On Tue, 28 Nov 2000 01:25:13 +0100, Matti Vainio <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Technical support at chek.com says that: "LSMTP reportedly violates
>RFC822 standard by terminating lines in the header and body with only
>LF. 

In the first place this is an LSMTP-only question and not a LISTSERV question so
it should be asked on [log in to unmask] and not here at LSTSRV-L.

You should check the LSMTP FAQ http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/lsmtp-faq.stm#2.6
for information on doing site-specific logging of the connection only to this
domain, as well as using LSMTP to capture a hexdump of all traffic which would
expose 'bare LF'.  Bare LF are unfortunately not entirely uncommon coming from
web email clients, especially those that might be unix based.  

Qmail is known to be 100% intolerant on any bare LF anywhere in an SMTP message
coming from any MTA program (i.e. not only LSMTP). LSMTP ensures that SMTP
headers are always correctly terminated with CRLF as required by RFC821.
However, LSMTP treats the DATA block as a 'blackbox' (as any good MTA should)
and does nothing with 'bare LF' characters that may occur there.  Whether this
is a good idea or not is arguable, but the RFC821 standard remains unclear on
the correct handling here.  The currently applicable RFCs do not forbid 'bare
LF' in the DATA block.  

>As such, Qmail will reject the mail with status 451, with the
>error body pointing to a site explaining the problem."
>                                        (copied from full message that is
>below)
>
>I do not fully believe this because we are not facing similar problems
>with any other web based email account provider. The only error message
>related to this non-delivery that I am able to find from the delivery
>errors states:
>
>--> Error description:
>Error-for:  ******@AIESEC.NET
>Error-Code: 0
>Error-Text: Message could not be delivered to mailer "AIESEC.NET" after 4.01
>            day(s) and has been discarded.  The last connection ended with a
>            status of "WSAECONNRESET".
>
>Error-End:  One error reported.


>Bare LFs are strictly forbidden by the IETF document
>"draft-ietf-drums-msg-fmt-09.txt".  This supersedes RFC822 in
>defining the valid format for mail sent via SMTP.

This assertion about suberseding is absolutely and categorically false.  ALL the
IETF Draft documents quite clearly state they are NOT standards (although they
may eventually become so) and have no standards authority of any kind.  They can
be referred to only as 'works in progress' with no standards authority
whatsoever.   IF and when the Draft achieves RFC-number status AND has passed
the appropriate reviews, then and only then may it be said to supersede an
existing standard.  

Besides, the issue here is not governed by RFC822 anyway, it is an SMTP protocol
issue which is RFC821 and the applicable Draft is
draft-ietf-drums-smtpupd-13.txt.