Mailing List Archive

absolute domains on HELO
[.I posted this earlier in the week, but no one
responded; maybe it didn't make it through...]

This isn't a qmail-specific question, but since qmail users
are purists about protocols 8-) , it seemed appropriate.

I have one machine that includes a trailing period on
the domain name, making it absolute,
when sending HELO to a remote box (e.g.,
"HELO foo.superserve.com." ).

The box in question is running IBM's VM SMTP server
and it flatly rejects this domain saying that the end
of the domain was received unexpectedly.

I read over RFC 821 and 819, and I saw no specific
mention of this problem. No other machines I
send to seem to care. I even tried it against
other qmail boxes and it works fine.

Comments?

Daryl
Daryl L. Biberdorf darylb@superserve.com
Re: absolute domains on HELO [ In reply to ]
> "HELO foo.superserve.com."

That violates the RFC 821 syntax. ``HELO cs.utk.edu'' also violates the
RFC 821 syntax, because ``cs'' has only two letters. Draw your own
conclusions.

See addresses.0 for the full story.

---Dan
Put an end to unauthorized mail relaying. http://pobox.com/~djb/qmail.html