Errors-to: owner-drums@CS.UTK.EDU
Message-Id: <199505312036.QAA12632@wilma.cs.utk.edu>
From: Keith Moore <moore@CS.UTK.EDU>
To: John Gardiner Myers <jgm+@cmu.edu>
cc: drums@CS.UTK.EDU, moore@CS.UTK.EDU
Subject: Re: RFC 821 problem list 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 31 May 1995 15:50:52 EDT."
             <cjnAWQq00WBwM9xk93@andrew.cmu.edu> 
Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 16:36:32 -0400
Sender: moore@CS.UTK.EDU

> > I much prefer to bounce these potential long term problems,
> > which includes over quota, so the sender can contact the
> > administration of the dest site, and see if they can correct
> > the problem. 
> 
> I suppose you'd like to turn all 4XX codes into 5XX codes then?  If a
> DNS server is down or the mail spool partition is full, shouldn't the
> mail be bounced so that someone contacts the administration?

My experience is also that "disk quota exceeded" is best treated as a
temporary error.

4xx vs 5xx says whether or not the mail should be bounced immediately.
Whether "someone contacts the administartion" is a separate matter.

There is a whole class of error conditions that should be reported to
the local sysadmin (because she is in the best position to fix the
problem) regardless of whether they are temporary or permanent in
nature.  (e.g., "host name not recognized as local"...)

You send a nondelivery report to the sender so he'll know his mail
didn't get there.  You may also need to send a report to the local
sysadmin (or to the local log daemon, whatever) so she'll know her
system is broken.

Keith