Errors-to: owner-drums@CS.UTK.EDU
Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 14:13:33 -0400
Message-Id: <199505311813.OAA11913@wilma.cs.utk.edu>
From: Keith Moore <moore@CS.UTK.EDU>
To: perry@imsi.com
cc: John Gardiner Myers <jgm+@CMU.EDU>, drums@CS.UTK.EDU, moore@CS.UTK.EDU
Subject: Re: RFC 821 problem list 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 31 May 1995 13:03:49 EDT."
             <9505311703.AA19737@snark.imsi.com> 

> > The 522 reply code identifies a *transient* condition--the error is
> > likely to go away if the RCPT command is retried in a separate
> > transaction.  The condition should instead be assigned a 4XX reply
> > code.
> 
> That would break current systems, wouldn't it?

I don't think so.  522 wouldn't be re-used, we would just assign a 4xx
code to take its place in new implementations.  I assume that no SMTP
clients *depend* on 522 being issued under any particular conditions.
Any SMTP client which treats 522 as a special-case transient error
will presumably work just fine if they get a 4xx code instead, and any
client that treats 522 as a permanent error will work better if it
sees 4xx.