# Re-formatting email line breaks

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-formatting-email-line-breaks/99282>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 21, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-formatting-email-line-breaks/99282 "2006-07-21T15:13:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_del\_Stroth](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@Jonathan\_del\_Stroth](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jonathan_del_Stroth)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-formatting-email-line-breaks/99282/1 "2006-07-21T15:13:39Z")

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I’m trying to re-flow email messages, removing the line breaks that  
get added by mail programs so that the lines don’t exceed 72 characters.

Mail.app and Thunderbird seem to insert a space character before each  
added line break.  
Outlook replaces new lines in the email with double \n’s, then uses  
single \n’s for the ‘soft’ line breaks.

Can anyone confirm this / point me to some specification / point out  
any other client behaviour I need to handle?

Thanks for any help,  
Jon

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_del\_Stroth](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@Jonathan\_del\_Stroth](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jonathan_del_Stroth)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-formatting-email-line-breaks/99282/2 "2006-07-21T16:59:57Z")

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[http://www.rfc-archive.org/getrfc.php?rfc=3676](http://www.rfc-archive.org/getrfc.php?rfc=3676)  
RFC 3676: The Text/Plain Format and DelSp Parameters

```
        - dan

```

–  
Dan K. [mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
[http://www.dankohn.com/](http://www.dankohn.com/)tel:+1-415-233-1000

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jonathan\_del\_Stroth](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@Jonathan\_del\_Stroth](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jonathan_del_Stroth)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 8:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-formatting-email-line-breaks/99282/3 "2006-07-26T20:05:51Z")

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Perfect - thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jonathan\_del\_Stroth](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@Jonathan\_del\_Stroth](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jonathan_del_Stroth)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-formatting-email-line-breaks/99282/4 "2006-07-26T23:58:05Z")

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Perfect - thanks