message threading in debian lists; was Re (6): OpenVPN server mode usage.
Bob,
From: Bob Proulx <bob@proulx.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:22:23 -0700
> Every reply of yours is starting a new thread. You can see this in
> the mailing list archives.
Apologies. I understand and certainly would prefer not do that.
> This is an aside but why is the subject being modified with a " (#)"
> before the colon in "Re:"? Converting "Re:" to "Re (5):" for this
> message for example? That causes the attempt to fall back without
> In-Reply-To: to grouping messages by subject to be unable to do so.
I'll explain all the cases for benefit of anyone who might be interested.
Some of the information at http://carnot.yi.org/NetworksPage.html
might help.
The simplest is when I am at home and have a direct link to the ISP
and POP3 brings messages from the ISP to the home workstation,
heaviside, and SMTP takes messages from heaviside to the ISP. A message
from debian-user can be read as an emessage or from the Web archive.
In both cases the Message-id is available and I can insert it as the
value of In-reply-to in a reply. lists.debian.org uses that message-id to
connect the thread. So far, so good.
A second case is when I am at work and the tunnel between dalton
and joule is working properly. Then POP3 brings messages from the
ISP to cantor via the tunnel and SMTP takes messages to the ISP.
Email works the same for cantor as for heaviside in the case above.
Still good.
A third case is when I am at work and the tunnel between dalton
and joule is broken. Then POP3 can bring messages from the ISP
through the public Internet to cantor; but the ISP will not accept
a message from cantor via SMTP through the public Internet. In
this case messages must be sent through the Web interface of the ISP.
Presumeably it's this Web software which inserts " (#)". Now if a
message is read on cantor I have difficulty. The message-id is visible
on cantor but I do not know of any way to have the Web interface
accept an In-reply-to parameter. That's when a new thread begins.
If the tunnel is broken I could simply refrain from retrieving mail to
the MUA on cantor and read all mail with the Web based interface.
If a reply is created, the correct value for In-reply-to will be generated
automatically. My objection is that the Web interface is unbearably
slow and clumsy. The tunnel is working again now and with any luck,
will continue to do so for several years. As long as the tunnel works I
can connect messages properly.
Is threading of messages in Debian lists explained anywhere? I've never
seen an explanation. A few years ago I found how to use Message-id
and In-reply-to by exploration rather than straightforward reading.
Regards, ... Peter E.
--
Telephone 1 360 450 2132.
Shop pages http://carnot.yi.org/ accessible as long as the old drives survive.
Personal pages http://members.shaw.ca/peasthope/ .
Reply to: