On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, Dr Andrew C Aitchison wrote:
> > 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.
>
> 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 ?
Transaction, surely. (For a start, a session cannot successfully
conclude with a DATA command. It can only conclude with a QUIT command.
For a second, there's no concept of "the previous session" - the RFC is
concerned with a single session.)
> Is this a case when MAIL msut
> not be sent, or one of the cases where it should ?
It's a case where MAIL is permitted. This paragraph is trying to spell
out what was implied before.
Sigh. You should be on the DRUMS working group, if you want to pick nits
like this, but I suspect it is a bit late now. I think the next draft is
just about ready - [goes to look for it, but Netscape hangs up. Mutter.]
However, I can post your comment, just in case there's time to change
"one" to "transaction", which would be even more explicit.
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
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