[opendmarc-users] Working to understand some opendmarc terminology on alignment

[Robert Chalmers]

I’m working my way through the docs and have most things understood now, but either I’m totally confused or simply not reading the docs clearly.

What exactly is meant by policy alignment.
I am struggling with the last two statements 
align_dkim 5
align_pf 5

The docs state that;

align_dkim, align_spf
			whether identifier alignment was established
			for DKIM and SPF (4 = yes, 5 = no)


eg; This is the relevant data from my History file, from a test message. 

job DEBUG-i
reporter DEBUG-j
received 1451314125
ipaddr 127.0.0.1
from chalmers.com.au
mfrom example.org
spf 0
pdomain chalmers.com.au
policy 16
rua mailto:eclq31iz at ag.dmarcian.com
pct 100
adkim 114
aspf 114
p 114
sp 0
align_dkim 5
align_spf 5
action 2


I know that it has read the DNS Dmarc TXT record correctly, because it’s picked up the rua mailto: part correctly.

I see from the History file that some domains have align_dkim and align_spf set at 4 and 5, 4 and 4, 5 and 5. what ever.

However, I can’t really understand what this “alignment” actually means.

In other docs, it states:
"look for emails not coming from your IPs (SPF not aligned) and with no aligned DKIM.”

So can I simply assume that if the mail does NOT come from my IP/Domain, then align_spf will actually be 5 - as it  is in this, because the mail seems to be ‘from example.org, However, the chalmers.com.au domain part is correct - so should align_dkim be 4, not 5? 

Is there anyone can take a moment to try and explain it to me please.
Thanks






Robert Chalmers
robert at chalmers.com.au  Quantum Radio: http://tinyurl.com/lwwddov
Mac mini 6.2 - 2012, Intel Core i7,2.3 GHz, Memory:16 GB. El-Capitan 10.11. 2TB Storage made up of - 
Drive 0:HGST HTS721010A9E630. Upper bay. Drive 1:ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB. Lower Bay