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From: Kevin_Crowston@XV.MIT.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: When to acknowledge SMTP messages
Message-ID: <571338780.108130550@XV.MIT.EDU>
Date: Thu, 26-Feb-87 18:26:00 EST
Article-I.D.: XV.571338780.108130550
Posted: Thu Feb 26 18:26:00 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Feb-87 02:54:37 EST
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Message type: Message
Topic: SMTP
Text: 
Re: Message of 25 Feb 87 05:01 from MRC%PANDA@SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU

> The server should NOT make the client wait while a message is
> being delivered...

I faced this issue when implementing our mail relay.  I decided that the
client SMTP would have to wait while the relay delivered the message.
Otherwise, the relay could acknowledge the message and then crash
or discover that the destination mail server was unable to take the message.
Either way, the mail goes on the floor, hardly desirable.  Acknowledgement
should mean that the message is really okay.

On the other hand,  I also get multiple copies of a lot of whole and partial
messages; it seems that some hosts are less patient than others...

Kevin Crowston
MIT Sloan School of Management