On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, Philip Hazel wrote:
> Here is the new wording from the forthcoming revised version of RFC 821
>
> The MAIL command (or the obsolete SEND, SOML, or SAML commands) begins a
> mail transaction. Once started, a mail transaction consists of a
> transaction beginning command, one or more RCPT commands, and a DATA
> command, in that order. A mail transaction may be aborted by the RSET (or
> a new EHLO) command. There may be zero or more transactions in a session.
> MAIL (or SEND, SOML, or SAML) MUST NOT be sent if a mail transaction is
> already open, i.e., it should be sent only if no mail transaction had been
> started in the session, or it the previous one successfully concluded with
> a successful DATA command, or if the previous one was aborted with a RSET.
>
> This makes it even more clear that RSET is not needed after a successful
> transaction. Note especially the final sentence.
The last sentence suggests that it would be reasonable to send MAIL again
after a successful DATA command. The more I read that sentence the more I
wonder if there are implied brackets, and where you put them changes the
meaning.
In particular the clause "or it [if?] the previous one successfully
concluded with a successful DATA command" confuses me. Is this the
previous transaction or previous session ? Is this a case when MAIL msut
not be sent, or one of the cases where it should ?
--
I've just read the passage again; I don't like the phrase "Once started",
since it suggests that I send MAIL then a "transaction beginning command",
ie MAIL again ?
Dr. Andrew C. Aitchison Computer Officer, DPMMS, Cambridge
A.C.Aitchison@??? http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~werdna
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