Re: mail does bounce (was: Customers down?)

[owen () dixon delong sj ca us (Owen DeLong)]

> On Sun, Jan 02, 2000 at 12:31:00PM -0800, Owen DeLong wrote:
> >     Attempting to resolve a.b.c.d.e.f.g.h.i
> >
> >     If you get back a return value from DNS that says
> >             "Authoritative answer, a.b.c.d.e.f.g.h.i does not exist"
> >     Bounce the mail.
> >
> >     If you get back a return that says
> >             "Resolving a.b.c.d.e.f.g.h.i timed out without a return"
> >     Queue the mail.
> >
> > This also works for i, h.i, g.h.i, f.g.h.i, etc.
>
> I agree that this is the most sensible minimum functionality.  What do you 
> break if you treat what you consider persistent terminal conditions as 
> transient?
Usually, if I send something to foo () delnog org instead of foo () delong org,
I get a bounce back before I depart my MUA.  You would break that.

> Perhaps your business policy is to deliver all mail that can possibly be
> delivered, making the assumption that everything's transient unless the system
> has what it considers reasonable proof that it is indeed permanent (after 
> for instance several attempts spread out over a period of time).
I think that an authoritative nameserver saying "I know for certain that domain
xyz doesn't exist." is reasonable proof that an error requiring intervention
exists.

> Personally, I don't like systems which do not have backup paths to deal with 
> transient conditions.  And we do know that even "authoritative does not exist" 
> can be a transient error condition caused by a registry glitch etc.  Sure, we
> can all just ignore reality and assume we live in a perfect world, but....
But a registry glitch is an error requiring intervention, therefore, I would much
rather receive my mail back immediately so that I can intervene, than have it
sit there while everything else breaks hoping that it will eventually clear
itself.

Owen

> Cheers,
> Chris
>
> -- 
> Christian Kuhtz                                     Architecture, BellSouth.net
> <ck () arch bellsouth net> -wk, <ck () gnu org> -hm                       Atlanta, GA
>                                                     "Speaking for myself only."