ATTN: Bill Campbell - Attachment Stripping? (was: Re: OT: Employment opportunity)

[Fairlight]

Yo, homey, in case you don' be listenin', Bill Campbell done said:
> The Mailman content filtering has two main sections, filter mime types and
> pass mime types.
> 
> If anything is in the filter mime types, empty by default, the message is
> discarded.
> 
> If messages are in pass mime types, multipart/mixed, multipart/alternative,
> and text/plain by default, the message is passed.

So it sounds like it tosses/passes based on only the top-level containers,
and you couldn't actually just strip out subcontainers by MIME type, eh?
Like remove any subcontainers with image/.* for instance, while preserving
message integrity for the actual content?

If that's true, what they provide is pretty all-or-nothing.  Hmmm.

> There's another option, convert html to plaintext, which is on by default
> if the content filtering is enabled.

I've honestly given up the crusade against multipart/* message with an HTML
segment.  I've stopped letting that bother me, as it's just SO prevalant
now.  But adding in 5 inline images to boot?

> That said, I would prefer to assume that the folks on this list are adults,
> and observe list etiquette.  There may be occassions where it's reasonable
> to post non-text attachments to the list.

I agree with you in principle.  Problem being that some apparently don't
live up to the assumption.  *sigh*

> On the other hand, posting messages which quote 400+ lines of the original
> message with one line that says ``I agree'' doesn't say much for the
> intelligence or manners of the person replying (do a Google search on
> ``Johari Window'').

Okay, we'll just make fun of them in back-channel scatter.  :)  *laugh* 
I'm -trying- to get back to a state of good humour about it.

I seriously think I'm going to (when time and energy permit) write a filter
that hooks into procmail (or anything else) and strips subparts by
content-type.  Any addresses to or from which I want all attachments
included no matter what, I simply put them before that filter.  QED.
Except I don't have the bloddy filter written yet.  :)

I could have sworn you (or someone) said they had something that actually
neuters messages by stripping this kind of stuff out.

Ah well, then I guess I'll write it and resell it to anyone that wants it.
Eventually.

mark->