I'm a user on a linux machine running sendmail; I read my mail in the
terminal using pine. When I'm one of multiple recipients in the
sender's "To: " field, I don't see the other recipients, which causes
many a problem (I don't know who else has received the email; I can't
reply to all; I wonder why *I'm* being singled out for an email that
was intended to be general; etc.). I'm trying to track down the
possible problem myself, as the admin is very busy right now (offhand
he didn't have a clue what the problem could be so I said I'd try to
find out). Are there any known issues that could cause this, that I
could ask him to look into?

When I view full headers in pine there is a "To: " header, but it has
only my own address. I know from other recipients, who are able to
reply to all, that the email was sent to multiple addresses, and after
checking with those other recipients and with the sender I found out
that all addresses had originally been put in the "To: " field, not
the cc or bcc fields. Maddeningly, it doesn't seem to happen all the
time.

Should I post the headers? I hope this is the right place for such a
question; if not I'd be grateful for any pointers to a better place.

Thanks.

On 08/29/07 10:10, lloyd wrote:
> Should I post the headers? I hope this is the right place for such a
> question; if not I'd be grateful for any pointers to a better place.

Yes. Please post the headers from the following messages:
- Suspect message with out messed up To: headers from your system.
- Suspect message with messed up To: headers from your system.
- Suspect message with out messed up To: headers from another system.
- Suspect message with messed up To: headers from another system.

Preferably get a copy of the headers from the same message from your
system and another system. This will offer a basis of comparison.

One thing that comes to mind is that a message is sent to multiple
people with only one of you in the To: field and all the others added as
SMTP recipients (BCC).

If you have a given message you may ask your email administrator for a
copy of the log entries too.



Grant. . . .

Ok. I have a message that was actually sent to me twice at two
addresses. One copy went to me at another address which forwards to
the address where I read the mail; the other went directly to the
account where I read the mail. Here are the headers from the first
copy, which I believe is the one sent to another address and then
forwarded to the address I read mail at. This one was fine; I could
see all recipients when the email arrived. I have anonymised
identifying information on this copy; anything anonymised is in square
brackets and I haven't touched anything else:

Return-Path: <[sender's address]>
Received: from drizzle.cc.mcgill.ca (drizzle.cc.mcgill.ca
[132.206.27.48])
by sound.music.mcgill.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id
l7NJrgEe009475;
Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:53:42 -0400
Received: from mailscan3.cc.mcgill.ca (mailscan3.CC.McGill.CA
[132.216.77.250])
by drizzle.cc.mcgill.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.3) with ESMTP id
l7NJreXt014220;
Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:53:42 -0400
Received: from EXCHANGE-FE1.campus.mcgill.ca (exchange-
fe1.campus.mcgill.ca [132.206.153.2])
by mailscan3.cc.mcgill.ca (8.14.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id
l7NJrbHs024059;
Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:53:37 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from EXCHANGE2VS2.campus.mcgill.ca ([132.206.85.145]) by
EXCHANGE-FE1.campus.mcgill.ca
with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830);
Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:53:36 -0400
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5
Content-class: urn:content-classes:message
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C7E5BF.4B0F8D34"
Subject: Academic Advising/FRIDAY, AUGUST 31
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:53:36 -0400
Message-ID:
<0D9D22E4E2D7FD44862B458EB59333520228BB8B [at] EXCHANGE2VS2.campus.mcgill.ca>
X-MS-Has-Attach:
X-MS-TNEF-Correlator:
Thread-Topic: Academic Advising/FRIDAY, AUGUST 31
thread-index: Acflv0sk6kl+o6lPQ76CoHHhzzC+iw==
From: "[sender's name]" <address>
To: "recipient 1" <address>,
"recipient 2" <address>,
[and about 20 other recipients, including me (at two different
addresses)]
Cc: [3 people in the cc field]
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 23 Aug 2007 19:53:36.0849 (UTC)
FILETIME=[4B516C10:01C7E5BF]
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-99.8 required=5.0
tests=HTML_60_70,HTML_MESSAGE,USER_IN_WHITELIST
version=2.55
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.55 (1.174.2.19-2003-05-19-exp)
Parts/Attachments:
1 OK ~84 lines Text
2 Shown ~284 lines Text
----------------------------------------


And here are the headers from the second copy I received of the same
message--this one I believe was the copy sent directly to the account
where I read mail. This one arrived in my inbox without me being able
to see any of the other recipients; as you can see the "To: " field
only has one address, mine:

Return-Path: <[sender's address]>
Received: from torrent.cc.mcgill.ca (torrent.cc.mcgill.ca
[132.206.27.49])
by sound.music.mcgill.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id
l7NJrqug009481
for <[my address where I read email]>; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:53:52
-0400
Received: from mailscan1.cc.mcgill.ca (mailscan1.CC.McGill.CA
[132.216.77.248])
by torrent.cc.mcgill.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.3) with ESMTP id
l7NJrkWa013618
for <[my address where I read email]>; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:53:52
-0400
Received: from EXCHANGE-FE1.campus.mcgill.ca (exchange-
fe1.campus.mcgill.ca [132.206.153.2])
by mailscan1.cc.mcgill.ca (8.14.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id
l7NJrdKp010543
for <[my address where I read email]>; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:53:39
-0400 (EDT)
Received: from EXCHANGE2VS2.campus.mcgill.ca ([132.206.85.145]) by
EXCHANGE-FE1.campus.mcgill.ca
with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830);
Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:53:38 -0400
Content-class: urn:content-classes:message
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C7E5BF.4C4A4294"
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5
Subject: Academic Advising/FRIDAY, AUGUST 31
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:53:38 -0400
Message-ID:
<45AEE06A4800AF4FAD8BEF09C433D85F059B2608 [at] EXCHANGE2VS2.campus.mcgill.ca>
X-MS-Has-Attach:
X-MS-TNEF-Correlator:
Thread-Topic: Academic Advising/FRIDAY, AUGUST 31
thread-index: Acflv0sk6kl+o6lPQ76CoHHhzzC+iw==
From: "[sender]" <[sender's address]>
To: <[my address where I read mail]>
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 23 Aug 2007 19:53:38.0741 (UTC)
FILETIME=[4C721E50:01C7E5BF]
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-99.8 required=5.0
tests=HTML_60_70,HTML_MESSAGE,USER_IN_WHITELIST
version=2.55
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.55 (1.174.2.19-2003-05-19-exp)
Parts/Attachments:
1 OK ~84 lines Text
2 Shown ~284 lines Text
----------------------------------------



So not only is there no one else in the "To: " field, but the "cc: "
field is completely missing. Can you tell where those got stripped
off?

Many thanks.

On 08/29/07 15:44, lloyd wrote:
> Ok. I have a message that was actually sent to me twice at two
> addresses. One copy went to me at another address which forwards to
> the address where I read the mail; the other went directly to the
> account where I read the mail. Here are the headers from the first
> copy, which I believe is the one sent to another address and then
> forwarded to the address I read mail at. This one was fine; I could
> see all recipients when the email arrived. I have anonymised
> identifying information on this copy; anything anonymised is in
> square brackets and I haven't touched anything else:

Ok, I'll take a look.

> Received: from drizzle.cc.mcgill.ca (drizzle.cc.mcgill.ca [132.206.27.48])
> by sound.music.mcgill.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l7NJrgEe009475;
> Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:53:42 -0400
> Message-ID:
> <0D9D22E4E2D7FD44862B458EB59333520228BB8B [at] EXCHANGE2VS2.campus.mcgill.ca>

The first thing that I notice is that this message was sent to multiple
SMTP recipients, indicated by the lack of a "for <address>" in the
Received: header. Also note the Message-ID and time stamp.

> And here are the headers from the second copy I received of the same
> message--this one I believe was the copy sent directly to the account
> where I read mail. This one arrived in my inbox without me being able
> to see any of the other recipients; as you can see the "To: " field
> only has one address, mine:

*nod*

> Received: from torrent.cc.mcgill.ca (torrent.cc.mcgill.ca [132.206.27.49])
> by sound.music.mcgill.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l7NJrqug009481
> for <[my address where I read email]>; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:53:52 -0400
> Message-ID:
> <45AEE06A4800AF4FAD8BEF09C433D85F059B2608 [at] EXCHANGE2VS2.campus.mcgill.ca>

See how this message was sent to you and only you, indicated by the fact
that you are the listed recipient in the Received: header? Also note
that the Message-ID and time stamp are not the same.

> So not only is there no one else in the "To: " field, but the "cc: "
> field is completely missing. Can you tell where those got stripped
> off?

Seeing as how purportedly these messages, though similar in content, are
two very distinctly different messages. With this in mind I would take
a look at the system that is sending the original message.

I note that Exchange is in the mix (for that I'm sorry) so it may be
messing with things on you. Is this a "Distribution List" or some other
sort of mailing list or just a collection of email addresses? I'd
expect that messages that are (presuming) from the "Distribution List"
are not being sent out with other recipients information included. I
would consider the second message to be using "Full Personalization" (or
what ever said system calls it) so that each individual recipient is
receiving a message that is unique to them.

So, from the looks of this, start at the very start of this message's
life cycle. I don't think that there is any thing in the SMTP transit
path that is tripping any thing, rather that the original message is to
be subjected to more scrutiny.

> Many thanks.

You are welcome.



Grant. . . .

On Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:44:46 -0700, lloyd <lloyd.houghton [at] gmail.com>
wrote:

>Ok. I have a message that was actually sent to me twice at two
>addresses. One copy went to me at another address which forwards to
>the address where I read the mail; the other went directly to the
>account where I read the mail. Here are the headers from the first
>copy, which I believe is the one sent to another address and then
>forwarded to the address I read mail at. This one was fine; I could
>see all recipients when the email arrived. I have anonymised
>identifying information on this copy; anything anonymised is in square
>brackets and I haven't touched anything else:
[snip]

Follow the received headers, from the bottom up. These were
transmitted as two separate messages to your mailserver, and the step
before that - at the Exchange server, it doesn't even show the same
originating transaction timestamp on the two messages - they differ by
a few seconds (the same applies to the Date: header itself).

Top that off with the Content-Type boundary being a DIFFERENT STRING.
These messages are not two copies of the same transmission. Something
at the sending end split them up, be that the sending MUA or the
Exchange server itself, it certainly isn't YOUR box.

[snip - your headers, should be easy enough to look at again]

Thanks Grant (and Sean also in this thread). So I understand the
problem is not at my end, but at the sender's mail server, which must
be sending messages to one of my addresses without the full "To: "
header. So I won't have to bug my local LAN email admin, but the
central university email admins, hopefully to fix their screwed up
Exchange server settings. And actually looking at it now I realise
that all the emails with this problem have been sent by that server.

On Aug 29, 6:09 pm, Grant Taylor <gtay... [at] riverviewtech.net> wrote:

> I note that Exchange is in the mix (for that I'm sorry) so it may be
> messing with things on you. Is this a "Distribution List" or some other
> sort of mailing list or just a collection of email addresses?

It was just an ad hoc bunch of addresses typed into this particular
email, according to the sender, not a distribution list.

Thanks again --LH

On 8/29/2007 11:04 PM, lloyd wrote:
> Thanks Grant (and Sean also in this thread). So I understand the
> problem is not at my end, but at the sender's mail server, which must
> be sending messages to one of my addresses without the full "To: "
> header. So I won't have to bug my local LAN email admin, but the
> central university email admins, hopefully to fix their screwed up
> Exchange server settings. And actually looking at it now I realise
> that all the emails with this problem have been sent by that server.

*nod*

> It was just an ad hoc bunch of addresses typed into this particular
> email, according to the sender, not a distribution list.

That is why you were seeing them verses some sort of mailing list using
full personalization.

> Thanks again --LH

You are welcome. I'm glad that we could help.



Grant. . . .