Re: [exim] RSET command

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Author: Philip Hazel
Date:  
To: W B Hacker
CC: exim users
Subject: Re: [exim] RSET command
On Tue, 7 Nov 2006, W B Hacker wrote:

> Not clear to me why one would expect RFC compliance *from* spambots, nor owe
> RFC-compliance *to* spambots. Mynheer Venema put it rather more succinctly.
>
> But but never mind - that wasn't the question.
>
> Seems the mechanism is not there now, and any such test would require coding.


It's a bit difficult to code the impossible. Bill, you seem to be
missing the point that others are making about the way SMTP works. When
host A makes a connection to host B, host A is considered the "client"
and host B is considered the "server". Host A issues commands
(typically to transmit a message), and host B responds to the commands
(typically to accept or refuse the message).

You are asking for ways of getting host B to issue an RSET command. This
just doesn't make sense. Host B is passive in the sense that it doesn't
initiate an interaction; it just responds to what host A sends it.

Sure, host B could send the text "RSET" down the wires if it wanted to;
the effect would be to disrupt the SMTP conversation because host A
wouldn't understand it. So what could it possibly achieve?

-- 
Philip Hazel            University of Cambridge Computing Service
Get the Exim 4 book:    http://www.uit.co.uk/exim-book