Re: Invalid messageenvelope information.

[Tom Samplonius <tom@sdf.com>]

On Thu, 12 Dec 1996, Bruce Sterling Woodcock wrote:

> 
> 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
> 

  Yes, see RFC 821 and RFC 822.  The trailing "." is NOT allowed!  RFC821
and RFC822 contain their own grammars on what makes a valid domainname.

  The concept "FQDN" does not enter in here, as this is not DNS, but mail.
Unfortunately, DNS and mail have different definitions of what a
domainname/hostname is.


Tom