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From: MRC@SU-SCORE.ARPA (Mark Crispin)
Newsgroups: net.mail.headers
Subject: Re: smtp, errors and delivery
Message-ID: <369@hou3c.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Mar-84 16:30:58 EST
Article-I.D.: hou3c.369
Posted: Mon Mar  5 16:30:58 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 7-Mar-84 07:39:11 EST
Sender: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist)
Lines: 19
To: don.provan@CMU-CS-A.ARPA
Cc: Rudy.Nedved@CMU-CS-A.ARPA, Header-People@MIT-MC.ARPA
In-Reply-To: Message from "don.provan@CMU-CS-A" of Mon 5 Mar 84 12:50:00-PST
Postal-Address: 725 Mariposa Ave. #103; Mountain View, CA 94041
Phone: (415) 497-1407 (Stanford); (415) 968-1052 (residence)

Don -

     I take the middle ground.  I think it is completely alright
to reject a MAIL FROM command because of a syntax error PROVIDED
that the syntax parser COMPLETELY implements the standard.  That
includes:
 . all forms of quoting
 . source path route lists
 . bracketed or #'d host addresses in lieu of host names

     Very few SMTP servers do.  I believe TOPS-20's SMTP server
does (if it doesn't, it's a bug because all the code is there).

     I don't think an SMTP server should try to validate a host
name in a MAIL FROM command other than checking it for syntactical
validity.  RCPT TO: is a different matter entirely.

-- Mark --
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