SMTP addresses in <>

Patrick Muldoon doon at inoc.net
Fri Jan 4 16:08:17 UTC 2008


On Jan 4, 2008, at 10:51 AM, Seth Mattinen wrote:

> I'm having a bit of an argument with a customer over the command  
> syntax in RFC 2821 that shows command arguments for MAIL/RCPT  
> commands in brackets, i.e.:
>
> Path = "<" [ A-d-l ":" ] Mailbox ">"
> Mailbox = Local-part "@" Domain
>
> Our mail servers reject connections that don't follow the RFC. Am I  
> wrong to do this? This guy certainly thinks so, even after I've  
> cited the RFC and appropriate section, his arguments is "even  
> hotmail does not keep up the standards" and if we ignore them as  
> well. Hotmail at least follows this rule... am I wrong to require  
> the brackets?
>


No you are not wrong for following the RFC.  Customer shouldn't be  
running broken software that doesn't follow the RFCs.

Point out to customer that AOL requires the brackets as well. and that  
is probably a better example to use that Hotmail.

250 rly-dc04.mx.aol.com OK
mail from: doon at inoc.net
501 SYNTAX ERROR IN PARAMETERS OR ARGUMENTS
mail from: <doon at inoc.net>
250 OK

-Patrick

--
Patrick Muldoon
Network/Software Engineer
INOC (http://www.inoc.net)
PGPKEY (http://www.inoc.net/~doon)
Key ID: 0x370D752C

"Wooh, All this computer hacking is making me thirsty,  I think I'll  
order a Tab"
--Homer Simpson




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