EHLO Command Support

Keywords: ehlo, noehlo, checkehlo

The SMTP protocol has been extended (RFC 1869) to allow for negotiation of additional commands. This is done by using the new EHLO command, which replaces RFC 821's HELO command. Extended SMTP servers respond to EHLO by providing a list of the extensions they support. Unextended servers return an unknown command error and the client then sends the old HELO command instead.

This fallback strategy normally works well with both extended and unextended servers. Problems can arise, however, with servers that do not implement SMTP according to RFC 821. In particular, some noncompliant servers are known to drop the connection on receipt of an unknown command.

The SMTP client implements a strategy whereby it attempts to reconnect and use HELO when any server drops the connection on receipt of an EHLO. However, this strategy might not work if the remote server not only drops the connection but also goes into a problematic state upon receipt of EHLO.

The channel keywords ehlo, noehlo, and checkehlo are provided to deal with such situations. The ehlo keyword tells the MTA to use the EHLO command on all initial connection attempts. The noehlo keyword disables all use of the EHLO command. The checkehlo keyword tests the response banner returned by the remote SMTP server for the string “ESMTP”. If this string is found EHLO is used; if not, HELO is used. The default behavior is to use EHLO on all initial connection attempts, unless the banner line contains the string “fire away”, in which case HELO is used; note that there is no keyword corresponding to this default behavior, which lies between the behaviors resulting from the ehlo and checkehlo keywords.