Subject: Re: bounce, mta, & mua (was Re: sieve draft)

From: Paul Hethmon <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 14:11:04 -0500

** Reply to note from Tomas Fasth <[email-masked]> Wed, 19 Nov 1997 17:06:33 +0100

> > This is incorrect.  UAs will have access to the "MAIL FROM" address unless 
> > an upstream system violated Internet standards.  The final delivery agent 
> > is REQUIRED to copy the "MAIL FROM" address into the "Return-Path" 
> > header.  Anything which doesn't is broken. 
>  
> Chris, can you give us the exact location in an RFC that backs up your 
> assertion? I'm not sure it is required and I'm not sure you can ever 
> rely 
> on it's existence once the message have moved into the domain of the 
> MUA. 
>  
> If you're right, my FreeBSD "out-of-the-box" installation is certainly 
> broken. The "P" flag required to generate the Return-Path header is 
> _not_ 
> set for the local mailer by default. I don't know why, but the very 
> existence of this discrepency (the fact that it's optional) is enough 
> for 
> me to maintain that this header might not always be available. Period.

RFC 1123 Section 5.2.8:

         When the receiver-SMTP makes "final delivery" of a message,
         then it MUST pass the MAIL FROM: address from the SMTP envelope
         with the message, for use if an error notification message must
         be sent later (see Section 5.3.3).  There is an analogous
         requirement when gatewaying from the Internet into a different
         mail environment; see Section 5.3.7.

         DISCUSSION:
              Note that the final reply to the DATA command depends only
              upon the successful transfer and storage of the message.
              Any problem with the destination address(es) must either
              (1) have been reported in an SMTP error reply to the RCPT
              command(s), or (2) be reported in a later error message
              mailed to the originator.

         IMPLEMENTATION:
              The MAIL FROM: information may be passed as a parameter or
              in a Return-Path: line inserted at the beginning of the
              message.

Paul

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---

From: Tomas Fasth <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 13:14:18 +0100

>          mail environment; see Section 5.3.7.

Thanks. I redraw my objection.

-- 
Hälsningar/Regards

Tomas Fasth <[email-masked]>
Tel: +46-13-218-181 Cel: +46-708-870-957 Fax: +46-708-870-258
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