University of Garden City

Faculty of Computer Studies &

Information Technology

SMTP

Ahmed Abdulhai Mohammed

SMTP Command Responses

The z/VM SMTP server can accept SMTP commands that arrive over a TCP
connection or over a batch SMTP (BSMTP) connection. With either type of
connection, a response (or, reply) is generated for each command
received by SMTP. Each reply is prefixed with a three-digit number, or
code. The nature of each response can be determined by inspecting
the first digit of this reply code; possible values for this digit are:
Digit

Description

Echo reply; used only in batch SMTP response files. Received commands
are "echoed" in these files to provide contextual information for other
reply codes.

Positive Preliminary reply. SMTP does not use a 1 as the first digit of a
reply code, because there are no SMTP commands for which such a reply
is applicable.

Positive Completion reply; command accepted.

Positive Intermediate reply; data associated with the command should

now be provided.

Temporary Negative Completion reply; try the command again, but at a

later time.

Permanent Negative Completion reply; the command has been rejected.

For SMTP commands that arrive over a TCP connection, all responses
(positive or negative) are returned over that TCP connection.
Similarly, for SMTP commands that arrive over a batch SMTP connection,
all responses are written to a batch SMTP response file. If verbose mode
is enabled for a batch SMTP connection (through use of the VERB ON
command), SMTP returns this response file to the origination point of the
spool file. The origination point is determined either from the ORIGINID
field of the spool file (if the spool file was generated on the same z/VM
system as the SMTP virtual machine) or from the spool file TAG field (if
the spool file arrived from a remote system through the RSCS network).
 If the batch SMTP connection is not in verbose mode, the batch SMTP
response file is not returned to the point of origin.
If an error occurs during the processing of commands over a batch SMTP
connection, such as reception of a negative response (with a first digit of
4 or 5), an error report is mailed back to the sender of the mail. The
sender is determined from the last valid MAIL FROM: command that was
received by SMTP. If the sender cannot be determined from a
MAIL FROM: command, the sender is assumed to be the origination point
of the batch SMTP command file. The error report mailed to the sender
includes the batch SMTP response file and the text of the undeliverable
mail.