#1106816 allow commands to be broken over multiple lines with a \

Package:
debbugs
Source:
debbugs
Submitter:
Richard Lewis
Date:
2025-06-02 17:35:03 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1106816#5
Date:
2025-05-29 23:06:00 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

could you make the bts support a \ as a continuation character so
commands can be split over lines?

some software wrap long lines at spaces, which makes it impossible to
use commands like "subject" or "forwarded" with long arguments

eg from gmail it is not possible to mark a bug in a native package as
'forwarded' to a salsa MR, as gmail will break the line before the url
(debian's default exim config also rejects emails with very long
lines, this is recommended in some RFC)


eg

subject NNNNN \
this is a very long subject that is broken over lines for\
 readability


thanks
#1106816#10
Date:
2025-05-30 08:09:31 UTC
From:
To:
exim limit is 998 characters which should be more than sufficient.

Could you send an email from gmail to this bug log with an example of use
of \ so that we see if this could actually work ?

Thanks!

At some point GMail and GMail users should be made to pay for the work they
inflict on others.

Cheers,
#1106816#15
Date:
2025-05-30 08:18:47 UTC
From:
To:
Exim does this so that it doesnt accept messages that it probably can't
deliver. It is better to reject such messages than losing them.

Greetings
Marc
#1106816#20
Date:
2025-06-02 17:32:49 UTC
From:
To:
As stated in the original email the syntax i was hoping could work is:

subject NNNNN \
this is a very long subject that is broken over lines for\
 readability

which would then be treated as if the user had typed

subject NNNN this is a very long subject that is broken over lines for
readability

ie when reading a command, if the line ends with a \, remove it and
treat the next line as part of the command
even if you only allowed one use of \ per command it would help