Why can't I exit an SMTP dialog by entering a dot?

Question

I've just started to set up an SMTP server on one of my test boxes. Postfix is installed and running, however, when I try to end a message it just does not work. All the documentation I've seen says that when you insert a "." (period) on a new line in the body, the message will be sent. This just does not work for me, though. The program just goes onto the next line as if expecting more text.

Answer 1

Assuming your problem does occur while doing telnet localhost 25 your session has to look like this:

(...)
DATA                                                                            
354 End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>                                             
Subject: Test                                                                   

This is the body                                                                
.                                                                               
250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 6E9B019E46       

And this works trillions of time every day.