Re: Invalid messageenvelope information.

[sterling@netapp.com (Bruce Sterling Woodcock)]

Zmailer was generating error messages for messages coming in from
"gimli.rivendell.com." (not the extra period) and after notifying the
postmaster there, David ssent the following response below:

> Thank you for the notification:
>   Error in "rcvdfrom" envelope address:
>         gimli.rivendell.com. ([206.204.66.128])
>                                                ^-illegal subdomain in
>   domain, propably extra '.' at the end of the address
> 
> You are the first and so far only site to point this out to me.
> I'm surprised that your mailer complained, since a fully qualified
> domain name SHOULD end in a period, signifying that it is a "rooted"
> domain. Do you know the applicable RFC's? I thought I had read
> something recently about FQDN's being supported (perhaps that was
> a recent sendmail document).
> 
> In any case, a quick look at other email shows me that very few
> sites have the trailing period.
> 
> Please let me know if the problem still exists.
> 
> David H. Elrod
> postmaster@rivendell.com

David,

The mailer on my side is zmailer, and it is notoriously picky about
adhereing to the rfc822 protocol spec. :)  As to exactly where this
was spelled out, I wasn't sure either, so I am cc:-ing the zmailer mailing
list on this for help.  However, I think you are extending a DNS
notion of using a trailing dot to the realm of SMTP where it is not
applicable.  To be fair, the early SMTP RFCs were written long before
people realized the problems with DNS resolution and the importance
of a "rooted" domain.

Anyway, this is probably the most common problem I see zmailer complain
about from outside email we receive; the other is not having a domain
name attached at all; i.e. just 'gimli.'.  It appears to be a common
sendmail configuration problem.

Bruce

-- 
Bruce Sterling Woodcock ------ Systems Administrator ][ sterling@netapp.com
Network & Systems Administration - Network Appliance ][ sterling@netcom.com