Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!ucbvax!SAPSUCKER.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM!joseph From: joseph@SAPSUCKER.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM.UUCP Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: failed mail from DCP Message-ID: <860630094220.1.JOSEPH@HARLEM.SCRC.Symbolics.COM> Date: Mon, 30-Jun-86 09:42:00 EDT Article-I.D.: HARLEM.860630094220.1.JOSEPH Posted: Mon Jun 30 09:42:00 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 30-Jun-86 18:07:50 EDT References: <12218271857.14.MRC@SIMTEL20.ARPA> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 23 Approved: tcp-ip@sri-nic.arpa Date: Fri 27 Jun 86 18:11:52-MDT From: Mark Crispin The problem is in the SMTP sender at the Symbolics end. There is a bogus space after "MAIL From:" before the "<" that begins the return path. RFC 821 is quite specific about where spaces are expected and where they are not expected. You cannot say "MAIL FROM: ", you must say "MAIL FROM:". Quite correct. I fixed this last Monday or so. If you're still seeing this bogus space, please let me know the originating host at the "Symbolics end" so that I can find out why someone's running outdated software on it. TOPS-20 isn't the only SMTP server that is fussy about this. Even some Unix-based servers insist upon compliance to the spec here. Someone at a 4.2bsd site told me this "enforcement" took the form of many, many sendmail processes going into hard loops, pushing the load average up around 13 and chewing up more than 90% of the machine. The loopy processes have to be shot. He wasn't happy about it. -- joseph