RFC 2034 (rfc2034) - Page 1 of 6
SMTP Service Extension for Returning Enhanced Error Codes
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group N. Freed
Request for Comments: RFC 2034 Innosoft
Category: Standards Track October 1996
SMTP Service Extension for
Returning Enhanced Error 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. Abstract
This memo defines an extension to the SMTP service [RFC-821, RFC-
1869] whereby an SMTP server augments its responses with the enhanced
mail system status codes defined in RFC 1893. These codes can then
be used to provide more informative explanations of error conditions,
especially in the context of the delivery status notifications format
defined in RFC 1894.
2. Introduction
Although SMTP is widely and robustly deployed, various extensions
have been requested by parts of the Internet community. In
particular, in the modern, international, and multilingual Internet a
need exists to assign codes to specific error conditions that can be
translated into different languages. RFC 1893 defines such a set of
status codes and RFC 1894 defines a mechanism to send such coded
material to users. However, in many cases the agent creating the RFC
1894 delivery status notification is doing so in response to errors
it received from a remote SMTP server.
As such, remote servers need a mechanism for embedding enhanced
status codes in their responses as well as a way to indicate to a
client when they are in fact doing this. This memo uses the SMTP
extension mechanism described in RFC 1869 to define such a mechanism.
Freed Standards Track