message transfer agent
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Message Transfer Agent
(messaging)(MTA, Mail Transfer Agent) Any program responsible
for delivering e-mail messages. Upon receiving a message
from a Mail User Agent or another MTA, often by SMTP over
the Internet, it stores it temporarily locally and analyses
the recipients and delivers it to any local addressees and/or
forwards it to other remote MTAs (routing) for delivery to
remote recipients. In either case it may edit and/or add to
the message headers.
The most widely used MTA for Unix is sendmail, which communicates using SMTP.
RFC 2821 (SMTP) expands MTA as "Mail Transfer Agent" though this is less common. Alternatives with "Transport" are also seen but less correct.
The most widely used MTA for Unix is sendmail, which communicates using SMTP.
RFC 2821 (SMTP) expands MTA as "Mail Transfer Agent" though this is less common. Alternatives with "Transport" are also seen but less correct.
This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)
message transfer agent
The store and forward capability in a messaging system. See messaging system.Copyright © 1981-2019 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.