On July 15, 2005 at 11:34, "Murray S. Kucherawy" wrote:
For example, for "fail" you can have codes for:
[...]
The specification says you can add comments, so saying "fail (signature
failed to verify)" leaves you with a basic code indicating the type of
failure, and the comment can be used to relay details. The comment can be
directly rendered by whatever agent might find such details desirable.
Comments are not standardized, so generating automated reports is
problematic, unless you standardized the comment text (which means
you should just go with formal status codes).
It's akin to SMTP: "550 <foo(_at_)bar>... User unknown" contains a keyword
that
indicates the fact that it was a failure, and comment text that provides
more information.
Even SMTP defines formal codes to provide classifications of status
along with reasons.
--ewh