id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
29730	"Clarify email docs about what ""successfully delivered messages"" means"	ovalseven8	nobody	"Today, I read through the ""Sending email"" documentation and it raised a few question to me. So I am asking if perhaps you could clarify it in the docs. In case someone can help, I can then create the pull request if you want to.

My raised questions:

 What does ""successfully delivered messages"" exactly mean?::
   In the docs you say the return value of `send_mail()` or `send_mass_mail()` is the number of ""successfully delivered messages"". But what does this mean exactly? Let's say a new user registers on my website and uses an actually not existing email address like `gh37ddg3@457f3838f.com`. Will `send_mail()` then **always** return `0`? Or what is when the SMTP connection is successful, and the email server will just try to deliver the message several times? Will it then return `1` when the delivery to the SMTP server was successful or really only when the recipient's server got the mail? I hope you could clarify this.
   Another question about fail_silently::
   Assuming `fail_silently=False`. Will then `send_mail()` only be able to return `1` and raise an Exception or could it also be that it returns `0`?
   Question to send_mass_mail()::
   Assuming I want to send 600 emails. Now, in the middle of the process, send_mass_mail() fails and returns that `20` emails have been delivered. How do I know **which** emails have been sent and which are still to be sent? In case `fail_silently=False`: Will the Exception also contain the number of ""successfully delivered messages""?
"	Cleanup/optimization	closed	Documentation	dev	Normal	wontfix			Accepted	0	0	0	0	0	0