A line that begins with either a tab or a space character is considered a continuation of the preceding line. Internally, such continuation lines are joined to the preceding line, and the newline character of that preceding line is retained. Thus, for example: DZzoos lions and bears line begins with a tab character is internally joined by sendmail to form: DZzoos\n lions and bears newline and tab retained Both the newline ( \n ) and the tab are retained. When such a joined line is later used (as in a header), the joined line is split at the newline and prints as two separate lines again. |