John C Klensin wrote:
The strawman proposed text would be a provision that a client
SHOULD (or perhaps even MUST) send a RSET or QUIT in response to
a code whose first digit is undefined by either 2821bis or a
negotiated extension.
I would agree with that. Something like:
If an SMTP client receives a reply code that is not defined by this
RFC or a negotiated extension, it SHOULD send a RSET or QUIT command, and
SHOULD treat the unknown reply code as a 5xx code.
(I'm not too sure what to do if an undefined code is received in response
to a RCPT command. It's clear to me that you don't want to continue the
SMTP transaction, but do you want to fail all the recipients and
generate a non-delivery notification? Or do you want to just fail the
one recipient and retry the others (if any)?)
That brings us back to 1yz.
Well, it's not just 1yz that worries me. It's differing reply codes
in a multiline reply. As Tony Hansen pointed out, there are SMTP
implementations that do not simply use the last reply code, and
although their quality may be in question, they are in widespread use
and breaking them is not a good idea.
Regards,
David.