Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 15:02:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Javier Henderson <javier@KJSL.COM> To: "gummibear@nettaxi.com" <gummibear@nettaxi.com> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Sendmail, email, and dates - why are the dates all weird? Message-ID: <14832.49427.425816.162981@karenium.kjsl.com> In-Reply-To: <200010202159.OAA13884@mail20.bigmailbox.com> References: <200010202159.OAA13884@mail20.bigmailbox.com>
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gummibear@nettaxi.com writes: > This is sort of pertaining to Sendmail and email in general. > > Why is it when I get email, the dates are off in the email? What sets the date on the email? Is it the forwarding Sendmail servers? > > The reason why I ask this question is because my boss is upset that when she receives mail the date and time on the email can be a day ahead, or something like that, and I'm trying to give her a technical answer as to why. > > Is there a way to trace the hops that email travels? Like from Sendmail to Sendmail or something? The Date: header is mandatory (see RFC822, page 17). However, some MTA's, like sendmail, will insert one if one is missing. Now, the accuracy of the Date: header is not mandatory, and that is your problem in this case. You can put anything you want there, as long as the format is valid per RFC, no further sanity checks are performed by the MTA. Yes, there is a way to trace the hops, just look at all the RFC822 headers. Like this:
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