At 02:28 PM 4/27/98 +0100, Philip Hazel wrote:
>I made 1.90 accept underscores in HELO arguments because Microsoft puts
>them there. (There's an option to be more strict.) I didn't provide
>anything for allowing through other characters.
>
>> a) Pegasus has a command line switch that will let you force a valid
>> hostname
>
>One wonders why the default is to be invalid. Sigh.
I've not looked at 1.90 yet (too much other stuff to do) but based on your
comments, it seems that the default behaviour of 1.90 is to "allow
invalid". Perhaps you need to "look inward" to answer the question as to
why the default is invalid. Of course that leads to my next comment.
>> I'm hoping there is a way to disable this syntax check for a netlist as
>> that is much less painful than 3300 phone calls.
>
>You could patch the code, around line 290 of smtp_in.c.
>
>Another Sigh. I suppose I'd better consider putting in an option to
>allow through any old junk.
Just one mans view but it seems to me that the default behaviour of exim
should be RFC compliance with the ability of any individual system mangler
to be able to turn off compliance checks if they (or their managers)
desire. I suspect it's "too late" (from a "philisophical" standpoint) to
change the default underscore behaviour but *PLEASE* make any future
RFC/non-RFC options default to RFC compliance.
This plea is based on many years of conversations along the following lines
(apologies for the length, moral at the end)...
Manager - I see the latest version of foobar is available. Go get it and
install it
Me - I haven't had a chance to look at the docs yet since it was only
released last week.
Manager - I don't care, go do it.
Me - OK (but I really don't want to)
Me - (install it)
Manager - Great work.
Me - yeah but now fozbot can do this stuff that he's not supposed to be
able to do
Manager - Well fix it.
Me - OK, I'll figure out how when I read the docs
(time passes)
Me - OK boss, I've fixed it so fozbot can't do that any more
Manager - Well fozbot just complained to my manager that he could do this
for awhile but now can't and he's might pissed off, turn it back on so he
can do it.
Moral --- in many large companies it's exceedingly difficult to change
configurations to a "more strict" level after the fact. In those same
large companies it's frequently not possible to get the time to understand
the ramifications of new version configurations before they're installed.
I realize that making defaults "more strict" is likely to generate more
messages on this list but (for me at least) it's a) a small price to pay
and b) we're all adults here (unlike in the real world).
Oh well, so much for the ramblings of a crazed mad-man who left big
business for the sanity of a small, soft-money research facility...
Bruce
Bruce Bowler, Research Associate 207.633.9600 (voice)
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences 207.633.9641 (fax)
PO Box 475 BBowler@??? (email)
West Boothbay Harbor ME 04575 http://www.bigelow.org/
--
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