Sam writes:
> it's much easier to shove a few thousand messages with a few
> thousand bad recipients into Qmail's queue, then sit back and watch Qmail
> unload a few million messages into the target's mailbox.
Please stop spreading misinformation.
Each queued message is bounced at most once. Your message to 1000 bad
local recipients will produce exactly one bounce showing the addresses
that failed. You might as well have sent the same data directly.
Messages split when they are _successfully_ relayed or forwarded. SMTP
clients are not permitted to relay without your explicit authorization.
Forwarding targets are normally valid addresses. The exceptions, such as
multidrop POP mailboxes, allow multiple bounces no matter what MTA
you're running; in the same situations, RCPT verification is impossible.
I'm not saying I like server-side bounces. They reflect a fundamental
misallocation of responsibilities in the Internet mail infrastructure.
Internet mail would have been much simpler, much faster, and much more
reliable if it had been designed without bounce messages; the sender's
ISP would have been responsible for retransmitting new-mail notices
until the recipient downloaded and acknowledged the message.
---Dan
