The receiving mail server inserts space before each new line, splitting multiple / alternative

Question

I use PHP to send email on demand to clients. I have a script that seemed pretty reliable in testing, generating MIME-1.0 Compatible multipart / alternative emails that had a text and html version. Letters are sent as base64 encoded strings to preserve international characters (the text of the message is usually in German).

However, it seems that some servers receive mail and insert a space ( 0x20 ) immediately before each CR-LF sequence. Of course, this does not destroy base64, but since it breaks down the CR-LF-CR-LF sequence that separates the headers from the messages, the messages are not processed properly (or, actually, since the secondary headers were never seen to stop).

Here is an example of a message generated:

 From: [e-mail] To: [e-mail] Subject: Test Message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="{$boundary}" This is a multipart Message in MIME Format --{$boundary} MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-ID: <{$content_id}> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 Content-Length: {$objlen} UkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVE QUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNU RUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQg UkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVE QUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNU RUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQg UkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVE QUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNU RUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQg UkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVE QUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNU RUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQg UkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVE QUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNU RUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQg UkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQgUkVEQUNURUQ= --{$boundary} MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-ID: <{$content_id}> Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8" Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 Content-Length: {$objlen} REVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVU Q0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FE RVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIg REVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVU Q0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FE RVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIg REVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVU Q0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FE RVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIg REVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVU Q0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FE RVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIg REVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVU Q0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FE RVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIg REVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVIgREVUQ0FERVI= --{$boundary}-- 

Is there a way to prevent the mail server from adding these spaces?

Answer 1

The problem is with some email servers (for example, t-online.de ), treating CRLF newline sequences as less reliable than LF only newlines. When newlines were changed from CRLF to LF , everything worked fine.

On the one hand, I would think that it was a gross neglect of the standards set forth in the RFC, but, on the other hand, I did not have problems with these messages after making the changes, therefore either (a) it does not matter or (b) there have been changes that I don’t know about, which is always possible.

In any case, always end only with LF , I think if you are going to send multipart/* messages.

Answer 2

The problem is that you are not sending your email in a coded print format. I would prefer to use the library to send you an email in order to avoid all these problems: Quote with electronic quotation for printing