Sam wrote:
> I wrote:
> > for Dan's word on the subject. In essence, his argument is:
> >
> > 1) 7-bit-only servers and clients are dying out anyway
>
> Next time you get pulled over for speeding, tell the cop that
> nobody drives
> under the speed limit anymore, and see how well that goes.
Note that these aren't MY arguments; they're my summarising Dan's arguments.
Specious argument anyway, Sam. We're not talking traffic law, we're talking
technical standards that do not and have never documented what real email
systems actually do. Sendmail has never shipped a version that is compliant
with those standards. Neither has qmail. Neither have many other email
systems.
This is largely because the standards happened AFTER 8-bit clean SMTP was
widely implemented.
> > 2) Nobody else implements the standard correctly
>
> I wouldn't say that.
For nobody, substitute 'almost nobody'. Sendmail, the most popular MTA on
the Internet, does not implement the standard correctly. Qmail does not.
Exim does not. I'm sure many others do not.
The difference is that sendmail makes a halfhearted attempt at compliance,
and qmail doesn't.
> > For example, Sendmail doesn't correctly follow the standard
> (it does 8->7
> > conversion for MIME messages, but not for unlabelled
> messages containing
> > 8-bit characters).
>
> The correct way to handle that is to reject them in the first place.
Are you seriously suggesting that, for the sake of these saintly, antiquated
7 bit only mailservers, we should drop people's emails on the floor?
The whole 7 bit email issue should have been killed off LONG ago. 7 bit
only text should be long dead. I see no reason to perpetuate it or
encourage it.
Also, let me put it this way: is there any MTA out there that only accepts
7bit mail that should not be upgraded for many other reasons? No 7-bit only
sendmail should still be in operation, for example; security holes galore.
-Matt
--
Matt Brown ---- UNIX Administrator ---- tickets.com
Phone: (714) 327-5571 --- Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
