Sun Java System Messaging Server 6 2005Q4 Administration Guide

Legalizing Messages Without Recipient Header Lines

Keywords: missingrecipientpolicy

RFC 822 (Internet) messages are required to contain recipient header lines: To:, Cc:, or Bcc: header lines. A message without such header lines is illegal. Nevertheless, some broken user agents and mailers (for example, many older versions of sendmail) emit illegal messages.

The missingrecipientpolicy keyword takes an integer value specifying the approach to use for such messages; the default value, if the keyword is not explicitly present, is 1 (pass the illegal message through unchanged).

Table 12–25 missingrecipientpolicy Values

Value  

Action  

Place envelope To: recipients in a To: header line.

Pass the illegal message through unchanged. 

Place envelope To: recipients in a To: header line.

Place all envelope To: recipients in a single Bcc: header line.

Generate a group construct (for example, “;”) To: header line, “To: Recipients not specified: ;”

Generate a blank Bcc: header line.

Reject the message. 

Note that the MISSING_RECIPIENT_POLICY option can be used to set an MTA system default for this behavior. The initial Messaging Server configuration sets MISSING_RECIPIENT_POLICY to 1.