[ale] Problem with Evolution's subject line containing apostrophe's

[Michael B. Trausch]

On Tue, 2007-06-05 at 19:24 -0400, Jim Popovitch wrote:

> Every now and then I get emails that contain Subjects that look like
> this: 
> 
> E360=?windows-1252?Q?=92s_Linhardt:_Hacker_Sent__Porn_to_Client=92s?=Database
> 
> The original email (from SPAM-L) has this Subject:
> 
> E360?s Linhardt: Hacker Sent Porn to Client?s Database
> 
> Evolution seems to not properly handle the apostrophes and tries to
> convert them... that or there is some language issue.
> 
> Any ideas on what could cause this? 


It would seem to be showing you the raw header without converting it as
it should be.  MIME permits headers to be in non-ASCII encodings, while
RFC822 and RFC2822 which govern e-mail messages overall dictate pure
ASCII information only be present in headers and the message body.  MIME
Part 3 (RFC2047) dictates the standards by which non-ASCII information
can be in message headers.  The introduction says:

   RFC 2045 describes a mechanism for denoting textual body parts which
   are coded in various character sets, as well as methods for encoding
   such body parts as sequences of printable US-ASCII characters.  This
   memo describes similar techniques to allow the encoding of non-ASCII
   text in various portions of a RFC 822 [2] message header, in a manner
   which is unlikely to confuse existing message handling software.

The standard itself then goes on to talk about "encoded words" which are
used in headers which use non-ASCII character sets:

   ... certain sequences of "ordinary" printable ASCII characters
   (known as "encoded-words") are reserved for use as encoded data.  The
   syntax of encoded-words is such that they are unlikely to
   "accidentally" appear as normal text in message headers.
   Furthermore, the characters used in encoded-words are restricted to
   those which do not have special meanings in the context in which the
   encoded-word appears.

   Generally, an "encoded-word" is a sequence of printable ASCII
   characters that begins with "=?", ends with "?=", and has two "?"s in
   between.  It specifies a character set and an encoding method, and
   also includes the original text encoded as graphic ASCII characters,
   according to the rules for that encoding method.

   A mail composer that implements this specification will provide a
   means of inputting non-ASCII text in header fields, but will
   translate these fields (or appropriate portions of these fields) into
   encoded-words before inserting them into the message header.

   A mail reader that implements this specification will recognize
   encoded-words when they appear in certain portions of the message
   header.  Instead of displaying the encoded-word "as is", it will
   reverse the encoding and display the original text in the designated
   character set.

So, what you're seeing in that message header is a non-ASCII
(RFC2047-compliant) message header encoded such that it is compliant
with the requirements specified in RFC(2)822.  Evolution should be
converting the Windows code page 1252 text into UTF-8/Unicode which is
used internally and then display the message with the header already
converted, but it doesn't appear to be doing that.  Since Evolution
claims to support MIME, I should think that this is a bug and that
perhaps a bug should be filed demanding compliance with RFC2047.

The full-text of RFC2047 can be found at the following location:
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2047.html

    ? Mike

--
Michael B. Trausch
           michael.trausch at gmail.com
Phone: (404) 592-5746
                          Jabber IM:
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