ietf-smtp
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Re: email-arch: bounce vs... return?

2007-10-15 05:01:26

Frank Ellermann <nobody(_at_)xyzzy(_dot_)claranet(_dot_)de> wrote:
Dave Crocker wrote:
 
There terms "Bounce Handler" and "Bounce address" are used.

In 2.1.3 you say "bounce handling address".  That's a neologism
for a concept that already has more than enough names.

   I have sympathy for that name. I think we're heading towards
models where the RFC2821 MAIL FROM points to an MTA near the submission
server which will redirect DSNs in accordance with directives from
the originator -- after passing some validity tests. Dave Crocker (and
others) set out this idea in Bounce Address Tag Verification:

http://mipassoc.org/batv/

and I'm convinced other proposals along these lines will follow.
(Disclaimer: I'm working on one myself.)

Why not simply use "envelope sender address" as in the DSN RFCs ?

   I could live with that, too. I tend to think of it as a status
notification address.

   "Bounce" in the name is problemmatic because folks sometimes refer
to an error _during_ the SMTP connection as a "bounce". This, IMHO,
is just plain wrong; but perhaps we have already lost that battle...

--
John Leslie <john(_at_)jlc(_dot_)net>