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Enhanced Status Codes for Delivery - RFC 1893

Article ID: 256321 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q256321

SUMMARY

Request for Comments (RFC) 1893 provides an enhanced set of status codes for Delivery Status Notification (DSN) messages. This is an extension of the coding defined in RFC 821. The error codes in RFC 821 are designed to deal with messaging, and are not as useful for DSN messages. The code specified in the "More Information" section provides a more specific, flexible system of coding for DSN messages (non-delivery reports, read and delivery receipts, and so on). The Enhanced Status Codes provide a standard mechanism for reporting mail system errors, and provide more meaningful information than the standard error codes defined in the SMTP RFC (821).

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MORE INFORMATION

Collected Status Codes

First Digit

2.X.X Success
4.X.X Persistent Transient Failure
5.X.X Permanent Failure

Second and Third Digits

X.1.0 Other address status
X.1.1 Bad destination mailbox address
X.1.2 Bad destination system address
X.1.3 Bad destination mailbox address syntax
X.1.4 Destination mailbox address ambiguous
X.1.5 Destination mailbox address valid
X.1.6 Mailbox has moved
X.1.7 Bad sender's mailbox address syntax
X.1.8 Bad sender's system address

X.2.0 Other or undefined mailbox status
X.2.1 Mailbox disabled, not accepting messages
X.2.2 Mailbox full
X.2.3 Message length exceeds administrative limit
X.2.4 Mailing list expansion problem

X.3.0 Other or undefined mail system status
X.3.1 Mail system full
X.3.2 System not accepting network messages
X.3.3 System not capable of selected features
X.3.4 Message too big for system

X.4.0 Other or undefined network or routing status
X.4.1 No answer from host
X.4.2 Bad connection
X.4.3 Routing server failure
X.4.4 Unable to route
X.4.5 Network congestion
X.4.6 Routing loop detected
X.4.7 Delivery time expired

X.5.0 Other or undefined protocol status
X.5.1 Invalid command
X.5.2 Syntax error
X.5.3 Too many recipients
X.5.4 Invalid command arguments
X.5.5 Wrong protocol version

X.6.0 Other or undefined media error
X.6.1 Media not supported
X.6.2 Conversion required and prohibited
X.6.3 Conversion required but not supported
X.6.4 Conversion with loss performed
X.6.5 Conversion failed

X.7.0 Other or undefined security status
X.7.1 Delivery not authorized, message refused
X.7.2 Mailing list expansion prohibited
X.7.3 Security conversion required but not possible
X.7.4 Security features not supported
X.7.5 Cryptographic failure
X.7.6 Cryptographic algorithm not supported
X.7.7 Message integrity failure

The following is from RFC 1893:

This document defines a new set of status codes to report mail system conditions. These status codes are intended to be used for media and language independent status reporting. They are not intended for system specific diagnostics.

The syntax of the new status codes is defined as:

status-code = class "." subject "." detail
class = "2"/"4"/"5"
subject = 1*3digit
detail = 1*3digit

White-space characters and comments are NOT allowed within a status- code. Each numeric sub-code within the status-code MUST be expressed without leading zero digits.

Status codes consist of three numerical fields separated by ".". The first sub-code indicates whether the delivery attempt was successful. The second sub-code indicates the probable source of any delivery anomalies, and the third sub-code indicates a precise error condition.
The codes space defined is intended to be extensible only by standards track documents. Mail system specific status codes should be mapped as close as possible to the standard status codes. Servers should send only defined, registered status codes. System specific errors and diagnostics should be carried by means other than status codes.

New subject and detail codes will be added over time. Because the number space is large, it is not intended that published status codes will ever be redefined or eliminated. Clients should preserve the extensibility of the code space by reporting the general error described in the subject sub-code when the specific detail is unrecognized.

For additional information and discussion of this coding, including definitions of terminology, please see RFC 1893.

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