Discussion:
Timestamp questions
(too old to reply)
bob prohaska
2023-04-07 20:09:37 UTC
Permalink
I use mutt on FreeBSD, presently
***@www:~ % mutt -v
Mutt 1.13.4 (2020-02-15)
Copyright (C) 1996-2016 Michael R. Elkins and others.
Mutt comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `mutt -vv'.
Mutt is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `mutt -vv' for details.

System: FreeBSD 12.4-STABLE (arm)
ncurses: ncurses 5.9.20140222 (compiled with 5.9)
libiconv: 1.14
libidn2: 2.3.0 (compiled with 2.3.0)
hcache backend: Berkeley DB 5.3.28: (September 9, 2013)

Email received from one (and only one) correspondent shows
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2023 19:08:28 +0000 (UTC)
even though she is in the PDT timezone same as mine
and the local time appears correct on both hosts. The
mail arrives via Yahoo mail, with an Apple iMac or iPhone
as the user interface.

A second correspondent, also using Yahoo, iMac, iPad or iPhone
sends email which is timestamped with the correct (Pacific)
sent time on arrival. All three of us are less than 30 miles
apart.

Does anyone have a clue what might be going on? At best it's
confusing, and I wonder if it points to some underlying problem.
Have I got my implementation of Mutt misconfigured? More generally,
where does Mutt get the Sent: time when displaying a received
message? I thought it would come from the first MTA, likely Yahoo.

Thanks for reading!

bob prohaska
Tom Furie
2023-04-07 21:08:43 UTC
Permalink
Post by bob prohaska
Email received from one (and only one) correspondent shows
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2023 19:08:28 +0000 (UTC)
even though she is in the PDT timezone same as mine
and the local time appears correct on both hosts. The
mail arrives via Yahoo mail, with an Apple iMac or iPhone
as the user interface.
Is the time correct, but marked in the wrong TZ, correct when adjusted
for TZ, or just outright wrong?

If correct when adjusted for TZ look at the other headers (primarily
"received:"), there might be some clues there. Otherwise more
information will probably be needed.

Cheers,
Tom
bob prohaska
2023-04-08 02:06:41 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tom Furie
Post by bob prohaska
Email received from one (and only one) correspondent shows
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2023 19:08:28 +0000 (UTC)
even though she is in the PDT timezone same as mine
and the local time appears correct on both hosts. The
mail arrives via Yahoo mail, with an Apple iMac or iPhone
as the user interface.
Is the time correct, but marked in the wrong TZ, correct when adjusted
for TZ, or just outright wrong?
Seems right when corrected for timezone.
Post by Tom Furie
If correct when adjusted for TZ look at the other headers (primarily
"received:"), there might be some clues there. Otherwise more
information will probably be needed.
When viewing the most recent message with mutt v2.0.6 (2021-03-06)
using the full headers the very first line is

From ***@yahoo.com Fri Apr 7 15:49:11 2023
(no TZ, but reasonable if PDT)

followed by return-path

The next line starting with received contains
Received: from sonic321-20.consmr.mail.gq1.yahoo.com (sonic321-20.consmr.mail.gq1.yahoo.com
[98.137.66.83])
by www.zefox.net (8.17.1/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id 337MnA1q048398
(version=TLSv1.3 cipher=TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 bits=128 verify=NO)
for <***@www.zefox.net>; Fri, 7 Apr 2023 15:49:11 -0700 (PDT)

The next line containing received is
Received: from sonic.gate.mail.ne1.yahoo.com by sonic321.consmr.mail.gq1.yahoo.com with HTTP;
Fri, 7 Apr 2023 22:48:56 +0000
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2023 22:48:48 +0000 (UTC)
(adjusted correctly to UTC)
and the Date line is what appears in my mutt window with short headers.

The reference to sonic... is a little puzzling, except that my ISP uses
sonic.net as a carrier. Could there be a dedicated host connection?

There are only these two "Received:" lines from this particular sender.

A second sender, also using Yahoo, shows a different "Received:" line:

Received: from sonic.gate.mail.ne1.yahoo.com by sonic313.consmr.mail.gq1.yahoo.com with HTTP;
Fri, 7 Apr 2023 21:17:29 +0000
still timestamped in UTC, plus a third:

Received: by hermes--production-gq1-546798879c-fmv8c (Yahoo Inc. Hermes SMTP Server) with ESMTPA
ID 489a8938943210e9909266e9fea50d0f;
Fri, 07 Apr 2023 21:17:23 +0000 (UTC)
That message is displayed on my host correctly in PDT.

Both senders use Yahoo, but the paths seem different.
In case it matters, my system is running sendmail Version 8.17.1

Thanks for replying!

bob prohaska
Ant
2023-04-08 00:34:36 UTC
Permalink
I noticed this too. I'd like to have mine always show MY local time zone (L.A., CA, USA). How do I configure it?
Post by bob prohaska
I use mutt on FreeBSD, presently
Mutt 1.13.4 (2020-02-15)
Copyright (C) 1996-2016 Michael R. Elkins and others.
Mutt comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `mutt -vv'.
Mutt is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `mutt -vv' for details.
System: FreeBSD 12.4-STABLE (arm)
ncurses: ncurses 5.9.20140222 (compiled with 5.9)
libiconv: 1.14
libidn2: 2.3.0 (compiled with 2.3.0)
hcache backend: Berkeley DB 5.3.28: (September 9, 2013)
Email received from one (and only one) correspondent shows
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2023 19:08:28 +0000 (UTC)
even though she is in the PDT timezone same as mine
and the local time appears correct on both hosts. The
mail arrives via Yahoo mail, with an Apple iMac or iPhone
as the user interface.
A second correspondent, also using Yahoo, iMac, iPad or iPhone
sends email which is timestamped with the correct (Pacific)
sent time on arrival. All three of us are less than 30 miles
apart.
Does anyone have a clue what might be going on? At best it's
confusing, and I wonder if it points to some underlying problem.
Have I got my implementation of Mutt misconfigured? More generally,
where does Mutt get the Sent: time when displaying a received
message? I thought it would come from the first MTA, likely Yahoo.
Thanks for reading!
bob prohaska
--
"Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is." --Amos 5:14. TGIGF, but 2 many tech issues on a Holy wk!
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/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
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Roger Bell_West
2023-04-08 07:59:25 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ant
I noticed this too. I'd like to have mine always show MY local time zone (L.A., CA, USA). How do I configure it?
mutt displays what it actually receives.

Microsoft and others tend now to send email with (correct) UTC timestamps.
Peter Pearson
2023-04-08 15:15:12 UTC
Permalink
On Fri, 7 Apr 2023 20:09:37 -0000 (UTC), bob prohaska <***@www.zefox.net> wrote:
[snip]
Post by bob prohaska
Email received from one (and only one) correspondent shows
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2023 19:08:28 +0000 (UTC)
even though she is in the PDT timezone same as mine
and the local time appears correct on both hosts. The
mail arrives via Yahoo mail, with an Apple iMac or iPhone
as the user interface.
A second correspondent, also using Yahoo, iMac, iPad or iPhone
sends email which is timestamped with the correct (Pacific)
sent time on arrival. All three of us are less than 30 miles
apart.
Does anyone have a clue what might be going on? At best it's
confusing, and I wonder if it points to some underlying problem.
Have I got my implementation of Mutt misconfigured?
The "Date:" field in an email header is put there by the sender's
email client. Perhaps your correspondents are using different
clients, or have them configured differently.
--
To email me, substitute nowhere->runbox, invalid->com.
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