Subject: smtpupd-09 and VRFY

From: "D. J. Bernstein" <[email-masked]>
Date: 30 Jan 1999 13:11:14 -0000

Many hosts always return 252 to VRFY. Servers should be free to do this.
That's the overwhelming _majority_ view on the DRUMS mailing list.

Unfortunately, the current text continues to declare that such behavior
is risky, that it's suitable only in ``exceptional'' circumstances, and
that these servers aren't ``fully compliant.''

The DRUMS majority has worked out two different ways to fix the text:

   * Preserve the RFC 1123 requirement to implement VRFY, but clearly
     state that always-return-252 is a valid implementation.

   * Turn VRFY into a completely optional command. Dan Wing posted new
     text on 21 August 1998.

The document editor, with the collusion of the working group chair, has
ignored both of these fixes. How is it possible to stop him?

Similar comments apply to EXPN.

---Dan

---

From: Brad Knowles <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 17:26:45 +0100

>ignored both of these fixes. How is it possible to stop him?

    This is more like the Dan we know and love to hate -- looking to find
conspiracy in the unlikeliest of places.

    If it were me, I think my knee-jerk reaction would be to
automatically round-file everything that Dan has to say.  Unfortunately,
every rare once in a while, he actually somehow accidentally comes up
with something semi-interesting, and even I recognize that no matter how
obnoxious and obstreporous he is, it would be a mistake for someone in an
important position to take that sort of action as a matter of policy.

    Fortunately, I am not (nor am I likely to ever) be in such an
important position, and therefore I don't have such shackles placed on
what I can do with my own e-mail.

-- 
  These are my opinions -- not to be taken as official Skynet policy
 ____________________________________________________________________
|o| Brad Knowles, <[email-masked]>            Belgacom Skynet NV/SA |o|
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