ietf-smtp
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Re: Abort data transfer?

2009-10-19 11:45:56

David MacQuigg writes:
Forget about DKIM. What if there is some other reason to abort, like the payload is too large?

RFC 1870 handles this special case, acceptably AFAICT.

The rest of general problem seems to be something most people choose to live with rather than solve.

We cannot just continue receiving data forever. Is there a "permissible" way within SMTP to abort during data, or should I just ignore these ambiguous requirements, and either: 1) Send a TCP reset,

IMO yes.

or 2) Let the transmitter hang.

Some people do this in order to be as occupy the sender's resources. There's a fancy name for it. You send one byte every few minutes, so it takes three hours to send the whole SMTP response. I don't know whether doing so really inconveniences the $#(_at_)$#@! spammers and other evil creatures who initiate most SMTP connections.

Arnt