Subj : Re: MSGID
To   : Oli
From : Wilfred van Velzen
Date : Mon Feb 14 2022 06:22 pm




Hi Oli,

On 2022-02-14 10:06:33, you wrote to Carlos Navarro:

 O>>> I still don't understand the reasoning and advantages of
 O>>> "string@z:r/n.p".

 CN>> See Rob's explanation here:
 CN>> http://wiki.synchro.net/faq:misc#ftn_msgid

 Ol> So did anyone experience any problems with non-unique / repeating MSGIDs in
 Ol> real life? Is it a real problem or just theoretical?

I've noticed a few cases when for instance Ward re-installed d'Brigde, and his MSGID's started repeating those his system already generated 1 or 2 years earlier. This was a few years back, so I don't remember the exact details. And I don't know if d'Bridge still has this problem, or has improved the MSGID checksum generating algorithm, and made it time based...

Finding these was by pure luck, because I got replies to originals I didn't see before. So maybe it happens a lot, but these false dupes go undetected.

 Ol> It shouldn't been to hard to create an unique serialno within the
 Ol> domain of an origaddr.

It isn't, everyone could have a look at the golded code for instance...

 Ol> An regarding MSGID format:

 Ol>    "The originating address should be specified in a form that
 Ol>    constitutes a valid return address for the originating network."

 Ol> Of course one could insist there is only a "should" and not a "must" in
 Ol> FTS-9, but string@z:n/f.p is still not a valid return address.

 Ol> But then I could also be very clever and recognize that

 Ol>    "The serial number may be any eight character hexadecimal number"

 Ol> uses "may". So there is no hard requirement that there is a serialno at
 Ol> all.

 Ol> FTS-9 also doesn't require that there are no spaces (0x32) in the origaddr
 Ol> (which doesn't have to be a valid address). Which means anything goes, as
 Ol> long as MSGID is unique and "A double-quote character within a quoted
 Ol> address is represented by by two consecutive double-quote characters."

 Ol> According to FTS-9 and FTS-4000 this would be valid too:

 Ol> ^aMSGID: 🤔🙏🤫🧠😷🤖🥳 🖕

Well of course someone could do this and point at the semantics of the FTS documentation for legitimizing this. But there is such a thing as common sense, and to use the docs as intended, and not be annoying and cause problems in other software...


Bye, Wilfred.

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 * Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)

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