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Re: RFC 5321 VRFY and quoting syntax

2011-05-11 16:00:50



On 05/11/2011 10:13 PM, Hector Santos wrote:


Hector Santos wrote:

Murray S. Kucherawy wrote:

I would say the angle-bracket form is what would be expected, but you're right, this looks like an ambiguity. I would recommend opening an errata item for it if that hasn't already been done.

Section 3.5.1 seems pretty clear to me:

   For the VRFY command, the string is a user name or a user name and
   domain (see below).....

      User Name <local-part@domain>
      local-part@domain

The former is one of many legal email address forms. In this one form allowed for this command, the angle-bracket is needed. But if the user name is not going to be entered, it shows a 2nd input form where you don't need to use angle brackets.

However, for outputs, it MUST be in angle bracket email form.

Oh I see, the example is wrong! To match the text, it should be:

    User Name
    User Name <local-part@domain>

but it seems there would be three input forms:

    User Name
    User Name <local-part@domain>
    local-part@domain

+1 in principle for an errata!!

That's a separate ambiguity :-)
Whichever of the above is correct, it still does not solve the conflict with the other section that states 'the reply MUST include the <Mailbox> name using a "<local-part@domain>" construction'. If your interpretation is correct, it should be worded "If the reply contains a mailbox, it MUST include it using a "<local-part@domain>" construction" or something like that (the format is conditioned on the inclusion of the mailbox, rather than being an absolute requirement).

I guess I'm first trying to figure out what the correct interpretation is, so that I can know what the errata should say.

-Amichai