RFC 1893 (rfc1893) - Page 1 of 15
Enhanced Mail System Status Codes
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group G. Vaudreuil
Request for Comments: 1893 Octel Network Services
Category: Standards Track January 1996
Enhanced Mail System Status Codes
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
1. Overview
There currently is not a standard mechanism for the reporting of mail
system errors except for the limited set offered by SMTP and the
system specific text descriptions sent in mail messages. There is a
pressing need for a rich machine readable status code for use in
delivery status notifications [DSN]. This document proposes a new
set of status codes for this purpose.
SMTP [SMTP] error codes have historically been used for reporting
mail system errors. Because of limitations in the SMTP code design,
these are not suitable for use in delivery status notifications.
SMTP provides about 12 useful codes for delivery reports. The
majority of the codes are protocol specific response codes such as
the 354 response to the SMTP data command. Each of the 12 useful
codes are each overloaded to indicate several error conditions each.
SMTP suffers some scars from history, most notably the unfortunate
damage to the reply code extension mechanism by uncontrolled use.
This proposal facilitates future extensibility by requiring the
client to interpret unknown error codes according to the theory of
codes while requiring servers to register new response codes.
The SMTP theory of reply codes partitioned in the number space such a
manner that the remaining available codes will not provide the space
needed. The most critical example is the existence of only 5
remaining codes for mail system errors. The mail system
classification includes both host and mailbox error conditions. The
remaining third digit space would be completely consumed as needed to
indicate MIME and media conversion errors and security system errors.
A revision to the SMTP theory of reply codes to better distribute the
error conditions in the number space will necessarily be incompatible
with SMTP. Further, consumption of the remaining reply-code number
Vaudreuil Standards Track