Comments on smtpupd-12
Matti Aarnio <mea@nic.funet.fi> Thu, 20 July 2000 10:06 UTC
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From: Matti Aarnio <mea@nic.funet.fi>
To: drums@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Comments on smtpupd-12
Message-Id: <20000720100556Z32074-18330+9@mea.tmt.tele.fi>
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 06:05:50 -0400
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I have tried to read the document as a complete newcomer without understanding of how the protocol works -- mindset which has gotten educated by seeing how various bigname vendors make mistakes at their products... (they *must* have newcomers coding the beasts.) Part 2.4: This part speaks gives explicite strings in quotes for clarity, which notation is somewhat missed at some latter places when speaking of e.g. RFC 822 headers Date, From, .. But more of that at appropriate place(s). Explicite string notation is a good idea. Latter in this part says (last paragraph): "Metalanguage terms used in running text are surrounded by pointed brackets (e.g., <CRLF>) for clarity." Yet the same pointy brackets are used (or not used) at command samples. This is somewhat confusing. Part 3.3: The command syntaxes of MAIL/RCPT/DATA are different from 4.1.1.2/4.1.1.3/4.1.1.4 respectively. This will confuse people. My suggestion is to copy syntaxes from 4.1.1.* into here too. The second to last paragraph: When RFC 822 format is being used, the mail data include the memo header items such as Date, Subject, To, Cc, From [MSGFMT]. ... Here I would like to see explicte stringification of those header names with explicite double-colons: When RFC 822 format is being used, the mail data include the memo header items such as "Date:", "Subject:", "To:", "Cc:", "From:" [MSGFMT]. ... as in my thinking there is definite danger of readers confusing "MAIL FROM:<..>" and "RCPT TO:<..>" envelope commands at least to RFC 822 "From:" and "To:" headers. Ah, and the same with "Resert-To:", "Resent-From:", "Resent-Date:" headers. Part 3.5.3: The first paragraph mentions twice reply code "220", which I seems to be a mistake and should be "250". part 3.6.5: Add new paragraph to the end ? Usage of nationalized forms of "Re: " string in front of the reply message "Subject: content is observed causing awfull looking results in lenghty exchanges, especially when there are people using differently nationalized mail user agents: Subject: Re: Awt: Sv: Vs: topic text Therefore it is SUGGESTED that user agents sending email do always use standard international form when sending, and only do nationalizing of this prefix string at displaying (and possibly printing) the email. Part 3.8.3: ">From the Internet ..." Possibly an artefact from email submission to draft repository ? Part 4.1.1.1: This part does not carry discussion about the error procedure, parts 4.5 thru 4.7 of RFC 1869. Also a note about practical interoperability would be nice, e.g.: For practical interoperability, the SMTP server SHOULD ignore the parameter (or lack of one), and just assume it to be valid. Especially an attempt to verify that the expected domain parameter really is valid is a very quick way to trouble, as many ISPs supply their clients with premade email client configurations carrying some constant strings a'la: "HELO homepc". Part 4.2: A reference to 4.2.1 which I suggest for splitting below. Part 4.2.1: At RFC 821 annex E there seems to exist a notability problem of the multiline reply functionality. Some software don't support receiving multiline replies, and this is propably because this important feature is not highlighted clearly enough -- with its own part number. I suggest that the last four paragraphs of this part are to be split into separate part - number as 4.2.2 with title: "Theory of multiline reply codes" Part 4.4: This is a very long part, which actually carries three different topics. I suggest splitting it to: 4.4.1 The "Received:" header 4.4.2 The "Return-Path:" header 4.4.3 Treatment of accepted RCPT recipients with errors at DATA delivery time (this last feels to be somewhat misplaced) And moving relevant bits of the syntaxes to approriate parts, plus referring to RFC 822 header labels with quoted strings. Perhaps also adding there an introductory paragraph to begin 4.4. Similarly at "Received:" header generation I don't think it really is wise to generate: Received: from homepc (...) by ... but perhaps: Received: from reversed-ip-name-or-address-literal ([1.2.3.4] "HELO homepc") by ... which neatly avoids users from hitting the system with oversize HELO string trying to overflow header generation buffsers, like is so much want of past obscuring attacks.. Part 5: I would begin this part with a short intro: Following applies to SMTP clients which do not have a-priori knowledge of which server to connect, and thus must use the DNS based email routing data. Now the first paragraph is algorithm description in free flowing text. Could that be split into numbered paragraphs and/or bullets with possible introduction ? part 7.2 (BCC) The first paragraph suggests that for security reasons sending SMTP systems might send messages separately for each recipient so that systems doing "for"-clauses (see also part 7.5) won't disclose all recipients. Perhaps at least adding a reference to 7.5 ? part 7.4: Split to 2-3 paragraphs ? (in overall I find lengthy paragraphs of many sentences laborous to read, and I have this strange belief that such ones can always be split to separate paragraphs..) part 7.5: Again split to several paragraps ? part F.5: s/years MUST BE user/years MUST be used/ ??
- Comments on smtpupd-12 Matti Aarnio
- Re: Comments on smtpupd-12 Charles Lindsey
- Re: Comments on smtpupd-12 DRUMS WG Chair