SMTP DSNs for delayed messages - is there a standard?

Greetings from a n00b.

I need to know if there is a standard for SMTP DSN (delivery status
notifications) in the context of delayed messages. An example follows:

sender1@example.com sends a [single] message addressed to
recipient1@domainx.com, recipient2@domainy.com, and
recipient3@domainz.com.

Sender1's MTA delivers this message immediately to recipient1 and
recipient2. However, recipient3's mail servers are not accessible.
Sender1's MTA sends a DSN to sender1, which reads as follows:
-------
Your message with Subject: Test Thursday 7:57 pm MDT could not be
delivered to the following recipients:

recipient1@domainx.com, recipient2@domainy.com, recipient3@domainz.com

Please do not resend your original message.

Delivery attempts will continue to be made for 1 day(s).
-------
Sender1 is then led to believe that her message has not been delivered
to any of the three recipients, when in fact only recipient3 has not
yet received it.

We are using an MTA which behaves this way, and the application
vendor's support has told us "this is by design, as the software
doesn't uniquely distinguish multiple recipients in the same mail
message."

It is my opinion that the DSN should only list the failed recipient(s),
not all recipients. I use different MTAs on other systems, which do
send DSNs for only the failed recipient(s).

Are there any RFC standards for this?

Many thanks,

Jim

Re: SMTP DSNs for delayed messages - is there a standard?

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jimharle@gmail.com writes:

> Greetings from a n00b.
>
> I need to know if there is a standard for SMTP DSN (delivery status
> notifications) in the context of delayed messages.

Yes, there is.

> Your message with Subject: Test Thursday 7:57 pm MDT could not be
> delivered to the following recipients:
>
> recipient1@domainx.com, recipient2@domainy.com, recipient3@domainz.com
>
> Please do not resend your original message.
>
> Delivery attempts will continue to be made for 1 day(s).
> -------
> Sender1 is then led to believe that her message has not been delivered
> to any of the three recipients, when in fact only recipient3 has not
> yet received it.
>
> We are using an MTA which behaves this way, and the application
> vendor's support has told us "this is by design, as the software
> doesn't uniquely distinguish multiple recipients in the same mail
> message."
>
> It is my opinion that the DSN should only list the failed recipient(s),
> not all recipients. I use different MTAs on other systems, which do
> send DSNs for only the failed recipient(s).
>
> Are there any RFC standards for this?

Yes, there are. The multipart/report MIME type defines a format of DSN
messages that contain both a descriptive human-readable portion, and a
machine-parsable portion that supplies the original message's recipient
status in a format that can be parsed and processed.

Although the above descriptive message would certainly be misleading, in
this situation, it is perfectly feasible that the message/delivery-status
MIME section, that contains the real mail delivery status, correctly
indicates the status of all recipients. Can't really say, since you did not
post its contents.

If your sample delivery status notification does not contain a
message/delivery-status section, then it does not follow any standard at
all.


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Re: SMTP DSNs for delayed messages - is there a standard?

Thank you, Sam.

The DSNs for the delivery delays, from this MTA, have no such
message/delivery-status section...just the text I posted.

When the message retry times out (after 1 day in this case), the
message is returned with what appears to be the proper items, and only
for the failed recipient - a message with text similar to:

--- The message cannot be delivered to the following address. ---

Recipient3ATdomainz.com Could not deliver in a reasonable time.

with the original message attached, and a text file with contents
similar to:

Reporting-MTA:
Final-Recipient: rfc822;Recipient3ATdomainz.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1
Diagnostic-Code: X-Notes; Cannot route mail to user
(Recipient3ATdomainz.com).

As for the "intermediary" DSNs sent by this MTA, it sounds like my fear
is correct: lazy programming.

-Jim

Re: SMTP DSNs for delayed messages - is there a standard?

"Jim" writes:

> Thank you, Sam.
>
> The DSNs for the delivery delays, from this MTA, have no such
> message/delivery-status section...just the text I posted.
>
> When the message retry times out (after 1 day in this case), the
> message is returned with what appears to be the proper items, and only
> for the failed recipient - a message with text similar to:
>
> --- The message cannot be delivered to the following address. ---
>
> Recipient3ATdomainz.com Could not deliver in a reasonable time.
>
> with the original message attached, and a text file with contents
> similar to:
>
> Reporting-MTA:
> Final-Recipient: rfc822;Recipient3ATdomainz.com
> Action: failed
> Status: 5.1.1
> Diagnostic-Code: X-Notes; Cannot route mail to user
> (Recipient3ATdomainz.com).
>
> As for the "intermediary" DSNs sent by this MTA, it sounds like my fear
> is correct: lazy programming.
>
> -Jim

Or you are got interpreted multipart/report sections. And after intrepreting
them you got these tree parts
1) "just the text I posted"
2) "text file with content"
3) "original message attached"

that look like that mime formatted DSN (multipart/report) where parts
are
1) text/plain
2) message/delivery-status
3) message/rfc822


/ Kari Hurtta

Re: SMTP DSNs for delayed messages - is there a standard?

Yes, the final delivery failure notifications properly include the
three parts.

The "intermediary" delivery delay notifications, do not. This is the
issue.

-Jim