[SOLVED] zimbraPrefMailSignature error with only about 50 characters

[mowen]

I've set up an OSE zimbra machine for a local community group, but have encountered an odd problem involving signatures.

I've kept the default maximum signature length at 1024. A user has set up a sig with 5 lines, 41 characters in all. Formatted as HTML, font colour blue. When he tries to add another line, an error shows:
invalid request: zimbraPrefMailSignature is longer than the limited 1024
Eh? Does the HTML formatting increase the length over 20 times?

I increased the maximum length to 2048 & could add three lots of his signature before the error re-occurred (between 123 and 164 characters)

Any ideas why the limit has been reached well before the set maximum?

[uxbod]

su - zimbra
zmprov gsig (mailbox name)

and actually see how big the signature is. If the signature has been generated in something else then additional HTML formatting may have been included.

[mowen]

Thanks for the suggestion uxbod. The result of the zmprov command was very informative. For the text:

Name and job title
Address 1
Address 2
Town
Postcode
Telephone
Website

the zmprov command gave:
<div><font size="4"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Name and job title</span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Address 1</span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Address 2</span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Town</span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Postcode</span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Telephone</span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Website</span></font></div>

That's about 64 characters becoming about 1440 with the HTML formatting! Perhaps he formatted each line individually?
When I did a test sig within Zimbra, 41 characters expanded to about 220 when formatting the lot in one go.

I can now give him a suitable explanation for the error - thanks again.