> Sorry? Did I miss an earlier message? Where does it say it's a violation?
I
> thought this entire matter was due to it being an area not formally
> mentioned in the RFCs - as it isn't mentioned, neither Qmail or
Sendmail/et
> al are right or wrong. My point was that "everyone else" does it a
different
> way than Qmail. If Qmail did it "the same way", it would make Qmail more
> acceptable to users.
i just did a quick search of some relevant RFC's, and all they seem to say
is that MTA's may, but are not required to, try any fall back MX hosts. the
only thing they seem to say is that the most preferred MX must be tried
first.
so qmail is within its "legal" boundaries in the way it handles MX records.
without an RFC that specifies different behaviors for different situations,
MX handling will always be a gray area. for instance:
* if the primary host gives you a temporary error, should you fall back to
the next MX? how fast, immediately or wait a while? if you wait a while,
maybe the temporary error will go away?
* what if a fallback gives you a temp error? should you reset your MX
preference to the primary? how soon?
* if any host gives you a permanent error, should you try all other hosts?
(this may be answered in some rfc, i dunno)
* there's clearly a difference between a "connect refused", "host not
responding", "host answers but disconnects without notice", all these kind
of error conditions. how should they be handled wrt MX?
* how often do you check for an updated MX list? every time you send the
mail? if so, should you keep track of what the preferences used to be?
an RFC would be the ideal way to answer these. doing it "like everyone else
does" isn't valid. doing it "the way sendmail does" is even worse.
btw, in case you weren't aware, your "make qmail more acceptable to users"
argument isn't going to impress people around here.
shag
=====
Judd Bourgeois | CNM Network +1 (805) 520-7170
Software Architect | 1900 Los Angeles Avenue, 2nd Floor
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | Simi Valley, CA 93065
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
