Re: mail-mode does not insert a date header

[Florian v. Savigny]

Hi Eli and Kevin,

thank you very much for your replies back in March. I am sorry to say
that being very busy otherwise, I seem to have lost track of the
question then. But I have been able to continue now.


  > Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 17:52:27 +0200
  > From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
  > 
  > > From: Kevin Rodgers <kevin.d.rodgers@gmail.com>
  > > Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 23:33:01 -0600
  > > 
  > > On 3/10/14 1:01 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
  > > > Isn't the Date header inserted by the MTA, as opposed by the MUA?
  > > 
  > > Yes, but if Emacs is talking directly with a server via SMTP, Emacs is
  > > effectively the MTA and should insert the Date header.
  > 
  > How do you see that OP's Emacs is talking directly to the server? 

Indeed I did not indicate that in any way; sorry.

  > Anyway, even if Emacs is the MTA (e.g., via smptmail.el), it inserts
  > the Date header behind the scenes, so the answer to the OP's question
  > whether he should add that header to his mail before sending still
  > stands, I think.


Yes. I do use sendmail.el, i.e. I use Emacs as both MUA and MTA.

Your questions have now led to some deep searching on my part, and I
have managed to figure it out:

I had been using smtpmail-auth.el for ages, since a time when the SMTP
AUTH code was not yet included in smtpmail.el by default. Although I
should have suspected that it was going to be, and do follow Emacs
News, that news had somehow escaped me. (My guess is that happened
soon after I started using it.)

In addition, it seems that at some rather recent point in time (24.1.?
Does that match summer 2012?), smtpmail.el had somehow taken over the
responsibility of inserting the date header (wherefrom I don't know),
and obviously, the old smtpmail-auth.el was not accordingly updated,
so that's where it started to malfunction.

I have deinstalled the additional, old smptmail-auth.el, and switched
to default behaviour, with an ~/.authinfo file. Now, I do get the Date
headers (which should show above now). It seems that smtpmail-auth.el
is even completely off the web now, so I have apparently been
nurturing a fossil.

Thanks very much again,

Florian


-- 

Florian von Savigny
Melanchthonstr. 41
33615 Bielefeld