Action Header Field - A Per-Recipient DSN Field

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The Action header field is found in delivery-status-notification emails. The message/delivery-status sub-part contains the DSN fields. The Action header is included in the per-recipient header fields. An example of a DSN with 2 failed recipients is shown at the bottom of this page.

   The Action field indicates the action performed by the Reporting-MTA
   as a result of its attempt to deliver the message to this recipient
   address.  This field MUST be present for each recipient named in the
   DSN.

   The syntax for the action-field is:

     action-field = "Action" ":" action-value

     action-value =
          "failed" / "delayed" / "delivered" / "relayed" / "expanded"

   The action-value may be spelled in any combination of upper and lower
   case characters.

"failed"     indicates that the message could not be delivered to the
             recipient.  The Reporting MTA has abandoned any attempts to
             deliver the message to this recipient.  No further
             notifications should be expected.

"delayed"    indicates that the Reporting MTA has so far been unable to
             deliver or relay the message, but it will continue to
             attempt to do so.  Additional notification messages may be
             issued as the message is further delayed or successfully
             delivered, or if delivery attempts are later abandoned.

"delivered"  indicates that the message was successfully delivered to
             the recipient address specified by the sender, which
             includes "delivery" to a mailing list exploder.  It does
             not indicate that the message has been read.  This is a
             terminal state and no further DSN for this recipient should
             be expected.

"relayed"    indicates that the message has been relayed or gatewayed
             into an environment that does not accept responsibility for
             generating DSNs upon successful delivery.  This action-
             value SHOULD NOT be used unless the sender has requested
             notification of successful delivery for this recipient.

"expanded"   indicates that the message has been successfully delivered
             to the recipient address as specified by the sender, and
             forwarded by the Reporting-MTA beyond that destination to
             multiple additional recipient addresses.  An action-value
             of "expanded" differs from "delivered" in that "expanded"
             is not a terminal state. Further "failed" and/or "delayed"
             notifications may be provided.

             Using the terms "mailing list" and "alias" as defined in
             [4], section 7.2.7:  An action-value of "expanded" is only
             to be used when the message is delivered to a multiple-
             recipient "alias".  An action-value of "expanded" SHOULD
             NOT be used with a DSN issued on delivery of a message to a
             "mailing list".

   NOTE ON ACTION VS. STATUS CODES:  Although the 'action' field might
   seem to be redundant with the 'status' field, this is not the case.
   In particular, a "temporary failure" ("4") status code could be used
   with an action-value of either "delayed" or "failed".  For example,
   assume that an SMTP client repeatedly tries to relay a message to the
   mail exchanger for a recipient, but fails because a query to a domain
   name server timed out.  After a few hours, it might issue a "delayed"
   DSN to inform the sender that the message had not yet been delivered.
   After a few days, the MTA might abandon its attempt to deliver the
   message and return a "failed" DSN.  The status code (which would
   begin with a "4" to indicate "temporary failure") would be the same
   for both DSNs.

   Another example for which the action and status codes may appear
   contradictory:  If an MTA or mail gateway cannot deliver a message
   because doing so would entail conversions resulting in an
   unacceptable loss of information, it would issue a DSN with the
   'action' field of "failure" and a status code of 'XXX'.  If the
   message had instead been relayed, but with some loss of information,
   it might generate a DSN with the same XXX status-code, but with an
   action field of "relayed".

From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <mailer-daemon@comcast.net>
Subject: Returned mail: delivery problems encountered
Message-Id: <20060913232852m12006pi00e@A@000000000000@comcast.net>
Date: 13 Sep 2006 23:28:52 +0000
To: <support@chilkatsoft.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/report; report-type=delivery-status; boundary="_45089434.1b32.0+comcast.net=_"

--_45089434.1b32.0+comcast.net=_
Content-Type: text/plain

A message (from <support@chilkatsoft.com>) was received at 13 Sep 2006 23:28:50 +0000.

The following addresses had delivery problems:

<ajsfdlkjasdglkjadsg@tagtooga.com>
	Permanent Failure: 550_Requested_action_not_taken:_mailbox_unavailable_or_not_local
	Delivery last attempted at Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:28:51 -0000

<asgfafdsga8fgsfdgk@tagtooga.com>
	Permanent Failure: 550_Requested_action_not_taken:_mailbox_unavailable_or_not_local
	Delivery last attempted at Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:28:51 -0000

--_45089434.1b32.0+comcast.net=_
Content-Type: message/delivery-status

Reporting-MTA: dns; comcast.net
Arrival-Date: 13 Sep 2006 23:28:50 +0000

Final-Recipient: rfc822; <ajsfdlkjasdglkjadsg@tagtooga.com>
Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0 550_Requested_action_not_taken:_mailbox_unavailable_or_not_local
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; Permanent Failure: Other undefined Status
Last-Attempt-Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:28:51 -0000

Final-Recipient: rfc822; <asgfafdsga8fgsfdgk@tagtooga.com>
Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0 550_Requested_action_not_taken:_mailbox_unavailable_or_not_local
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; Permanent Failure: Other undefined Status
Last-Attempt-Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:28:51 -0000

--_45089434.1b32.0+comcast.net=_
Content-Type: message/rfc822

Received: from dotnet.chilkatsoft.com (c-67-167-114-82.hsd1.il.comcast.net[67.167.114.82])
          by comcast.net (rwcrmhc12) with SMTP
          id <20060913232849m1200rp84je>; Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:28:50 +0000
Message-Id: <6.2.1.2.0.20060913182833.07846eb0@mail.chilkatsoft.com>
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.2.1.2
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:28:48 -0500
To: ajsfdlkjasdglkjadsg@tagtooga.com,asgfafdsga8fgsfdgk@tagtooga.com
From: Chilkat Software <support@chilkatsoft.com>
Subject: test
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed; x-avg-checked=avg-ok-40F36D91

	test


-- 
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Checked by AVG Free Edition.
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--_45089434.1b32.0+comcast.net=_--