On Fri, 18 Sep 1998, Per Steinar Iversen wrote:
> Exim 2.02 will bounce mail coming from
> ".test@somewhere", while mail from
> "test.test@somewhere" will work.
> This is a real example:
>
> >>> MAIL From:<.test@???> SIZE=5
> <<< 501 <.test@???>: missing or malformed local part
>
> I noticed this when mail from a real user
> bounced. Why anybody would want to start
> their mail adresse with "." is not obvious
> to me, but it should be legal.
>From RFC 821:
<local-part> ::= <dot-string> | <quoted-string>
<dot-string> ::= <string> | <string> "." <dot-string>
<string> ::= <char> | <char> <string>
<char> ::= <c> | "\" <x>
<c> ::= any one of the 128 ASCII characters, but not any
<special> ::= "<" | ">" | "(" | ")" | "[" | "]" | "\" | "."
| "," | ";" | ":" | "@" """ | the control
characters (ASCII codes 0 through 31 inclusive and
127)
Thus it is not legal to start a local part with a dot, unless you
enclose it in quotes or precede it with a backslash. This is also true
for RFC 822 addresses.
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
--
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