zlacker

[return to "What's up with all those equals signs anyway?"]
1. tibors+Qa[view] [source] 2026-02-03 11:09:26
>>todsac+(OP)
> We see that that’s a quite a long line. Mail servers don’t like that

Why do mail server care about how long a line is? Why don't they just let the client reading the mail worry about wrapping the lines?

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2. liveon+Om[view] [source] 2026-02-03 12:27:20
>>tibors+Qa
This is how email work(ed) over smtp. When each command was sent it would get a '200'-class message (success) or 400/500-class message (failure). Sound familiar?

telnet smtp.mailserver.com 25

HELO

MAIL FROM: me@foo.com

RCPT TO: you@bar.com

DATA

blah blah blah

how's it going?

talk to you later!

.

QUIT

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3. Telema+is[view] [source] 2026-02-03 13:07:31
>>liveon+Om
This brings back some fun memories from the 1990s when this was exactly how we would send prank emails.
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4. kstrau+c51[view] [source] 2026-02-03 16:15:51
>>Telema+is
Yep! And also, if you included a blank line and then the headers for a new email in the bottom of your message, you could tell the server, hey, here comes another email for you to process!

If you were typing into a feedback form powered by something from Matt’s Script Archive, there was about a 95% chance you could trivially get it to send out multiple emails to other parties for every one email sent to the site’s owner.

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