Subject: I-D ACTION:draft-ietf-drums-smtpupd-09.txt

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1999 09:37:48 -0500

A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.
This draft is a work item of the Detailed Revision/Update of Message 
Standards Working Group of the IETF.

	Title		: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
	Author(s)	: J. Klensin
	Filename	: draft-ietf-drums-smtpupd-09.txt
	Pages		: 57
	Date		: 05-Jan-99
	
This document is a self-contained specification of the basic protocol for
the Internet electronic mail transport, consolidating and updating:
 
 - the original SMTP specification of RFC 821 [RFC-821],
 
 - domain name system requirements and implications for mail transport from
   RFC 1035 [RFC-DNS] and RFC 974 [RFC-974],
 
 - the clarifications and applicability statements in RFC 1123 [RFC-1123],
   and
 
 - material drawn from the SMTP Extension mechanisms [SMTPEXT].
 
It replaces RFC 821, RFC 974, and the mail transport materials of RFC 1123.
However, RFC 821 specifies some features that are not in significant use in
the Internet of the mid-1990s and (in appendices) some additional transport
models.  Those sections are omitted here in the interest of clarity and
brevity; readers needing them should refer to RFC 821.
 
It also includes some additional material from RFC 1123 that required
amplification.  This material has been identified in multiple ways, mostly
by tracking flaming on various lists and newsgroups and problems of unusual
readings or interpretations that have turned up as the SMTP extensions have been deployed.  Where this specification moves beyond consolidation and
actually differs from earlier documents, it supersedes them technically as
well as textually.
 
Although SMTP was designed as a mail transport and delivery protocol, this
specification also contains information that is important to its use as a
'mail posting' protocol, as recommended for POP [RFC-POP2, RFC-POP3] and
IMAP [RFC-IMAP4].
 
Section 2.3 provides definitions of terms specific to this document. Except
when the historical terminology is necessary for clarity, this document
uses the current 'client' and 'server' terminology to identify the sending
and receiving SMTP processes, respectively.
 
A companion document discusses message headers, message bodies and formats
and structures for them, and their relationship - [MSGFMT].

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