[P1] Failed to deliver

George Slusher gslusher at rio.com
Mon Jan 6 07:42:31 PST 2003


>  Hello, can anybody explain what this means?
>  I am accustomed to use letters to form words. In combination with other 
>words they form texts.
>Until now, I hadn't known that my language consists of "multipart"
>
>
>kakue
>
>Failed to deliver to '<ibook at lists.themacintoshguy.com>'
>LIST module(list ibook at lists.themacintoshguy.com) reports:
>  Your message cannot be posted.
>  It has the content-type: multipart/alternative,
>  and this list accepts text only
>
>Reporting-MTA: dns; mail.ninewire.com
>
>Original-Recipient: rfc822;<ibook at lists.themacintoshguy.com>
>Final-Recipient: LIST;submit
>Action: failed
>Status: 5.0.0

I'll try to explain. The "mulipart" refers to a MIME code that tells the 
receiving email program that there are at least two parts to the email. 
The most common use is for  attachments. The text is one part, the 
attachment(s) another part(s). They are separated so that the email 
program knows what to do with each one. Attachments are coded into text, 
most often using a system called "Base64," as the conventional email 
program can only handle text--it cannot handle binary files. Each part 
has a header which tells the email program what follows so that it can 
decode attachments, convert "rich" text to the right character set, etc. 
Sometimes, when you use an email program that has a rich text or HTML 
option, it sends two parts--plain text and HTML, for example. That's so 
that people with text-only email programs that don't handle HTML can read 
the message. So, were you trying to send an attachment?

George Slusher/Eugene, OR
gslusher at rio.com



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