Thread: No reply-to in list messages.

I do not know if this is the proper place for this question, if it's
not please tell me where so I can repost the problem.

I use gmail. The mailing list messages from psql-bugs come without
reply-to, so when I hit reply directly I do it to the original sender
( I've checked the archives to conform this is the case and gmail is
not CCing the list behind my back ) without copying to the list. I do
not know if this is intentional ( I'm used to the classical messages
form the mailing list, Messages come in with from=3Dthe sender, to=3Dthe
list, list send them out with from=3Dthe sender, reply to =3D the list=A1,
to =3D everyone subscribed ) and, if intentional, if someone knows if I
have misconfigured something, or I should just use reply-all in every
post ( to have the original sender CCed ).

Sorry for the off-topic, but I've not been able to find why this
happens or how to correct it. Note, I know how to reply to all, or
edit the messages to reply only to the list manually, I just wanted to
know if the no-reply-to is intentional and if the list-* headers are
standard and should be parsed by my mail setup and generate correct
replies.

Regards.
     Francisco Olarte.

Francisco Olarte <folarte@peoplecall.com> writes:
> I use gmail. The mailing list messages from psql-bugs come without
> reply-to, so when I hit reply directly I do it to the original sender
> ( I've checked the archives to conform this is the case and gmail is
> not CCing the list behind my back ) without copying to the list. I do
> not know if this is intentional ( I'm used to the classical messages
> form the mailing list, Messages come in with from=the sender, to=the
> list, list send them out with from=the sender, reply to = the list¡,
> to = everyone subscribed ) and, if intentional, if someone knows if I
> have misconfigured something, or I should just use reply-all in every
> post ( to have the original sender CCed ).

It's intentional that there's no Reply-To: header in the PG lists,
particularly on pgsql-bugs where many messages come from unsubscribed
people.  With a Reply-To: header, the default behavior would fail to
respond to the original bug reporter if he/she wasn't subscribed ---
and many MUAs don't make it easy to override that.  Without Reply-To,
it's easier to get either of the typical response patterns (to sender
only, or to sender + list): you just have to hit reply all rather than
reply.

            regards, tom lane