[Mimedefang] GMail (was Re: stripping Received headers based on authentication)

[Les Mikesell]

On 2/17/2010 12:05 PM, David F. Skoll wrote:
>
>>> Because running pine over SSH is not a "gateway" as defined in RFC
>>> 5321, whereas running a Webmail server that accepts email using some
>>> kind of transport (HTTP or HTTPS) and then delivers it using SMTP *is*
>>> a gateway as defined in RFC 5321.
>
>> Sorry, but a web interface isn't an email gateway.
>
> Transmitting an email via HTTP from a client computer qualifies
> as gatewaying by my reading of the RFC.

That means you have to think my web browser is also an email gateway.  I 
don't see any reason to think it is more than a display transport.

>> The application running email isn't where the web interface displays
>> it any more than it would be if you display thunderbird in a remote
>> X session.
>
> No, that's not correct at all.  Using HTTP as a transport protocol
> for email is quite different from using the X protocol to draw pixels
> on a remote display.

How so?  X does more than draw pixels, but neither X nor http know 
anything about email or the contents of what they transport.  That's all 
up to the application at the other end - and it's why they are both so 
useful.

>> But the RFC says nothing about remote displays and remote application
>> acccess, whether provided by ssh, X, or http(s).
>
> The RFC defines a gateway as:
>
>     A "gateway" SMTP system (usually referred to just as a "gateway")
>     receives mail from a client system in one transport environment and
>     transmits it to a server system in another transport environment.
>
> This describes webmail exactly.  You type your email into a form in the
> Web browser which transmits it over HTTP to the server.  That's the
> server "receiving mail from a client system".

The browser displays a form, but only the application at the other end 
knows anything about the contents being mail.  Which is exactly the same 
scenario as if I typed it into thunderbird in a remote X window.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com