Request #48562

Hello! I just enabled posting by email, and when I tried it out I noticed that any lines that begin with post headers ("post-tags:", "post-mood:", "post-security:", etc.) in the email are processed and applied to the journal entry, *even if* they appear after a line where "--" appears on its own. This directly contradicts one of the relevant help pages, which says that "All text below two or more dashes or underscores ("--" or "__") on a line by itself will be automatically removed" [1], and is extra-surprising in the context of another, which says "The post-headers should be at the top of your message" [2] (this one isn't technically a contradiction, since "should" doesn't mean "must", but it seems relevant to me). Other lines of text after the "--" line are ignored, as [1] says they will be; it's only the post headers that come through.

[1]: https://www.dreamwidth.org/manage/emailpost?mode=help&type=optional
[2]: https://www.dreamwidth.org/manage/emailpost?mode=help&type=headers

This behavior can cause journal entries to be posted with information that the user reasonably expected would be discarded before posting, and can even unexpectedly affect the visibility setting of the entry if a "post-security" post header appears after a "--" line. I probably wouldn't call this a security bug per se, since it doesn't involve account compromise or anything like that, but I still found it alarming.

Suggested fix: *all* text after a "--" line should be ignored, including post headers. Or, if this is intended behavior, the documentation should be updated to describe it/warn about it.

Use case: for convenience, I made myself a template file that includes the header examples from the documentation. It looks like this (minus the angle brackets):

> post-tags:
>
> --
>
> # Header examples from the documentation
> post-icon: icon keywords
> post-format: ("markdown" or "html"; defaults to "markdown")
> post-tags: greyhounds, potato, wool
> post-mood: happy
> post-music: The Pixies: Where Is My Mind?
> post-location: Paris, France
> post-comments: ("off" or "noemail")
>
> post-security: public
> The entry is posted publicly.
> post-security: private
> The entry is posted privately.
> post-security: access (or friends)
> The entry can only be viewed by those on your Access List.
> post-security: filter
> This is the name of a filter.
> Only accounts on that filter can view the entry.
> Example: post-security: Access List

The idea is that whenever I want to write a Dreamwidth entry by email, I can load this template into my mail client, fill in the tags (which I use on every entry) and write the body of my post above the "--" line, and if I want to use some additional post headers, then I already have their name and description/examples of their use right there in the file ready to be copied up to the top of the email body, but if I don't want to use any of them, I can totally ignore them. In practice it's very easy for me to delete all this extra stuff before sending the email, and/or to put a "#" or some other extra text in front of the post headers in the template file to avoid having them be applied even if I forget to delete them before sending the email (I did just test and confirm that this works), but it would be nice if it worked as described on the help page.

Thanks for all your hard work on Dreamwidth!

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