9fans archive / 2000 / 11 / 10 /    prev next

From: Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon@mes...>
Subject: Re: [9fans] smtpfs
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 17:09:16 GMT

>>>>> "Boyd" == Boyd Roberts <boyd@pla...> writes:

    >> How do you handle the case where the RCPT TO address doesn't
    >> match the To: header address? They don't have to be the same.

    Boyd> this is ridiculous.  read the RFC's.

I have. (I've been doing MTA development for 15 years.)

    Boyd> how do think delivery works?

By issuing a RCPT TO command via SMTP. The SMTP protocol has no
knowledge of the To: header in the message body. While it is very
often the case that the address(es) in the To: header match those
in the RCPT TO command(s), there is no requirement that this be
the case.

The behaviour you described seems to match that of "sendmail -t"
submission, in which case the RCPT TO recipients are derived from
the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: headers. This works in most cases, but
doesn't provide complete functionality in that you cannot have
SMTP envelope recipient addresses that are distinct from the RFC822
header recipient list.

And then there is the issue of MAIL FROM vs From:. It's much more
common for these to be different from each other (e.g. mailing lists).

And you still haven't explained how this will handle DSNs. Or message
tracking. Or SMTP AUTH.

--lyndon