Re: [Exim] does exim not follow the RFC 1652 ?

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Author: Dave C.
Date:  
To: Guillaume Morin
CC: exim-users
Subject: Re: [Exim] does exim not follow the RFC 1652 ?
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On Thu, 8 Jun 2000, Guillaume Morin wrote:

> Dans un message du 07 jun ? 20:31, Dave C. ?crivait :
> >
> > >Indeed, I've seen
> > > that someone who sends a EHLO command to Exim will not get a 250
> > > 8bitmime response as it is required by the RFC 1652. I think that is the
> >
> > This response is not actually _required_ by the RFC, it is simply
> > provided as an option for an MTA which uses to advertise that
> > capability.
>
> Are you sure of that ? In that RFC, I quote : "


> If a server SMTP does not support the 8-bit MIME transport extension

       ^^^^^^

> (either by not responding with code 250 to the EHLO command, or by not
> including the EHLO keyword value 8BITMIME in its response), then the
> client must not, under any circumstances, attempt to transfer a content

^^^^^^
> which contains characters outside the US-ASCII octet range"



This is just saying that unless the receiver-SMTP says it supports
8BIT, the sender-SMTP is required (by the RFC) to send 7BIT ASCII.

It does not say the receiver-SMTP HAS to support 8BIT, or that even if
it does, that is HAS to advertise that fact.

There is a convention when following protocol RFC's

"Be liberal in what you accept, be conservative in what you send."


>
> So my understanding of that is that you have to send a 250 response with
> 8bitmime to show your 8-bit full support.
>
> Am I wrong ? (it could me a misunderstanding as far as english is not my
> motherlanguage)
>
>
> > The exim config file gives the administrator of a system running exim
> > the capability to decide wether they wish exim to offer that feature or
> > not. Some sites may wish to not permit this feature.
> >
> > That is what the 'accept_8bitmime' option is for (And when it is
> > set, exim does in fact include the '8BITMIME' response to an ehlo
> > command.)
>
> I know that. But I cannot send mail to each administrator of the domains
> that I wish to send messages to :)
>
> Thank for your help.
>
> Regards,
>
>


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