Re: nmh 1.8?

[Paul Fox]

ralph wrote:
 > Hi Paul,
 > 
 > >  >     - The generation and verification of Content-MD5 headers is no
 > >  >       longer performed.  The -check and -nocheck switches to various nmh
 > >  >       programs that would control this functionality still exist, but
 > >  >       are non-functional and will be removed in the next release.
 > >  > 
 > >  > That it not deprecation.  The user who thinks the MD5 is being
 > >  > checked is being fooled by them silently becoming a no-op.  They
 > >  > should be removed so the user instead suffers an error and learns
 > >  > of the change.  I'll try to get this done.
 > >
 > > Removing the options entirely doesn't seem like deprecation either.
 > 
 > No, it's not.  But it's better than the introduced security flaw.
 > 
 > > Seems like they should maybe emit warnings for a release
 > 
 > Yes, i.e. be deprecated.  But that ship has sailed and I don't think Ken
 > would be pleased if I added them back in so they could be deprecated.
 > 

Agreed.  I can't think of a compelling argument against simply
removing the options -- as long as the removal is well-noted in the
release notes and man pages -- since the fix is simply removing the
options from one's scripts.  (Right?)  (At the risk of overkill, could
the removal also be noted in the "This is a new release of MH"
message" that happens after an upgrade?  It's been so long since I've
seen it :-), I can't really remember how/when that works.)

paul
=----------------------
paul fox, pgf@foxharp.boston.ma.us (arlington, ma, where it's 22.1 degrees)