patch, 2 partsDocumentation: git-send-email: correct statement about standard ports

The current documentation confuses non-standard SSL smtp port 465 with submission port 587 (RFC 4406). This patch just changes the referenced number.

Signed-off-by: Wesley J. Landaker <wjl@icecavern.net>
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 Documentation/git-send-email.txt |    2 +-
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

The current documentation states that servers typically listen on port 465 and calls this "ssmtp". While it's true that many mail servers use port 465 for SSL smtp, this is non-standard, and hails from the days before smtp and submission TLS support, that arrived in RFC2487 and RFC3207. Port 465 is actually assigned by IANA for unrelated purposes, and is mostly still used by mail servers today only to support Outlook Express.

In any case, this patch helps the documentation better reflect both standards and reality, while still helpfully mentioning ports numbers that a user may wish to specify.

Signed-off-by: Wesley J. Landaker <wjl@icecavern.net>
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 Documentation/git-send-email.txt |    5 +++--
 1 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

"Wesley J. Landaker" <wjl@icecavern.net> writes:

As you noted, port 465 has been used as a well-known de-facto port to run SMTP over SSL at many places. I do not think it would help anybody by clarifying that it is a "non-standard" port here. This is not a place to educate people on which port they should run their SMTP servers.

But I do not care deeply enough, and I can let it pass.

I have much more trouble with that "like 465" than I have with "non standard".

The purpose of listing the specific numbers in this sectiono is to give practical hints. We could just have said "we can take the port number your SMTP server listens to with this option, and it is up to you to figure out which port you want to talk to". We try to be helpful instead, so that the people can try to see if the suggested ports match their situation without having to consult outside references. That's the whole reason for having specific numbers in this section.

And in that context, 465 is much more special than any other "non standard port on which a random ISP may happen to run its SMTP over SSL service".

I think you would help people better to say:

	... submission port 587, or a widely used non-standard SMTP over
	SSL port 465.

if you want to really say non-standard, that is.

On Friday 31 July 2009 10:04:39 Junio C Hamano wrote:

If you don't like the phrasing, how about this revised patch? I call it a "common SSL smtp port", and refer directly to 465. I think should make everyone happy:

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From: Wesley J. Landaker <wjl@icecavern.net>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:53:29 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Documentation: git-send-email: correct statement about standard ports

The current documentation states that servers typically listen on port 465 and calls this "ssmtp". While it's true that many mail servers use port 465 for SSL smtp, this is non-standard, and hails from the days before smtp and submission TLS support, that arrived in RFC2487 and RFC3207. Port 465 is actually assigned by IANA for unrelated purposes, and is mostly still used by mail servers today only to support Outlook Express.

In any case, this patch helps the documentation better reflect both standards and reality, while still helpfully mentioning ports numbers that a user may wish to specify.

Signed-off-by: Wesley J. Landaker <wjl@icecavern.net>
---
 Documentation/git-send-email.txt |    5 +++--
 1 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

"Wesley J. Landaker" <wjl@icecavern.net> writes:

Looks really good.  Thanks.

On Fri, 31 Jul 2009, Junio C Hamano wrote:

(off topic pedantry)

465 was at one time the de jure standard IANA registered port for smtps (not "ssmtp") alongside the imaps and pop3s ports. The IETF foolishly withdrew the registration for political reasons and it was subsequently re-assigned to something else. Since the withdrawal there has been no registered port for smtps, but smtps is required to support Outlook (not just Outlook Express). Therefore operators have ignored the IETF's mistake.

This is another example of IP "as she is spoke" being different from what the standards say. Another good example is TCP congestion control which wasn't described in an RFC until RFC 2001.

Also, MUAs typically use SSL to mean TLS-on-connect and TLS to mean STARTTLS, and the setting has no bearing on whether it uses version 3.0 and earlier or 3.1 and later of the protocol.

Tony.