Re: Remailer Tearline Conventions

Unfortunately, no, there isn't an accepted convention for tear-lines
that cut off the bottom of a message.  The top is handled adequately.
Julf's anon.penet.fi remailer  cuts off anything resembling a signature,
using the convention that a -- line (or maybe an all-dash line?)
is a signature, since some of the common mail and news programs use that,
but the regular cypherpunks remailers didn't the last time I checked.
It would be nice if there were an official syntax, either something
formal and mimeish, or a simpler '--truncate here--' sort of line
that gets retained across remailing so additional junk doesn't accrete.
		Bill
# Bill Stewart  AT&T Global Information Systems, aka NCR Corp
# 6870 Koll Center Parkway, Pleasanton CA, 94566 Phone 1-510-484-6204
# email bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com billstewart@attmail.com
# ViaCrypt PGP Key IDs 384/C2AFCD 1024/9D6465

Bill Stewart said:
> Julf's anon.penet.fi remailer  cuts off anything resembling a signature,
> using the convention that a -- line (or maybe an all-dash line?)
> is a signature, since some of the common mail and news programs use that,

Picking any fixed sig marker is likely to cause problems -- notice
how often anon.penet.fi messages show up truncated due to a line of
hyphens.  A more flexible possibility: allow an X-Sig-Marker: header,
which specifies a pattern/regexp to strip after.  Actually, the
sig marker line itself should be stripped as well, in case it
contains identifying information.

> formal and mimeish, or a simpler '--truncate here--' sort of line
> that gets retained across remailing so additional junk doesn't accrete.

I don't see the problem you're guarding against.  Could you explain?
Seems that sig elision needs to be done once, by the first hop, and
then you're home free.

   Eli   ebrandt@jarthur.claremont.edu

Eli ebrandt@jarthur.claremont.edu said:
>Bill Stewart said:
>> Julf's anon.penet.fi remailer  cuts off anything resembling a signature,
>> using the convention that a -- line (or maybe an all-dash line?)
>> is a signature, since some of the common mail and news programs use that,

>Picking any fixed sig marker is likely to cause problems -- notice
>how often anon.penet.fi messages show up truncated due to a line of
>hyphens.  A more flexible possibility: allow an X-Sig-Marker: header,
>which specifies a pattern/regexp to strip after.  Actually, the
>sig marker line itself should be stripped as well, in case it
>contains identifying information.

>> formal and mimeish, or a simpler '--truncate here--' sort of line
>> that gets retained across remailing so additional junk doesn't accrete.

>I don't see the problem you're guarding against.  Could you explain?
>Seems that sig elision needs to be done once, by the first hop, and
>then you're home free.

Actually a variation on this '--truncate here--' scheme might solve the
user-selected multiple-remailer scheme that we're trying to get up here.
Place the 'truncate' or '::'  line at the beginning of your message,
just after the last local header line.  Then add routing instructions
for the remailer.  Then maybe another 'truncate' message followed by
more routing instructions for the next remailer chosen.  Then a blank
line and your message.

BEGIN example:

From: [me]
Message-Id: <[number]@[mysite]>
To: hh@cicada.berkeley.edu
Subject: Hi there!

::

Request-Remailing-To: hh@pmantis.berkeley.edu

::

Request-Remailing-To: elee7h5@rosebud.ee.uh.edu

::

Request-Remailing-To: cypherpunks@toad.com

Eli ebrandt@jarthur.claremont.edu said:
>Bill Stewart said:
>> Julf's anon.penet.fi remailer  cuts off anything resembling a signature,
>> using the convention that a -- line (or maybe an all-dash line?)
>> is a signature, since some of the common mail and news programs use that,
...

END example

Each remailer would only strip off the first 'Request-Remailing-To:'
instruction in the message.  The remailer would assume that anything
following that was part of the message, until it reached the signature,
which it would truncate.  Then it would remail the new 'message' as
requested.