spf-discuss
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Re: Unrecognized Mechanisms and Modifiers

2004-10-14 09:59:04

On Oct 14, 2004, at 8:41 AM, guy wrote:

I don't like supporting unrecognized mechanisms. This will allow typos and other error to be ignored. I am not the first to say this. But if someone uses "ipv4", or "prt", these will be ignored. I think an error should be
returned.

Please read the draft carefully. They are not ignored if processing proceeds as far as trying to interpret them. If preceding directives match, the unrecognized mechanism is never evaluated, and so yes it is ignored. If the preceding directives all don't match, then the processing the unrecognized mechanism fails with PermError.

Now, it has been proposed that it would better return PermError at the start of processing if any mechanism is unrecognized. I actually agree with this logic. However, the draft documents the SPF v1 common understanding, and the above logic has been in SPF drafts for ages.

When we move forward with a new version of SPF, I'm all for changing the language to be more strict.

        - Mark