EML — Reply With In-Reply-To and No References
A reply that declares its parent only through In-Reply-To. Threading code that builds ancestry from References alone files this message as a new thread root, splitting a conversation in the message list.
From: Sam Rivera <sam@meridiansupply.example>
To: Maya Chen <maya@brightside.example>
Subject: Re: Standing order for Q1 (SAMPLE)
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0800
Message-ID: <p7-thread-irt@meridiansupply.example>
In-Reply-To: <p7-thread-root@brightside.example>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Reply body. What matters here is which threading headers are present
and what they point at; the text is the same across the set on purpose.
Specifications
- Wave
- p7
- Seed
- 20260807
- In Reply To
- <p7-thread-root@brightside.example>
- References
- absent
- Depth
- 1
- Line Endings
- CRLF (RFC 5322)
Testing contract
Expected to pass- Scenario
- Attach a reply to its parent when In-Reply-To is the only ancestry header present.
- Expected result
- The message is threaded under <p7-thread-root@brightside.example> rather than starting a new thread.
What is a .eml file?
An EML file is a single email message stored in the RFC 822 / MIME format — plain-text headers (From, To, Subject, Date, Message-ID) followed by the body, which may be plain text, HTML, or a multipart structure with alternative bodies and file attachments encoded in base64.
How to use this file
Use an example EML to test email header parsing, MIME decoding, HTML-part handling, attachment extraction, and EML-to-other-format conversion.
How to use this file for testing
“EML — Reply With In-Reply-To and No References” is a deterministic Novus Examples fixture for Email parsing, Conversion testing. Standards-compliant RFC 822 messages — plain, multipart text+HTML, and with an attachment — plus an MBOX mailbox, for testing header parsing, MIME decoding, attachment extraction, and mailbox splitting.
Documented properties for this file: seed 20260807 · CRLF (RFC 5322). Compare results against paired or grouped companions on this page when present (clean↔damaged, searchable↔scanned, or format twins) so scores stay reproducible across runs.
Download the file once, keep the path stable in CI or local scripts, and treat the spec table as the contract: dimensions, seeds, field lists, and roles are intentional. Corrupt or invalid samples are labelled as such — expect parsers to fail loudly rather than silently accept them.
Email fixtures use fixed dates, message IDs, and MIME boundaries so runs are reproducible, and every address is fictional. Test header parsing, MIME decoding, attachment extraction, and EML/MBOX conversion against the documented structure.
Code examples
from email import policy
from email.parser import BytesParser
msg = BytesParser(policy=policy.default).parse(open("p7-in-reply-to-only.eml", "rb"))
print(msg["subject"], msg["from"])Related files
- emlEML — Thread Depth 1 (Large Headers)Threaded SAMPLE reply at depth 1 with a long References chain and bulky X-headers.

- emlEML — Thread Depth 2 (Large Headers)Threaded SAMPLE reply at depth 2 with a long References chain and bulky X-headers.

- emlEML — Thread Depth 3 (Large Headers)Threaded SAMPLE reply at depth 3 with a long References chain and bulky X-headers.

- emlEML — Thread Depth 4 (Large Headers)Threaded SAMPLE reply at depth 4 with a long References chain and bulky X-headers.

- emlEML — Thread Depth 5 (Large Headers)Threaded SAMPLE reply at depth 5 with a long References chain and bulky X-headers.

- emlEML — Thread Depth 6 (Large Headers)Threaded SAMPLE reply at depth 6 with a long References chain and bulky X-headers.

Generated by generation/email_p7.py. Free for any use, no attribution required — license.