smtp, errors and delivery

Article View: net.mail.headers

Article #188

#188

From: Rudy.Nedved
Date: Mon, 05 Mar 1984 02:43

29 lines
1624 bytes

A large number of sites seem to handle "mail from:" command errors by
issuing the command "mail from:<>" as the next command. Considering
that alot of mail is forwarded and that any mail with a null return
is "droppable" if an error occurs, I don't think this is a wise way
of handling "mail from" errors for the user will not get an error
message. The following is an example of this code:

220 CMU-CS-A.ARPA TOPS-10 SMTP server ready 1C(50)-2
HELO bazola
250 CMU-CS-A.ARPA
MAIL FROM:<frodo.baggins@bonzo_land>
500 malformed local host name 'bonzo_land', for line 'MAIL FROM:<frodo.baggins@bonzo_land>'.
MAIL FROM:<>
250 Mail okay.
RCPT TO:<Joe.Smoe@cmu-cs-a>
250 Rcpt okay.
DATA
354 Ready for mail.
250 Mail completed.
QUIT
221 CMU-CS-A.ARPA TOPS-10 SMTP service terminating

I can understand that the code was probably installed duringthe tcp
transition days when alot of smtp servers were still "buggy" but I
can not see a reason for it now. Is there some other reason or should
I send mail to sites that have this "old code" installed?

Thanks,
-Rudy

Technical Details

Message-ID: <04Mar84.214333.EN0C@CMU-CS-A>

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!Rudy.Nedved@CMU-CS-A.ARPA

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hou3c.UUCP
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!Rudy.Nedved@CMU-CS-A.ARPA
From: Rudy.Nedved@CMU-CS-A.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.mail.headers
Subject: smtp, errors and delivery
Message-ID: <04Mar84.214333.EN0C@CMU-CS-A>
Date: Sun, 4-Mar-84 21:43:00 EST
Article-I.D.: hou3c.361
Posted: Sun Mar  4 21:43:00 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Mar-84 02:26:03 EST
Sender: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist)
Lines: 29
To: Header-People@MIT-MC