 -0400
From: Eric Renfro <psi-jack@deckersheaven.com>
Organization: Decker's Heaven
Subject: Just testing SMTP based file attachment.
To: Psi-Jack <psi-jack@linux-help.org>
Message-ID: <1528059.1iE2gClnRb@midgaard.hostdruids.com>
Originator-Info: account=1; login-id=Psi-Jack; server=deckersheaven.com; client=midgaard.home.ld; addr=172.17.3.1; prot=SMTP; port=33004; time=20140920205327Z
User-Agent: KMail/4.13.3 (Linux/3.16.2-200.fc20.x86_64; KDE/4.13.3; x86_64; ; ) MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="nextPart1588058.CQVPxIVSWT" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit
X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.97.8 at mx1.linux-help.org
X-Virus-Status: Clean
X-DSPAM-Result: Innocent
X-DSPAM-Processed: Sat Sep 20 20:53:28 2014
X-DSPAM-Confidence: 0.9899
X-DSPAM-Probability: 0.0000
X-DSPAM-Signature: 541de948187731546220510

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--nextPart1588058.CQVPxIVSWT
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Testing Kmail attach.

--

[Psi-Jack -//- Decker's Heaven]

--nextPart1588058.CQVPxIVSWT
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="dhtest.txt" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"; name="dhtest.txt"

Just a test


--nextPart1588058.CQVPxIVSWT--

-END-

The only real difference that I see, odly enough, is the break in the header that Synchronet does, versus KMail keeping it all on one line.

In Kmail (and Thunderbird), the visual difference in reading is as such:

Synchronet-sent Email w/Attach reading:
-BEGIN-
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.


--eFQZLFMDvJ9de3Fgj2lTGiL9jMmNVSH7hhh2
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Just testing a file attachment. With text.

---

[Psi-Jack -//- Decker]

--eFQZLFMDvJ9de3Fgj2lTGiL9jMmNVSH7hhh2
Content-Type: application/octet-stream;
name="dhtest.txt"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="dhtest.txt"

SnVzdCBhIHRlc3QKCg==


--eFQZLFMDvJ9de3Fgj2lTGiL9jMmNVSH7hhh2--
-END-

And with Kmail-sent reading:
-BEGIN-
Testing Kmail attach.

--

[Psi-Jack -//- Decker's Heaven]

(document icon) dhtest.txt
-END-

As you can see reading it with Synchronet-sent mail shows up with the whole content unparsed, while reading the Kmail-generated attached email only renders the text and provides the attachment for download.


Here is my code I'm using to actually send Email/Netmail/Internet Mail:

function sendMail()
{
// console.putmsg(bbs.text(Email));
console.clear();
console.putmsg("Username, User number, NetMail Address or Internet E-mail address:");
console.crlf();
console.putmsg("ex: Psi-Jack, 1, psi-jack@1:135/371, psi-jack@deckersheaven.com");
console.crlf();
var nameOrNumber = console.getstr("", console.screen_columns - 1, K_EDIT|K_LINE);

if (nameOrNumber.search(/\@/) != -1) {
if (console.noyes("Do you want to attach a file?"))
bbs.netmail(nameOrNumber, WM_NONE);
else
bbs.netmail(nameOrNumber, WM_FILE);
} else {
if (isNaN(parseInt(nameOrNumber))) {
nameOrNumber = system.matchuser(nameOrNumber);
}
if (nameOrNumber < 1) {
console.crlf();
console.putmsg(bbs.text(Aborted));
return;
} else {
if (console.noyes("Do you want to attach a file?"))
bbs.email(nameOrNumber, WM_EMAIL);
else
bbs.email(nameOrNumber, WM_EMAIL|WM_FILE);
}
}
}

---

[Psi-Jack -//- Decker]

þ Synchronet þ Decker's Heaven -//- bbs.deckersheaven.com

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: mark lewis to Mro on Sat Sep 20 2014 14:01:51

confirmed... looks fine over here when i just tested from max's sync to one of my email addresses... i attached a text file which was base64 encoded as an octet-stream...

actually, i've gotta back off on this confirmation... i had viewed the email in raw mode while it was sitting on my smtp server awaiting pickup... once it was pulled to my thunderbird, i saw what appears to be the same as what psi-jack reported... here's a snip from the text area of my t-bird...

===== snip =====
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.


--DuWWJJqEGe4KYUVBcjQpw7tLGHECXPqiHMDb
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

[message body text removed by poster]

--DuWWJJqEGe4KYUVBcjQpw7tLGHECXPqiHMDb
Content-Type: application/octet-stream;
name="badlogs"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="somefile"

[base64 data block removed by poster]

--DuWWJJqEGe4KYUVBcjQpw7tLGHECXPqiHMDb--

===== snip =====

obviously i missed something when i visually inspected the raw email file :/ --- SBBSecho 2.27-Linux
* Origin: (1:3634/50)
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: waldo kitty to Mro on Sat Sep 20 2014 05:11 pm

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: mark lewis to Mro on Sat Sep 20 2014 14:01:51

confirmed... looks fine over here when i just tested from max's sync
to one of my email addresses... i attached a text file which was
base64 encoded as an octet-stream...

actually, i've gotta back off on this confirmation... i had viewed the

are you replying to mark lewis, cause on my bbs it says you are replying to me, but i didnt create that msg.

also i am missing the msg from mark lewis.
---
þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

On Sun, 21 Sep 2014, Mro wrote to waldo kitty:

confirmed... looks fine over here when i just tested from
max's sync to one of my email addresses... i attached a text
file which was base64 encoded as an octet-stream...

actually, i've gotta back off on this confirmation... i had viewed
the

are you replying to mark lewis,

no, the message was addressed to your name, Mro...

cause on my bbs it says you are replying to me,

correct...

but i didnt create that msg.

correct... the wk reply is known as a follow-up or comment message... it is where you follow-up B's comment to A by commenting B's post and addressing the comment post to A...

also i am missing the msg from mark lewis.

something musta broke somewhere...

)\/(ark


* Origin: (1:3634/12)

---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Psi-Jack to Digital Man on Fri Sep 19 2014 10:03 am

I agree that it would be *nice* if when viewing MIME-encoded
messages over Telnet/SSH/RLogin, that only the text/plain part was
decoded and displayed to the user, but that is a significant
enhancement, not a bug-fix.

Yes, that would be a definite enhancement wish in the future too. Displaying only the plain/text only portion of a multipart mime message.

This is a feature I would love to see, as well.

I see on the Synchronet wiki page for the mail server, there is an entry for "external mail processor." I don't know what that is, exactly, but in theory could I write a JS module which would strip non-plain-text from an email and only display the content of the text/plain portion?

--Josh

////--------------------------------------------------
BiC -=- http://breakintochat.com -=- bbs wiki and blog

---
þ Synchronet

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Kirkman to Psi-Jack on Mon Dec 22 2014 09:48 pm

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Psi-Jack to Digital Man on Fri Sep 19 2014 10:03 am

I agree that it would be *nice* if when viewing MIME-encoded
messages over Telnet/SSH/RLogin, that only the text/plain part was
decoded and displayed to the user, but that is a significant
enhancement, not a bug-fix.

Yes, that would be a definite enhancement wish in the future too. Displaying only the plain/text only portion of a multipart mime message.

This is a feature I would love to see, as well.

I see on the Synchronet wiki page for the mail server, there is an entry
for "external mail processor." I don't know what that is, exactly, but in theory could I write a JS module which would strip non-plain-text from an email and only display the content of the text/plain portion?

An external mail processor could be written to convert a MIME-encoded email to plain text, but then you'd stop being able to receive file attachments, HTML-encoded emails, etc., so I doubt that's a solution.

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #21:
The second ever Synchronet BBS was the Mid-Nite Hacker BBS (sysop: The Zapper). Norco, CA WX: 66.6øF, 47.0% humidity, 6 mph NNW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Kirkman to Psi-Jack on Mon Dec 22 2014 09:48 pm

I see on the Synchronet wiki page for the mail server, there is an entry for "external mail processor." I don't know what that is, exactly, but in theory could I write a JS module which would strip non-plain-text from an email and only display the content of the text/plain portion?

Handing mail off to Procmail could do most of what you need, but I'd love a JS modeule -- I'm running Windows and like to do all of my email for the
BBS through the BBS.

---
þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org

I see on the Synchronet wiki page for the mail server, there is an entry for "external mail processor." I don't know what that is, exactly, but
in theory could I write a JS module which would strip non-plain-text
from an email and only display the content of the text/plain portion?

An external mail processor could be written to convert a MIME-encoded email to plain text, but then you'd stop being able to receive file attachments, HTML-encoded emails, etc., so I doubt that's a solution.

That is, in fact, what I wanted to do. I don't really use my BBS for personal or work email. It's mostly for the kids, and for me to experiment with. My daughter has started receiving email from folks, but if they send HTML, it's almost unreadable through the telnet interface.

I don't think I'm up to the challenge of writing a JS MIME processing module (though I did find one written in Node,js).

But after some work this evening, I cobbled together a Python script which strips out everything except the "text/plain" content part. It seems to be working well.

If anyone else is interested, I tossed it onto GitHub:

https://github.com/Kirkman/Mail-to-Plain-Text


--Josh

////--------------------------------------------------
BiC -=- http://breakintochat.com -=- bbs wiki and blog

---
þ Synchronet

On 12-23-14 22:41, Kirkman wrote to Digital Man <=-

Hiya Josh...

I see on the Synchronet wiki page for the mail server, there is an entry for "external mail processor." I don't know what that is, exactly, but
in theory could I write a JS module which would strip non-plain-text
from an email and only display the content of the text/plain portion?

An external mail processor could be written to convert a MIME-encoded email to plain text, but then you'd stop being able to receive file attachments, HTML-encoded emails, etc., so I doubt that's a solution.

That is, in fact, what I wanted to do. I don't really use my BBS for personal or work email. It's mostly for the kids, and for me to
experiment with. My daughter has started receiving email from folks,
but if they send HTML, it's almost unreadable through the telnet interface.

I don't think I'm up to the challenge of writing a JS MIME processing module (though I did find one written in Node,js).

But after some work this evening, I cobbled together a Python script
which strips out everything except the "text/plain" content part. It
seems to be working well.

If anyone else is interested, I tossed it onto GitHub:

https://github.com/Kirkman/Mail-to-Plain-Text

This is something I was really interested to work with the listserver. I performed the installation as you perscribed on your site (had to get python). Installed Python but didn't reboot the server yet, I made all the changes as per your instructions and nothing. Still seeing the MIME. I'll not be rebooting the server till the weekend so no worries about it not working till I do that. My question is, if it does start working after the reboot, can this be implimented into the listserver function.

Thanks!!


Bill

Telnet: tequilamockingbirdonline.net
Web: bbs.tequilamockingbirdonline.net
FTP: ftp.tequilamockingbirdonline.net:2121
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... Look Twice... Save a Life!!! Motorcycles are Everywhere!!
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.50
þ Synchronet þ TequilaMockingbird Online - TELNET: tequilamockingbirdonline.net

This is something I was really interested to work with the listserver. I performed the installation as you perscribed on your site (had to get python). Installed Python but didn't reboot the server yet, I made all the changes as per your instructions and nothing. Still seeing the MIME. I'll not be rebooting the server till the weekend so no worries about it not working till I do that. My question is, if it does start working after the reboot, can this be implimented into the listserver function.

Are you on Windows or Linux? If you just installed Python, you may need to check if the Python directory has been added to your PATH.

Also, make sure the .py script is executable and owned by the same user your BBS runs as.

As far as the list server, I would guess so.

--Josh

////--------------------------------------------------
BiC -=- http://breakintochat.com -=- bbs wiki and blog

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þ Synchronet

On 12-24-14 13:48, Kirkman wrote to Bill McGarrity <=-

This is something I was really interested to work with the listserver. I performed the installation as you perscribed on your site (had to get python). Installed Python but didn't reboot the server yet, I made all the changes as per your instructions and nothing. Still seeing the MIME. I'll not be rebooting the server till the weekend so no worries about it not working till I do that. My question is, if it does start working after the reboot, can this be implimented into the listserver function.

Are you on Windows or Linux? If you just installed Python, you may need
to check if the Python directory has been added to your PATH.

Windows Server2008 and the msi asked if I wanted it added to my path and I said yes.

Also, make sure the .py script is executable and owned by the same user your BBS runs as.

It is.

As far as the list server, I would guess so.

Good... :)

As I said, I'll reboot the machine and see what happens then

Thanks again..


Bill

Telnet: tequilamockingbirdonline.net
Web: bbs.tequilamockingbirdonline.net
FTP: ftp.tequilamockingbirdonline.net:2121
IRC: irc.tequilamockingbirdonline.net Ports: 6661-6670 SSL: +6697
Radio: radio.tequilamockingbirdonline.net:8010/live


... Look Twice... Save a Life!!! Motorcycles are Everywhere!!
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.50
þ Synchronet þ TequilaMockingbird Online - TELNET: tequilamockingbirdonline.net

Re: Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Kirkman to Digital Man on Tue Dec 23 2014 10:41 pm

But after some work this evening, I cobbled together a Python script which strips out everything except the "text/plain" content part. It seems to be working well.

If anyone else is interested, I tossed it onto GitHub:

https://github.com/Kirkman/Mail-to-Plain-Text

That's pretty good stuff, Kirkman. Granted, I myself use both POP and Telnet to access my mail, but I also get some occasional scenarios where I somehow actually get junk mail that's all html or just plain junk mail, so.. I'm considering my options, including pondering the idea of integrating dspamd into my Synchronet setup to see if I can. Having a start towards that goal may prove useful though.

Anyway, thanks for your work on something people may find useful, even if they don't, the idea can be useful too. :)

---

[Psi-Jack -//- Decker]

þ Synchronet þ Decker's Heaven -//- bbs.deckersheaven.com

Re: Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Psi-Jack to Kirkman on Sun Feb 22 2015 02:23 am

That's pretty good stuff, Kirkman. Granted, I myself use both POP and Telnet to access my mail, but I also get some occasional scenarios where I somehow actually get junk mail that's all html or just plain junk mail, so.. I'm considering my options, including pondering the idea of integrating dspamd into my Synchronet setup to see if I can. Having a start towards that goal may prove useful though.

Thanks. I threw it together when it became clear that writing a new JS mail processor was going to be way more work than I had time to invest. It has worked very well overall, though I think there have been a couple emails that didn't get stripped down to plain text. I haven't had time to do much testing or fixing since I initially released it.

It would be awesome if at some future time Synchronet had better email->BBS integration. It would be nice to have all emails rendered to plain text when viewed over telnet ... and attachments available to download through the telnet client.

But given that state of BBSing, I think very few users would actually want such a thing, so it's probably not going to happen.

--Josh

////--------------------------------------------------
BiC -=- http://breakintochat.com -=- bbs wiki and blog

---
þ Synchronet

Re: Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Kirkman to Psi-Jack on Tue Feb 24 2015 09:55 pm

But given that state of BBSing, I think very few users would actually want such a thing, so it's probably not going to happen.

It's likely to happen as soon as we get serious about implementing MIME. So far all of the implementations have been somewhat incomplete since MIME is a terrible beast to deal with.

---
http://DuckDuckGo.com/ a better search engine that respects your privacy.
þ Synchronet þ My Brand-New BBS (All the cool SysOps run STOCK!)

Psi-Jack wrote to Kirkman <=-

That's pretty good stuff, Kirkman. Granted, I myself use both POP and Telnet to access my mail, but I also get some occasional scenarios
where I somehow actually get junk mail that's all html or just plain
junk mail, so..

I wish someone would port procmail over to javascript -- I used to use a
script called "procmail sanitizer" when I ran my own email server and loved
it for streamlining my email and de-html ing it.




... Your mistake was a hidden intention
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.50
þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org

Re: Re: Bug in Mail Attachments
By: Poindexter Fortran to Psi-Jack on Tue Feb 24 2015 02:03 pm

Psi-Jack wrote to Kirkman <=-

That's pretty good stuff, Kirkman. Granted, I myself use both POP
and Telnet to access my mail, but I also get some occasional
scenarios where I somehow actually get junk mail that's all html or
just plain junk mail, so..

I wish someone would port procmail over to javascript -- I used to use a script called "procmail sanitizer" when I ran my own email server and loved it for streamlining my email and de-html ing it.

Bleh, I always hated how cryptic procmail was. It better be sieve instead! :)
-

[Psi-Jack -//- Decker]

---
þ Synchronet þ Decker's Heaven -//- bbs.deckersheaven.com