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⟦2e718db8f⟧ TextFile

    Length: 118793 (0x1d009)
    Types: TextFile
    Names: »RFC822«

Derivation

└─⟦a0efdde77⟧ Bits:30001252 EUUGD11 Tape, 1987 Spring Conference Helsinki
    └─ ⟦this⟧ »EUUGD11/euug-87hel/sec7/RFC/RFC822« 

TextFile

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            RFC #  822

            Obsoletes:  RFC #733  (NIC #41952)












                               STANDARD FOR THE FORMAT OF

                               ARPA INTERNET TEXT MESSAGES






                                     August 13, 1982






                                       Revised by

                                    David H. Crocker


                             Dept. of Electrical Engineering
                        University of Delaware, Newark, DE  19711
                             Network:  DCrocker @ UDel-Relay












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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


                                    TABLE OF CONTENTS


            PREFACE ....................................................   ii

            1.  INTRODUCTION ...........................................    1

                1.1.  Scope ............................................    1
                1.2.  Communication Framework ..........................    2

            2.  NOTATIONAL CONVENTIONS .................................    3

            3.  LEXICAL ANALYSIS OF MESSAGES ...........................    5

                3.1.  General Description ..............................    5
                3.2.  Header Field Definitions .........................    9
                3.3.  Lexical Tokens ...................................   10
                3.4.  Clarifications ...................................   11

            4.  MESSAGE SPECIFICATION ..................................   17

                4.1.  Syntax ...........................................   17
                4.2.  Forwarding .......................................   19
                4.3.  Trace Fields .....................................   20
                4.4.  Originator Fields ................................   21
                4.5.  Receiver Fields ..................................   23
                4.6.  Reference Fields .................................   23
                4.7.  Other Fields .....................................   24

            5.  DATE AND TIME SPECIFICATION ............................   26

                5.1.  Syntax ...........................................   26
                5.2.  Semantics ........................................   26

            6.  ADDRESS SPECIFICATION ..................................   27

                6.1.  Syntax ...........................................   27
                6.2.  Semantics ........................................   27
                6.3.  Reserved Address .................................   33

            7.  BIBLIOGRAPHY ...........................................   34


                                    APPENDIX

            A.  EXAMPLES ...............................................   36
            B.  SIMPLE FIELD PARSING ...................................   40
            C.  DIFFERENCES FROM RFC #733 ..............................   41
            D.  ALPHABETICAL LISTING OF SYNTAX RULES ...................   44


            August 13, 1982               - i -                      RFC #822
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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


                                         PREFACE


                 By 1977, the Arpanet employed several informal standards for
            the  text  messages (mail) sent among its host computers.  It was
            felt necessary to codify these practices and  provide  for  those
            features  that  seemed  imminent.   The result of that effort was
            Request for Comments (RFC) #733, "Standard for the Format of ARPA
            Network Text Message", by Crocker, Vittal, Pogran, and Henderson.
            The specification attempted to avoid major  changes  in  existing
            software, while permitting several new features.

                 This document revises the specifications  in  RFC  #733,  in
            order  to  serve  the  needs  of the larger and more complex ARPA
            Internet.  Some of RFC #733's features failed  to  gain  adequate
            acceptance.   In  order to simplify the standard and the software
            that follows it, these features have been removed.   A  different
            addressing  scheme  is  used, to handle the case of inter-network
            mail; and the concept of re-transmission has been introduced.

                 This specification is intended for use in the ARPA Internet.
            However, an attempt has been made to free it of any dependence on
            that environment, so that it can be applied to other network text
            message systems.

                 The specification of RFC #733 took place over the course  of
            one  year, using the ARPANET mail environment, itself, to provide
            an on-going forum for discussing the capabilities to be included.
            More  than  twenty individuals, from across the country, partici-
            pated in  the  original  discussion.   The  development  of  this
            revised specification has, similarly, utilized network mail-based
            group discussion.  Both specification efforts  greatly  benefited
            from the comments and ideas of the participants.

                 The syntax of the standard,  in  RFC  #733,  was  originally
            specified  in  the  Backus-Naur Form (BNF) meta-language.  Ken L.
            Harrenstien, of SRI International, was responsible for  re-coding
            the  BNF  into  an  augmented  BNF  that makes the representation
            smaller and easier to understand.












            August 13, 1982              - ii -                      RFC #822
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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            1.  INTRODUCTION

            1.1.  SCOPE

                 This standard specifies a syntax for text messages that  are
            sent  among  computer  users, within the framework of "electronic
            mail".  The standard supersedes  the  one  specified  in  ARPANET
            Request  for Comments #733, "Standard for the Format of ARPA Net-
            work Text Messages".

                 In this context, messages are viewed as having  an  envelope
            and  contents.   The  envelope  contains  whatever information is
            needed to accomplish transmission  and  delivery.   The  contents
            compose  the object to be delivered to the recipient.  This stan-
            dard applies only to the format and some of the semantics of mes-
            sage  contents.   It contains no specification of the information
            in the envelope.

                 However, some message systems may use information  from  the
            contents  to create the envelope.  It is intended that this stan-
            dard facilitate the acquisition of such information by programs.

                 Some message systems may  store  messages  in  formats  that
            differ  from the one specified in this standard.  This specifica-
            tion is intended strictly as a definition of what message content
            format is to be passed BETWEEN hosts.

            Note:  This standard is NOT intended to dictate the internal for-
                   mats  used  by sites, the specific message system features
                   that they are expected to support, or any of  the  charac-
                   teristics  of  user interface programs that create or read
                   messages.

                 A distinction should be made between what the  specification
            REQUIRES  and  what  it ALLOWS.  Messages can be made complex and
            rich with formally-structured components of information or can be
            kept small and simple, with a minimum of such information.  Also,
            the standard simplifies the interpretation  of  differing  visual
            formats  in  messages;  only  the  visual  aspect of a message is
            affected and not the interpretation  of  information  within  it.
            Implementors may choose to retain such visual distinctions.

                 The formal definition is divided into four levels.  The bot-
            tom level describes the meta-notation used in this document.  The
            second level describes basic lexical analyzers that  feed  tokens
            to  higher-level  parsers.   Next is an overall specification for
            messages; it permits distinguishing individual fields.   Finally,
            there is definition of the contents of several structured fields.



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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            1.2.  COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK

                 Messages consist of lines of text.   No  special  provisions
            are  made for encoding drawings, facsimile, speech, or structured
            text.  No significant consideration has been given  to  questions
            of  data  compression  or to transmission and storage efficiency,
            and the standard tends to be free with the number  of  bits  con-
            sumed.   For  example,  field  names  are specified as free text,
            rather than special terse codes.

                 A general "memo" framework is used.  That is, a message con-
            sists of some information in a rigid format, followed by the main
            part of the message, with a format that is not specified in  this
            document.   The  syntax of several fields of the rigidly-formated
            ("headers") section is defined in  this  specification;  some  of
            these fields must be included in all messages.

                 The syntax  that  distinguishes  between  header  fields  is
            specified  separately  from  the  internal  syntax for particular
            fields.  This separation is intended to allow simple  parsers  to
            operate on the general structure of messages, without concern for
            the detailed structure of individual header fields.   Appendix  B
            is provided to facilitate construction of these parsers.

                 In addition to the fields specified in this document, it  is
            expected  that  other fields will gain common use.  As necessary,
            the specifications for these "extension-fields" will be published
            through  the same mechanism used to publish this document.  Users
            may also  wish  to  extend  the  set  of  fields  that  they  use
            privately.  Such "user-defined fields" are permitted.

                 The framework severely constrains document tone and  appear-
            ance and is primarily useful for most intra-organization communi-
            cations and  well-structured   inter-organization  communication.
            It  also  can  be used for some types of inter-process communica-
            tion, such as simple file transfer and remote job entry.  A  more
            robust  framework might allow for multi-font, multi-color, multi-
            dimension encoding of information.  A  less  robust  one,  as  is
            present  in  most  single-machine  message  systems,  would  more
            severely constrain the ability to add fields and the decision  to
            include specific fields.  In contrast with paper-based communica-
            tion, it is interesting to note that the RECEIVER  of  a  message
            can   exercise  an  extraordinary  amount  of  control  over  the
            message's appearance.  The amount of actual control available  to
            message  receivers  is  contingent upon the capabilities of their
            individual message systems.





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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            2.  NOTATIONAL CONVENTIONS

                 This specification uses an augmented Backus-Naur Form  (BNF)
            notation.  The differences from standard BNF involve naming rules
            and indicating repetition and "local" alternatives.

            2.1.  RULE NAMING

                 Angle brackets ("<", ">") are not  used,  in  general.   The
            name  of  a rule is simply the name itself, rather than "<name>".
            Quotation-marks enclose literal text (which may be  upper  and/or
            lower  case).   Certain  basic  rules  are  in uppercase, such as
            SPACE, TAB, CRLF, DIGIT, ALPHA, etc.  Angle brackets are used  in
            rule  definitions,  and  in  the rest of this  document, whenever
            their presence will facilitate discerning the use of rule names.

            2.2.  RULE1 / RULE2:  ALTERNATIVES

                 Elements separated by slash ("/") are alternatives.   There-
            fore "foo / bar" will accept foo or bar.

            2.3.  (RULE1 RULE2):  LOCAL ALTERNATIVES

                 Elements enclosed in parentheses are  treated  as  a  single
            element.   Thus,  "(elem  (foo  /  bar)  elem)"  allows the token
            sequences "elem foo elem" and "elem bar elem".

            2.4.  *RULE:  REPETITION

                 The character "*" preceding an element indicates repetition.
            The full form is:

                                     <l>*<m>element

            indicating at least <l> and at most <m> occurrences  of  element.
            Default values are 0 and infinity so that "*(element)" allows any
            number, including zero; "1*element" requires at  least  one;  and
            "1*2element" allows one or two.

            2.5.  [RULE]:  OPTIONAL

                 Square brackets enclose optional elements; "[foo  bar]"   is
            equivalent to "*1(foo bar)".

            2.6.  NRULE:  SPECIFIC REPETITION

                 "<n>(element)" is equivalent to "<n>*<n>(element)"; that is,
            exactly  <n>  occurrences  of (element). Thus 2DIGIT is a 2-digit
            number, and 3ALPHA is a string of three alphabetic characters.


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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            2.7.  #RULE:  LISTS

                 A construct "#" is defined, similar to "*", as follows:

                                     <l>#<m>element

            indicating at least <l> and at most <m> elements, each  separated
            by  one  or more commas (","). This makes the usual form of lists
            very easy; a rule such as '(element *("," element))' can be shown
            as  "1#element".   Wherever this construct is used, null elements
            are allowed, but do not  contribute  to  the  count  of  elements
            present.   That  is,  "(element),,(element)"  is  permitted,  but
            counts as only two elements.  Therefore, where at least one  ele-
            ment  is required, at least one non-null element must be present.
            Default values are 0 and infinity so that "#(element)" allows any
            number,  including  zero;  "1#element" requires at least one; and
            "1#2element" allows one or two.

            2.8.  ; COMMENTS

                 A semi-colon, set off some distance to  the  right  of  rule
            text,  starts  a comment that continues to the end of line.  This
            is a simple way of including useful notes in  parallel  with  the
            specifications.



























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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            3.  LEXICAL ANALYSIS OF MESSAGES

            3.1.  GENERAL DESCRIPTION

                 A message consists of header fields and, optionally, a body.
            The  body  is simply a sequence of lines containing ASCII charac-
            ters.  It is separated from the headers by a null line  (i.e.,  a
            line with nothing preceding the CRLF).

            3.1.1.  LONG HEADER FIELDS

               Each header field can be viewed as a single, logical  line  of
               ASCII  characters,  comprising  a field-name and a field-body.
               For convenience, the field-body  portion  of  this  conceptual
               entity  can be split into a multiple-line representation; this
               is called "folding".  The general rule is that wherever  there
               may  be  linear-white-space  (NOT  simply  LWSP-chars), a CRLF
               immediately followed by AT LEAST one LWSP-char may instead  be
               inserted.  Thus, the single line

                   To:  "Joe & J. Harvey" <ddd @Org>, JJV @ BBN

               can be represented as:

                   To:  "Joe & J. Harvey" <ddd @ Org>,
                           JJV@BBN

               and

                   To:  "Joe & J. Harvey"
                                   <ddd@ Org>, JJV
                    @BBN

               and

                   To:  "Joe &
                    J. Harvey" <ddd @ Org>, JJV @ BBN

                    The process of moving  from  this  folded   multiple-line
               representation  of a header field to its single line represen-
               tation is called "unfolding".  Unfolding  is  accomplished  by
               regarding   CRLF   immediately  followed  by  a  LWSP-char  as
               equivalent to the LWSP-char.

               Note:  While the standard  permits  folding  wherever  linear-
                      white-space is permitted, it is recommended that struc-
                      tured fields, such as those containing addresses, limit
                      folding  to higher-level syntactic breaks.  For address
                      fields, it  is  recommended  that  such  folding  occur


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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


                      between addresses, after the separating comma.

            3.1.2.  STRUCTURE OF HEADER FIELDS

               Once a field has been unfolded, it may be viewed as being com-
               posed of a field-name followed by a colon (":"), followed by a
               field-body, and  terminated  by  a  carriage-return/line-feed.
               The  field-name must be composed of printable ASCII characters
               (i.e., characters that  have  values  between  33.  and  126.,
               decimal, except colon).  The field-body may be composed of any
               ASCII characters, except CR or LF.  (While CR and/or LF may be
               present  in the actual text, they are removed by the action of
               unfolding the field.)

               Certain field-bodies of headers may be  interpreted  according
               to  an  internal  syntax  that some systems may wish to parse.
               These  fields  are  called  "structured   fields".    Examples
               include  fields containing dates and addresses.  Other fields,
               such as "Subject"  and  "Comments",  are  regarded  simply  as
               strings of text.

               Note:  Any field which has a field-body  that  is  defined  as
                      other  than  simply <text> is to be treated as a struc-
                      tured field.

                      Field-names, unstructured field bodies  and  structured
                      field bodies each are scanned by their own, independent
                      "lexical" analyzers.

            3.1.3.  UNSTRUCTURED FIELD BODIES

               For some fields, such as "Subject" and "Comments",  no  struc-
               turing  is assumed, and they are treated simply as <text>s, as
               in the message body.  Rules of folding apply to these  fields,
               so  that  such  field  bodies  which occupy several lines must
               therefore have the second and successive lines indented by  at
               least one LWSP-char.

            3.1.4.  STRUCTURED FIELD BODIES

               To aid in the creation and reading of structured  fields,  the
               free  insertion   of linear-white-space (which permits folding
               by inclusion of CRLFs)  is  allowed  between  lexical  tokens.
               Rather  than  obscuring  the  syntax  specifications for these
               structured fields with explicit syntax for this  linear-white-
               space, the existence of another "lexical" analyzer is assumed.
               This analyzer does not apply  for  unstructured  field  bodies
               that  are  simply  strings  of  text, as described above.  The
               analyzer provides  an  interpretation  of  the  unfolded  text


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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


               composing  the body of the field as a sequence of lexical sym-
               bols.

               These symbols are:

                            -  individual special characters
                            -  quoted-strings
                            -  domain-literals
                            -  comments
                            -  atoms

               The first four of these symbols  are  self-delimiting.   Atoms
               are not; they are delimited by the self-delimiting symbols and
               by  linear-white-space.   For  the  purposes  of  regenerating
               sequences  of  atoms  and quoted-strings, exactly one SPACE is
               assumed to exist, and should be used, between them.  (Also, in
               the "Clarifications" section on "White Space", below, note the
               rules about treatment of multiple contiguous LWSP-chars.)

               So, for example, the folded body of an address field

                   ":sysmail"@  Some-Group. Some-Org,
                   Muhammed.(I am  the greatest) Ali @(the)Vegas.WBA




























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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


               is analyzed into the following lexical symbols and types:

                           :sysmail              quoted string
                           @                     special
                           Some-Group            atom
                           .                     special
                           Some-Org              atom
                           ,                     special
                           Muhammed              atom
                           .                     special
                           (I am  the greatest)  comment
                           Ali                   atom
                           @                     atom
                           (the)                 comment
                           Vegas                 atom
                           .                     special
                           WBA                   atom

               The canonical representations for the data in these  addresses
               are the following strings:

                               ":sysmail"@Some-Group.Some-Org

               and

                                   Muhammed.Ali@Vegas.WBA

               Note:  For purposes of display, and when passing  such  struc-
                      tured information to other systems, such as mail proto-
                      col  services,  there  must  be  NO  linear-white-space
                      between  <word>s  that are separated by period (".") or
                      at-sign ("@") and exactly one SPACE between  all  other
                      <word>s.  Also, headers should be in a folded form.


















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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            3.2.  HEADER FIELD DEFINITIONS

                 These rules show a field meta-syntax, without regard for the
            particular  type  or internal syntax.  Their purpose is to permit
            detection of fields; also, they present to  higher-level  parsers
            an image of each field as fitting on one line.

            field       =  field-name ":" [ field-body ] CRLF

            field-name  =  1*<any CHAR, excluding CTLs, SPACE, and ":">

            field-body  =  field-body-contents
                           [CRLF LWSP-char field-body]

            field-body-contents =
                          <the ASCII characters making up the field-body, as
                           defined in the following sections, and consisting
                           of combinations of atom, quoted-string, and
                           specials tokens, or else consisting of texts>
































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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            3.3.  LEXICAL TOKENS

                 The following rules are used to define an underlying lexical
            analyzer,  which  feeds  tokens to higher level parsers.  See the
            ANSI references, in the Bibliography.

                                                        ; (  Octal, Decimal.)
            CHAR        =  <any ASCII character>        ; (  0-177,  0.-127.)
            ALPHA       =  <any ASCII alphabetic character>
                                                        ; (101-132, 65.- 90.)
                                                        ; (141-172, 97.-122.)
            DIGIT       =  <any ASCII decimal digit>    ; ( 60- 71, 48.- 57.)
            CTL         =  <any ASCII control           ; (  0- 37,  0.- 31.)
                            character and DEL>          ; (    177,     127.)
            CR          =  <ASCII CR, carriage return>  ; (     15,      13.)
            LF          =  <ASCII LF, linefeed>         ; (     12,      10.)
            SPACE       =  <ASCII SP, space>            ; (     40,      32.)
            HTAB        =  <ASCII HT, horizontal-tab>   ; (     11,       9.)
            <">         =  <ASCII quote mark>           ; (     42,      34.)
            CRLF        =  CR LF

            LWSP-char   =  SPACE / HTAB                 ; semantics = SPACE

            linear-white-space =  1*([CRLF] LWSP-char)  ; semantics = SPACE
                                                        ; CRLF => folding

            specials    =  "(" / ")" / "<" / ">" / "@"  ; Must be in quoted-
                        /  "," / ";" / ":" / "\" / <">  ;  string, to use
                        /  "." / "[" / "]"              ;  within a word.

            delimiters  =  specials / linear-white-space / comment

            text        =  <any CHAR, including bare    ; => atoms, specials,
                            CR & bare LF, but NOT       ;  comments and
                            including CRLF>             ;  quoted-strings are
                                                        ;  NOT recognized.

            atom        =  1*<any CHAR except specials, SPACE and CTLs>

            quoted-string = <"> *(qtext/quoted-pair) <">; Regular qtext or
                                                        ;   quoted chars.

            qtext       =  <any CHAR excepting <">,     ; => may be folded
                            "\" & CR, and including
                            linear-white-space>

            domain-literal =  "[" *(dtext / quoted-pair) "]"




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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            dtext       =  <any CHAR excluding "[",     ; => may be folded
                            "]", "\" & CR, & including
                            linear-white-space>

            comment     =  "(" *(ctext / quoted-pair / comment) ")"

            ctext       =  <any CHAR excluding "(",     ; => may be folded
                            ")", "\" & CR, & including
                            linear-white-space>

            quoted-pair =  "\" CHAR                     ; may quote any char

            phrase      =  1*word                       ; Sequence of words

            word        =  atom / quoted-string


            3.4.  CLARIFICATIONS

            3.4.1.  QUOTING

               Some characters are reserved for special interpretation,  such
               as  delimiting lexical tokens.  To permit use of these charac-
               ters as uninterpreted data, a quoting mechanism  is  provided.
               To quote a character, precede it with a backslash ("\").

               This mechanism is not fully general.  Characters may be quoted
               only  within  a subset of the lexical constructs.  In particu-
               lar, quoting is limited to use within:

                                    -  quoted-string
                                    -  domain-literal
                                    -  comment

               Within these constructs, quoting is REQUIRED for  CR  and  "\"
               and for the character(s) that delimit the token (e.g., "(" and
               ")" for a comment).  However, quoting  is  PERMITTED  for  any
               character.

               Note:  In particular, quoting is NOT permitted  within  atoms.
                      For  example  when  the local-part of an addr-spec must
                      contain a special character, a quoted  string  must  be
                      used.  Therefore, a specification such as:

                                   Full\ Name@Domain

                      is not legal and must be specified as:

                                   "Full Name"@Domain


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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            3.4.2.  WHITE SPACE

               Note:  In structured field bodies, multiple linear space ASCII
                      characters  (namely  HTABs  and  SPACEs) are treated as
                      single spaces and may freely surround any  symbol.   In
                      all header fields, the only place in which at least one
                      LWSP-char is REQUIRED is at the beginning of  continua-
                      tion lines in a folded field.

               When passing text to processes  that  do  not  interpret  text
               according to this standard (e.g., mail protocol servers), then
               NO linear-white-space characters should occur between a period
               (".") or at-sign ("@") and a <word>.  Exactly ONE SPACE should
               be used in place of arbitrary linear-white-space  and  comment
               sequences.

               Note:  Within systems conforming to this standard, wherever  a
                      member of the list of delimiters is allowed, LWSP-chars
                      may also occur before and/or after it.

               Writers of  mail-sending  (i.e.,  header-generating)  programs
               should realize that there is no network-wide definition of the
               effect of ASCII HT (horizontal-tab) characters on the  appear-
               ance  of  text  at another network host; therefore, the use of
               tabs in message headers, though permitted, is discouraged.

            3.4.3.  COMMENTS

               A comment is a set of ASCII characters, which is  enclosed  in
               matching  parentheses  and which is not within a quoted-string
               The comment construct permits message originators to add  text
               which  will  be  useful  for  human readers, but which will be
               ignored by the formal semantics.  Comments should be  retained
               while  the  message  is subject to interpretation according to
               this standard.  However, comments  must  NOT  be  included  in
               other  cases,  such  as  during  protocol  exchanges with mail
               servers.

               Comments nest, so that if an unquoted left parenthesis  occurs
               in  a  comment  string,  there  must  also be a matching right
               parenthesis.  When a comment acts as the delimiter  between  a
               sequence of two lexical symbols, such as two atoms, it is lex-
               ically equivalent with a single SPACE,  for  the  purposes  of
               regenerating  the  sequence, such as when passing the sequence
               onto a mail protocol server.  Comments are  detected  as  such
               only within field-bodies of structured fields.

               If a comment is to be "folded" onto multiple lines,  then  the
               syntax  for  folding  must  be  adhered to.  (See the "Lexical


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               Analysis of Messages" section on "Folding Long Header  Fields"
               above,  and  the  section on "Case Independence" below.)  Note
               that  the  official  semantics  therefore  do  not  "see"  any
               unquoted CRLFs that are in comments, although particular pars-
               ing programs may wish to note their presence.  For these  pro-
               grams,  it would be reasonable to interpret a "CRLF LWSP-char"
               as being a CRLF that is part of the comment; i.e., the CRLF is
               kept  and  the  LWSP-char is discarded.  Quoted CRLFs (i.e., a
               backslash followed by a CR followed by a  LF)  still  must  be
               followed by at least one LWSP-char.

            3.4.4.  DELIMITING AND QUOTING CHARACTERS

               The quote character (backslash) and  characters  that  delimit
               syntactic  units  are not, generally, to be taken as data that
               are part of the delimited or quoted unit(s).   In  particular,
               the   quotation-marks   that   define   a  quoted-string,  the
               parentheses that define  a  comment  and  the  backslash  that
               quotes  a  following  character  are  NOT  part of the quoted-
               string, comment or quoted character.  A quotation-mark that is
               to  be  part  of  a quoted-string, a parenthesis that is to be
               part of a comment and a backslash that is to be part of either
               must  each be preceded by the quote-character backslash ("\").
               Note that the syntax allows any character to be quoted  within
               a  quoted-string  or  comment; however only certain characters
               MUST be quoted to be included as data.  These  characters  are
               the  ones that are not part of the alternate text group (i.e.,
               ctext or qtext).

               The one exception to this rule  is  that  a  single  SPACE  is
               assumed  to  exist  between  contiguous words in a phrase, and
               this interpretation is independent of  the  actual  number  of
               LWSP-chars  that  the  creator  places  between the words.  To
               include more than one SPACE, the creator must make  the  LWSP-
               chars be part of a quoted-string.

               Quotation marks that delimit a quoted string  and  backslashes
               that  quote  the  following character should NOT accompany the
               quoted-string when the string is passed to processes  that  do
               not interpret data according to this specification (e.g., mail
               protocol servers).

            3.4.5.  QUOTED-STRINGS

               Where permitted (i.e., in words in structured fields)  quoted-
               strings  are  treated  as a single symbol.  That is, a quoted-
               string is equivalent to an atom, syntactically.  If a  quoted-
               string  is to be "folded" onto multiple lines, then the syntax
               for folding must be adhered to.  (See the "Lexical Analysis of


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               Messages"  section  on "Folding Long Header Fields" above, and
               the section on "Case  Independence"  below.)   Therefore,  the
               official  semantics  do  not  "see" any bare CRLFs that are in
               quoted-strings; however particular parsing programs  may  wish
               to  note  their presence.  For such programs, it would be rea-
               sonable to interpret a "CRLF LWSP-char" as being a CRLF  which
               is  part  of the quoted-string; i.e., the CRLF is kept and the
               LWSP-char is discarded.  Quoted CRLFs (i.e., a backslash  fol-
               lowed  by  a CR followed by a LF) are also subject to rules of
               folding, but the presence of the quoting character (backslash)
               explicitly  indicates  that  the  CRLF  is  data to the quoted
               string.  Stripping off the first following LWSP-char  is  also
               appropriate when parsing quoted CRLFs.

            3.4.6.  BRACKETING CHARACTERS

               There is one type of bracket which must occur in matched pairs
               and may have pairs nested within each other:

                   o   Parentheses ("(" and ")") are used  to  indicate  com-
                       ments.

               There are three types of brackets which must occur in  matched
               pairs, and which may NOT be nested:

                   o   Colon/semi-colon (":" and ";") are   used  in  address
                       specifications  to  indicate that the included list of
                       addresses are to be treated as a group.

                   o   Angle brackets ("<" and ">")  are  generally  used  to
                       indicate  the  presence of a one machine-usable refer-
                       ence (e.g., delimiting mailboxes), possibly  including
                       source-routing to the machine.

                   o   Square brackets ("[" and "]") are used to indicate the
                       presence  of  a  domain-literal, which the appropriate
                       name-domain  is  to  use  directly,  bypassing  normal
                       name-resolution mechanisms.

            3.4.7.  CASE INDEPENDENCE

               Except as noted, alphabetic strings may be represented in  any
               combination of upper and lower case.  The only syntactic units








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               which requires preservation of case information are:

                           -  text
                           -  qtext
                           -  dtext
                           -  ctext
                           -  quoted-pair
                           -  local-part, except "Postmaster"

               When matching any other syntactic unit, case is to be ignored.
               For  example, the field-names "From", "FROM", "from", and even
               "FroM" are semantically equal and should all be treated ident-
               ically.

               When generating these units, any mix of upper and  lower  case
               alphabetic  characters  may  be  used.  The case shown in this
               specification is suggested for message-creating processes.

               Note:  The reserved local-part address unit, "Postmaster",  is
                      an  exception.   When  the  value "Postmaster" is being
                      interpreted, it must be  accepted  in  any  mixture  of
                      case, including "POSTMASTER", and "postmaster".

            3.4.8.  FOLDING LONG HEADER FIELDS

               Each header field may be represented on exactly one line  con-
               sisting  of the name of the field and its body, and terminated
               by a CRLF; this is what the parser sees.  For readability, the
               field-body  portion of long header fields may be "folded" onto
               multiple lines of the actual field.  "Long" is commonly inter-
               preted  to  mean greater than 65 or 72 characters.  The former
               length serves as a limit, when the message is to be viewed  on
               most  simple terminals which use simple display software; how-
               ever, the limit is not imposed by this standard.

               Note:  Some display software often can selectively fold lines,
                      to  suit  the display terminal.  In such cases, sender-
                      provided  folding  can  interfere  with   the   display
                      software.

            3.4.9.  BACKSPACE CHARACTERS

               ASCII BS characters (Backspace, decimal 8) may be included  in
               texts and quoted-strings to effect overstriking.  However, any
               use of backspaces which effects an overstrike to the  left  of
               the beginning of the text or quoted-string is prohibited.





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            3.4.10.  NETWORK-SPECIFIC TRANSFORMATIONS

               During transmission through heterogeneous networks, it may  be
               necessary  to  force data to conform to a network's local con-
               ventions.  For example, it may be required that a CR  be  fol-
               lowed  either by LF, making a CRLF, or by <null>, if the CR is
               to stand alone).  Such transformations are reversed, when  the
               message exits that network.

               When  crossing  network  boundaries,  the  message  should  be
               treated  as  passing  through  two modules.  It will enter the
               first module containing whatever network-specific  transforma-
               tions  that  were  necessary  to  permit migration through the
               "current" network.  It then passes through the modules:

                   o   Transformation Reversal

                       The "current" network's idiosyncracies are removed and
                       the  message  is returned to the canonical form speci-
                       fied in this standard.

                   o   Transformation

                       The "next" network's local idiosyncracies are  imposed
                       on the message.

                                       ------------------
                           From   ==>  | Remove Net-A   |
                           Net-A       | idiosyncracies |
                                       ------------------
                                              ||
                                              \/
                                         Conformance
                                         with standard
                                              ||
                                              \/
                                       ------------------
                                       | Impose Net-B   |  ==>  To
                                       | idiosyncracies |       Net-B
                                       ------------------











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            4.  MESSAGE SPECIFICATION

            4.1.  SYNTAX

            Note:  Due to an artifact of the notational conventions, the syn-
                   tax  indicates that, when present, some fields, must be in
                   a particular order.  Header fields  are  NOT  required  to
                   occur  in  any  particular  order, except that the message
                   body must occur AFTER  the  headers.   It  is  recommended
                   that,  if  present,  headers be sent in the order "Return-
                   Path", "Received", "Date",  "From",  "Subject",  "Sender",
                   "To", "cc", etc.

                   This specification permits multiple  occurrences  of  most
                   fields.   Except  as  noted,  their  interpretation is not
                   specified here, and their use is discouraged.

                 The following syntax for the bodies of various fields should
            be  thought  of  as  describing  each field body as a single long
            string (or line).  The "Lexical Analysis of Message"  section  on
            "Long  Header Fields", above, indicates how such long strings can
            be represented on more than one line in  the  actual  transmitted
            message.

            message     =  fields *( CRLF *text )       ; Everything after
                                                        ;  first null line
                                                        ;  is message body

            fields      =    dates                      ; Creation time,
                             source                     ;  author id & one
                           1*destination                ;  address required
                            *optional-field             ;  others optional

            source      = [  trace ]                    ; net traversals
                             originator                 ; original mail
                          [  resent ]                   ; forwarded

            trace       =    return                     ; path to sender
                           1*received                   ; receipt tags

            return      =  "Return-path" ":" route-addr ; return address

            received    =  "Received"    ":"            ; one per relay
                              ["from" domain]           ; sending host
                              ["by"   domain]           ; receiving host
                              ["via"  atom]             ; physical path
                             *("with" atom)             ; link/mail protocol
                              ["id"   msg-id]           ; receiver msg id
                              ["for"  addr-spec]        ; initial form


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                               ";"    date-time         ; time received

            originator  =   authentic                   ; authenticated addr
                          [ "Reply-To"   ":" 1#address] )

            authentic   =   "From"       ":"   mailbox  ; Single author
                        / ( "Sender"     ":"   mailbox  ; Actual submittor
                            "From"       ":" 1#mailbox) ; Multiple authors
                                                        ;  or not sender

            resent      =   resent-authentic
                          [ "Resent-Reply-To"  ":" 1#address] )

            resent-authentic =
                        =   "Resent-From"      ":"   mailbox
                        / ( "Resent-Sender"    ":"   mailbox
                            "Resent-From"      ":" 1#mailbox  )

            dates       =   orig-date                   ; Original
                          [ resent-date ]               ; Forwarded

            orig-date   =  "Date"        ":"   date-time

            resent-date =  "Resent-Date" ":"   date-time

            destination =  "To"          ":" 1#address  ; Primary
                        /  "Resent-To"   ":" 1#address
                        /  "cc"          ":" 1#address  ; Secondary
                        /  "Resent-cc"   ":" 1#address
                        /  "bcc"         ":"  #address  ; Blind carbon
                        /  "Resent-bcc"  ":"  #address

            optional-field =
                        /  "Message-ID"        ":"   msg-id
                        /  "Resent-Message-ID" ":"   msg-id
                        /  "In-Reply-To"       ":"  *(phrase / msg-id)
                        /  "References"        ":"  *(phrase / msg-id)
                        /  "Keywords"          ":"  #phrase
                        /  "Subject"           ":"  *text
                        /  "Comments"          ":"  *text
                        /  "Encrypted"         ":" 1#2word
                        /  extension-field              ; To be defined
                        /  user-defined-field           ; May be pre-empted

            msg-id      =  "<" addr-spec ">"            ; Unique message id






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            extension-field =
                          <Any field which is defined in a document
                           published as a formal extension to this
                           specification; none will have names beginning
                           with the string "X-">

            user-defined-field =
                          <Any field which has not been defined
                           in this specification or published as an
                           extension to this specification; names for
                           such fields must be unique and may be
                           pre-empted by published extensions>

            4.2.  FORWARDING

                 Some systems permit mail recipients to  forward  a  message,
            retaining  the original headers, by adding some new fields.  This
            standard supports such a service, through the "Resent-" prefix to
            field names.

                 Whenever the string "Resent-" begins a field name, the field
            has  the  same  semantics as a field whose name does not have the
            prefix.  However, the message is assumed to have  been  forwarded
            by  an original recipient who attached the "Resent-" field.  This
            new field is treated as being more recent  than  the  equivalent,
            original  field.   For  example, the "Resent-From", indicates the
            person that forwarded the message, whereas the "From" field indi-
            cates the original author.

                 Use of such precedence  information  depends  upon  partici-
            pants'  communication needs.  For example, this standard does not
            dictate when a "Resent-From:" address should receive replies,  in
            lieu of sending them to the "From:" address.

            Note:  In general, the "Resent-" fields should be treated as con-
                   taining  a  set  of information that is independent of the
                   set of original fields.  Information for  one  set  should
                   not  automatically be taken from the other.  The interpre-
                   tation of multiple "Resent-" fields, of the same type,  is
                   undefined.

                 In the remainder of this specification, occurrence of  legal
            "Resent-"  fields  are treated identically with the occurrence of








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            fields whose names do not contain this prefix.

            4.3.  TRACE FIELDS

                 Trace information is used to provide an audit trail of  mes-
            sage  handling.   In  addition,  it indicates a route back to the
            sender of the message.

                 The list of known "via" and  "with"  values  are  registered
            with  the  Network  Information  Center, SRI International, Menlo
            Park, California.

            4.3.1.  RETURN-PATH

               This field  is  added  by  the  final  transport  system  that
               delivers  the message to its recipient.  The field is intended
               to contain definitive information about the address and  route
               back to the message's originator.

               Note:  The "Reply-To" field is added  by  the  originator  and
                      serves  to  direct  replies,  whereas the "Return-Path"
                      field is used to identify a path back to  the  origina-
                      tor.

               While the syntax  indicates  that  a  route  specification  is
               optional,  every attempt should be made to provide that infor-
               mation in this field.

            4.3.2.  RECEIVED

               A copy of this field is added by each transport  service  that
               relays the message.  The information in the field can be quite
               useful for tracing transport problems.

               The names of the sending  and  receiving  hosts  and  time-of-
               receipt may be specified.  The "via" parameter may be used, to
               indicate what physical mechanism the message  was  sent  over,
               such  as  Arpanet or Phonenet, and the "with" parameter may be
               used to indicate the mail-,  or  connection-,  level  protocol
               that  was  used, such as the SMTP mail protocol, or X.25 tran-
               sport protocol.

               Note:  Several "with" parameters may  be  included,  to  fully
                      specify the set of protocols that were used.

               Some transport services queue mail; the internal message iden-
               tifier that is assigned to the message may be noted, using the
               "id" parameter.  When the  sending  host  uses  a  destination
               address specification that the receiving host reinterprets, by


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               expansion or transformation, the receiving host  may  wish  to
               record  the original specification, using the "for" parameter.
               For example, when a copy of mail is sent to the  member  of  a
               distribution  list,  this  parameter may be used to record the
               original address that was used to specify the list.

            4.4.  ORIGINATOR FIELDS

                 The standard allows only a subset of the combinations possi-
            ble  with the From, Sender, Reply-To, Resent-From, Resent-Sender,
            and Resent-Reply-To fields.  The limitation is intentional.

            4.4.1.  FROM / RESENT-FROM

               This field contains the identity of the person(s)  who  wished
               this  message to be sent.  The message-creation process should
               default this field  to  be  a  single,  authenticated  machine
               address,  indicating  the  AGENT  (person,  system or process)
               entering the message.  If this is not done, the "Sender" field
               MUST  be  present.  If the "From" field IS defaulted this way,
               the "Sender" field is  optional  and  is  redundant  with  the
               "From"  field.   In  all  cases, addresses in the "From" field
               must be machine-usable (addr-specs) and may not contain  named
               lists (groups).

            4.4.2.  SENDER / RESENT-SENDER

               This field contains the authenticated identity  of  the  AGENT
               (person,  system  or  process)  that sends the message.  It is
               intended for use when the sender is not the author of the mes-
               sage,  or  to  indicate  who among a group of authors actually
               sent the message.  If the contents of the "Sender" field would
               be  completely  redundant  with  the  "From"  field,  then the
               "Sender" field need not be present and its use is  discouraged
               (though  still legal).  In particular, the "Sender" field MUST
               be present if it is NOT the same as the "From" Field.

               The Sender mailbox  specification  includes  a  word  sequence
               which  must correspond to a specific agent (i.e., a human user
               or a computer program) rather than a standard  address.   This
               indicates  the  expectation  that  the field will identify the
               single AGENT (person,  system,  or  process)  responsible  for
               sending  the mail and not simply include the name of a mailbox
               from which the mail was sent.  For example in the  case  of  a
               shared login name, the name, by itself, would not be adequate.
               The local-part address unit, which refers to  this  agent,  is
               expected to be a computer system term, and not (for example) a
               generalized person reference which can  be  used  outside  the
               network text message context.


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               Since the critical function served by the  "Sender"  field  is
               identification  of  the agent responsible for sending mail and
               since computer programs cannot be held accountable  for  their
               behavior, it is strongly recommended that when a computer pro-
               gram generates a message, the HUMAN  who  is  responsible  for
               that program be referenced as part of the "Sender" field mail-
               box specification.

            4.4.3.  REPLY-TO / RESENT-REPLY-TO

               This field provides a general  mechanism  for  indicating  any
               mailbox(es)  to which responses are to be sent.  Three typical
               uses for this feature can  be  distinguished.   In  the  first
               case,  the  author(s) may not have regular machine-based mail-
               boxes and therefore wish(es) to indicate an alternate  machine
               address.   In  the  second case, an author may wish additional
               persons to be made aware of, or responsible for,  replies.   A
               somewhat  different  use  may be of some help to "text message
               teleconferencing" groups equipped with automatic  distribution
               services:   include the address of that service in the "Reply-
               To" field of all messages  submitted  to  the  teleconference;
               then  participants  can  "reply"  to conference submissions to
               guarantee the correct distribution of any submission of  their
               own.

               Note:  The "Return-Path" field is added by the mail  transport
                      service,  at the time of final deliver.  It is intended
                      to identify a path back to the orginator  of  the  mes-
                      sage.   The  "Reply-To"  field  is added by the message
                      originator and is intended to direct replies.

            4.4.4.  AUTOMATIC USE OF FROM / SENDER / REPLY-TO

               For systems which automatically  generate  address  lists  for
               replies to messages, the following recommendations are made:

                   o   The "Sender" field mailbox should be sent  notices  of
                       any  problems in transport or delivery of the original
                       messages.  If there is no  "Sender"  field,  then  the
                       "From" field mailbox should be used.

                   o   The  "Sender"  field  mailbox  should  NEVER  be  used
                       automatically, in a recipient's reply message.

                   o   If the "Reply-To" field exists, then the reply  should
                       go to the addresses indicated in that field and not to
                       the address(es) indicated in the "From" field.




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                   o   If there is a "From" field, but no  "Reply-To"  field,
                       the  reply should be sent to the address(es) indicated
                       in the "From" field.

               Sometimes, a recipient may actually wish to  communicate  with
               the  person  that  initiated  the  message  transfer.  In such
               cases, it is reasonable to use the "Sender" address.

               This recommendation is intended  only  for  automated  use  of
               originator-fields  and is not intended to suggest that replies
               may not also be sent to other recipients of messages.   It  is
               up  to  the  respective  mail-handling programs to decide what
               additional facilities will be provided.

               Examples are provided in Appendix A.

            4.5.  RECEIVER FIELDS

            4.5.1.  TO / RESENT-TO

               This field contains the identity of the primary recipients  of
               the message.

            4.5.2.  CC / RESENT-CC

               This field contains the identity of  the  secondary  (informa-
               tional) recipients of the message.

            4.5.3.  BCC / RESENT-BCC

               This field contains the identity of additional  recipients  of
               the  message.   The contents of this field are not included in
               copies of the message sent to the primary and secondary  reci-
               pients.   Some  systems  may choose to include the text of the
               "Bcc" field only in the author(s)'s  copy,  while  others  may
               also include it in the text sent to all those indicated in the
               "Bcc" list.

            4.6.  REFERENCE FIELDS

            4.6.1.  MESSAGE-ID / RESENT-MESSAGE-ID

                    This field contains a unique identifier  (the  local-part
               address  unit)  which  refers to THIS version of THIS message.
               The uniqueness of the message identifier is guaranteed by  the
               host  which  generates  it.  This identifier is intended to be
               machine readable and not necessarily meaningful to humans.   A
               message  identifier pertains to exactly one instantiation of a
               particular message; subsequent revisions to the message should


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               each receive new message identifiers.

            4.6.2.  IN-REPLY-TO

                    The contents of this field identify  previous  correspon-
               dence  which this message answers.  Note that if message iden-
               tifiers are used in this  field,  they  must  use  the  msg-id
               specification format.

            4.6.3.  REFERENCES

                    The contents of this field identify other  correspondence
               which  this message references.  Note that if message identif-
               iers are used, they must use the msg-id specification format.

            4.6.4.  KEYWORDS

                    This field contains keywords  or  phrases,  separated  by
               commas.

            4.7.  OTHER FIELDS

            4.7.1.  SUBJECT

                    This is intended to provide a summary,  or  indicate  the
               nature, of the message.

            4.7.2.  COMMENTS

                    Permits adding text comments  onto  the  message  without
               disturbing the contents of the message's body.

            4.7.3.  ENCRYPTED

                    Sometimes,  data  encryption  is  used  to  increase  the
               privacy  of  message  contents.   If the body of a message has
               been encrypted, to keep its contents private, the  "Encrypted"
               field  can be used to note the fact and to indicate the nature
               of the encryption.  The first <word> parameter  indicates  the
               software  used  to  encrypt the body, and the second, optional
               <word> is intended to  aid  the  recipient  in  selecting  the
               proper  decryption  key.   This  code word may be viewed as an
               index to a table of keys held by the recipient.

               Note:  Unfortunately, headers must contain envelope,  as  well
                      as  contents,  information.  Consequently, it is neces-
                      sary that they remain unencrypted, so that  mail  tran-
                      sport   services   may   access   them.   Since  names,
                      addresses, and "Subject"  field  contents  may  contain


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                      sensitive  information,  this  requirement limits total
                      message privacy.

                    Names of encryption software are registered with the Net-
               work  Information Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, Cali-
               fornia.

            4.7.4.  EXTENSION-FIELD

                    A limited number of common fields have  been  defined  in
               this  document.   As  network mail requirements dictate, addi-
               tional fields may be standardized.   To  provide  user-defined
               fields  with  a  measure  of  safety,  in name selection, such
               extension-fields will never have names  that  begin  with  the
               string "X-".

                    Names of Extension-fields are registered with the Network
               Information Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, California.

            4.7.5.  USER-DEFINED-FIELD

                    Individual users of network mail are free to  define  and
               use  additional  header  fields.   Such fields must have names
               which are not already used in the current specification or  in
               any definitions of extension-fields, and the overall syntax of
               these user-defined-fields must conform to this specification's
               rules   for   delimiting  and  folding  fields.   Due  to  the
               extension-field  publishing  process,  the  name  of  a  user-
               defined-field may be pre-empted

               Note:  The prefatory string "X-" will never  be  used  in  the
                      names  of Extension-fields.  This provides user-defined
                      fields with a protected set of names.


















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            5.  DATE AND TIME SPECIFICATION

            5.1.  SYNTAX

            date-time   =  [ day "," ] date time        ; dd mm yy
                                                        ;  hh:mm:ss zzz

            day         =  "Mon"  / "Tue" /  "Wed"  / "Thu"
                        /  "Fri"  / "Sat" /  "Sun"

            date        =  1*2DIGIT month 2DIGIT        ; day month year
                                                        ;  e.g. 20 Jun 82

            month       =  "Jan"  /  "Feb" /  "Mar"  /  "Apr"
                        /  "May"  /  "Jun" /  "Jul"  /  "Aug"
                        /  "Sep"  /  "Oct" /  "Nov"  /  "Dec"

            time        =  hour zone                    ; ANSI and Military

            hour        =  2DIGIT ":" 2DIGIT [":" 2DIGIT]
                                                        ; 00:00:00 - 23:59:59

            zone        =  "UT"  / "GMT"                ; Universal Time
                                                        ; North American : UT
                        /  "EST" / "EDT"                ;  Eastern:  - 5/ - 4
                        /  "CST" / "CDT"                ;  Central:  - 6/ - 5
                        /  "MST" / "MDT"                ;  Mountain: - 7/ - 6
                        /  "PST" / "PDT"                ;  Pacific:  - 8/ - 7
                        /  1ALPHA                       ; Military: Z = UT;
                                                        ;  A:-1; (J not used)
                                                        ;  M:-12; N:+1; Y:+12
                        / ( ("+" / "-") 4DIGIT )        ; Local differential
                                                        ;  hours+min. (HHMM)

            5.2.  SEMANTICS

                 If included, day-of-week must be the day implied by the date
            specification.

                 Time zone may be indicated in several ways.  "UT" is Univer-
            sal  Time  (formerly called "Greenwich Mean Time"); "GMT" is per-
            mitted as a reference to Universal Time.  The  military  standard
            uses  a  single  character for each zone.  "Z" is Universal Time.
            "A" indicates one hour earlier, and "M" indicates 12  hours  ear-
            lier;  "N"  is  one  hour  later, and "Y" is 12 hours later.  The
            letter "J" is not used.  The other remaining two forms are  taken
            from ANSI standard X3.51-1975.  One allows explicit indication of
            the amount of offset from UT; the other uses  common  3-character
            strings for indicating time zones in North America.


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            6.  ADDRESS SPECIFICATION

            6.1.  SYNTAX

            address     =  mailbox                      ; one addressee
                        /  group                        ; named list

            group       =  phrase ":" [#mailbox] ";"

            mailbox     =  addr-spec                    ; simple address
                        /  phrase route-addr            ; name & addr-spec

            route-addr  =  "<" [route] addr-spec ">"

            route       =  1#("@" domain) ":"           ; path-relative

            addr-spec   =  local-part "@" domain        ; global address

            local-part  =  word *("." word)             ; uninterpreted
                                                        ; case-preserved

            domain      =  sub-domain *("." sub-domain)

            sub-domain  =  domain-ref / domain-literal

            domain-ref  =  atom                         ; symbolic reference

            6.2.  SEMANTICS

                 A mailbox receives mail.  It is a  conceptual  entity  which
            does  not necessarily pertain to file storage.  For example, some
            sites may choose to print mail on their line printer and  deliver
            the output to the addressee's desk.

                 A mailbox specification comprises a person, system  or  pro-
            cess name reference, a domain-dependent string, and a name-domain
            reference.  The name reference is optional and is usually used to
            indicate  the  human name of a recipient.  The name-domain refer-
            ence specifies a sequence of sub-domains.   The  domain-dependent
            string is uninterpreted, except by the final sub-domain; the rest
            of the mail service merely transmits it as a literal string.

            6.2.1.  DOMAINS

               A name-domain is a set of registered (mail)  names.   A  name-
               domain  specification  resolves  to  a subordinate name-domain
               specification  or  to  a  terminal  domain-dependent   string.
               Hence,  domain  specification  is  extensible,  permitting any
               number of registration levels.


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               Name-domains model a global, logical, hierarchical  addressing
               scheme.   The  model is logical, in that an address specifica-
               tion is related to name registration and  is  not  necessarily
               tied  to  transmission  path.   The  model's  hierarchy  is  a
               directed graph, called an in-tree, such that there is a single
               path  from  the root of the tree to any node in the hierarchy.
               If more than one path actually exists, they are considered  to
               be different addresses.

               The root node is common to all addresses; consequently, it  is
               not  referenced.   Its  children  constitute "top-level" name-
               domains.  Usually, a service has access to its own full domain
               specification and to the names of all top-level name-domains.

               The "top" of the domain addressing hierarchy -- a child of the
               root  --  is  indicated  by  the right-most field, in a domain
               specification.  Its child is specified to the left, its  child
               to the left, and so on.

               Some groups provide formal registration services;  these  con-
               stitute   name-domains   that  are  independent  logically  of
               specific machines.  In addition, networks and machines  impli-
               citly  compose name-domains, since their membership usually is
               registered in name tables.

               In the case of formal registration, an organization implements
               a  (distributed)  data base which provides an address-to-route
               mapping service for addresses of the form:

                                person@registry.organization

               Note that "organization" is a logical  entity,  separate  from
               any particular communication network.

               A mechanism for accessing "organization" is universally avail-
               able.   That mechanism, in turn, seeks an instantiation of the
               registry; its location is not indicated in the address specif-
               ication.   It  is assumed that the system which operates under
               the name "organization" knows how to find a subordinate regis-
               try.  The registry will then use the "person" string to deter-
               mine where to send the mail specification.

               The latter,  network-oriented  case  permits  simple,  direct,
               attachment-related address specification, such as:

                                     user@host.network

               Once the network is accessed, it is expected  that  a  message
               will  go  directly  to the host and that the host will resolve


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               the user name, placing the message in the user's mailbox.

            6.2.2.  ABBREVIATED DOMAIN SPECIFICATION

               Since any number of  levels  is  possible  within  the  domain
               hierarchy,  specification  of  a  fully  qualified address can
               become inconvenient.  This standard permits abbreviated domain
               specification, in a special case:

                   For the address of  the  sender,  call  the  left-most
                   sub-domain  Level  N.   In a header address, if all of
                   the sub-domains above (i.e., to the right of) Level  N
                   are  the same as those of the sender, then they do not
                   have to appear in the specification.   Otherwise,  the
                   address must be fully qualified.

                   This feature is subject  to  approval  by  local  sub-
                   domains.   Individual  sub-domains  may  require their
                   member systems, which originate mail, to provide  full
                   domain  specification only.  When permitted, abbrevia-
                   tions may be present  only  while  the  message  stays
                   within the sub-domain of the sender.

                   Use of this mechanism requires the sender's sub-domain
                   to reserve the names of all top-level domains, so that
                   full specifications can be distinguished from abbrevi-
                   ated specifications.

               For example, if a sender's address is:

                        sender@registry-A.registry-1.organization-X

               and one recipient's address is:

                       recipient@registry-B.registry-1.organization-X

               and another's is:

                       recipient@registry-C.registry-2.organization-X

               then ".registry-1.organization-X" need not be specified in the
               the  message,  but  "registry-C.registry-2"  DOES  have  to be
               specified.  That is, the first two addresses may  be  abbrevi-
               ated, but the third address must be fully specified.

               When a message crosses a domain boundary, all  addresses  must
               be  specified  in  the  full format, ending with the top-level
               name-domain in the right-most field.  It is the responsibility
               of  mail  forwarding services to ensure that addresses conform


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               with this requirement.  In the case of abbreviated  addresses,
               the  relaying  service must make the necessary expansions.  It
               should be noted that it often is difficult for such a  service
               to locate all occurrences of address abbreviations.  For exam-
               ple, it will not be possible to find such abbreviations within
               the  body  of  the  message.   The "Return-Path" field can aid
               recipients in recovering from these errors.

               Note:  When passing any portion of an addr-spec onto a process
                      which  does  not interpret data according to this stan-
                      dard (e.g., mail protocol servers).  There must  be  NO
                      LWSP-chars  preceding  or  following the at-sign or any
                      delimiting period ("."), such as  shown  in  the  above
                      examples,   and   only  ONE  SPACE  between  contiguous
                      <word>s.

            6.2.3.  DOMAIN TERMS

               A domain-ref must be THE official name of a registry, network,
               or  host.   It  is  a  symbolic  reference, within a name sub-
               domain.  At times, it is necessary to bypass standard  mechan-
               isms  for  resolving  such  references,  using  more primitive
               information, such as a network host address  rather  than  its
               associated host name.

               To permit such references, this standard provides the  domain-
               literal  construct.   Its contents must conform with the needs
               of the sub-domain in which it is interpreted.

               Domain-literals which refer to domains within the ARPA  Inter-
               net  specify  32-bit  Internet addresses, in four 8-bit fields
               noted in decimal, as described in Request for  Comments  #820,
               "Assigned Numbers."  For example:

                                        [10.0.3.19]

               Note:  THE USE OF DOMAIN-LITERALS IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED.  It
                      is  permitted  only  as  a means of bypassing temporary
                      system limitations, such as name tables which  are  not
                      complete.

               The names of "top-level" domains, and  the  names  of  domains
               under  in  the  ARPA Internet, are registered with the Network
               Information Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, California.

            6.2.4.  DOMAIN-DEPENDENT LOCAL STRING

               The local-part of an  addr-spec  in  a  mailbox  specification
               (i.e.,  the  host's  name for the mailbox) is understood to be


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               whatever the receiving mail protocol server allows.  For exam-
               ple,  some systems do not understand mailbox references of the
               form "P. D. Q. Bach", but others do.

               This specification treats periods (".") as lexical separators.
               Hence,  their  presence  in  local-parts which are not quoted-
               strings, is detected.   However,  such  occurrences  carry  NO
               semantics.  That is, if a local-part has periods within it, an
               address parser will divide the local-part into several tokens,
               but  the  sequence  of  tokens will be treated as one uninter-
               preted unit.  The sequence  will  be  re-assembled,  when  the
               address is passed outside of the system such as to a mail pro-
               tocol service.

               For example, the address:

                                  First.Last@Registry.Org

               is legal and does not require the local-part to be  surrounded
               with  quotation-marks.   (However,  "First  Last" DOES require
               quoting.)  The local-part of the address, when passed  outside
               of  the  mail  system,  within  the  Registry.Org  domain,  is
               "First.Last", again without quotation marks.

            6.2.5.  BALANCING LOCAL-PART AND DOMAIN

               In some cases, the boundary between local-part and domain  can
               be  flexible.  The local-part may be a simple string, which is
               used for the final determination of the  recipient's  mailbox.
               All  other  levels  of  reference  are, therefore, part of the
               domain.

               For some systems, in the case of abbreviated reference to  the
               local  and  subordinate  sub-domains,  it  may  be possible to
               specify only one reference within the domain  part  and  place
               the  other,  subordinate  name-domain  references  within  the
               local-part.  This would appear as:

                               mailbox.sub1.sub2@this-domain

               Such a specification would be acceptable  to  address  parsers
               which  conform  to  RFC  #733,  but  do not support this newer
               Internet standard.  While contrary to the intent of this stan-
               dard, the form is legal.

               Also, some sub-domains have a specification syntax which  does
               not conform to this standard.  For example:

                             sub-net.mailbox@sub-domain.domain


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               uses a different parsing  sequence  for  local-part  than  for
               domain.

               Note:  As a rule,  the  domain  specification  should  contain
                      fields  which  are  encoded  according to the syntax of
                      this standard and which contain  generally-standardized
                      information.   The local-part specification should con-
                      tain only that portion of the  address  which  deviates
                      from the form or intention of the domain field.

            6.2.6.  MULTIPLE MAILBOXES

               An individual may have several mailboxes and wish  to  receive
               mail  at  whatever  mailbox  is  convenient  for the sender to
               access.  This standard does not provide a means of  specifying
               "any member of" a list of mailboxes.

               A set of individuals may wish to receive mail as a single unit
               (i.e.,  a  distribution  list).  The <group> construct permits
               specification of such a list.  Recipient mailboxes are  speci-
               fied  within  the  bracketed  part (":" - ";").  A copy of the
               transmitted message is to be  sent  to  each  mailbox  listed.
               This  standard  does  not  permit  recursive  specification of
               groups within groups.

               While a list must be named, it is not required that  the  con-
               tents  of  the  list be included.  In this case, the <address>
               serves only as an indication of group distribution  and  would
               appear in the form:

                                           name:;

               Some mail  services  may  provide  a  group-list  distribution
               facility,  accepting  a single mailbox reference, expanding it
               to the full distribution list, and relaying the  mail  to  the
               list's  members.   This standard provides no additional syntax
               for indicating such a  service.   Using  the  <group>  address
               alternative,  while listing one mailbox in it, can mean either
               that the mailbox reference will be expanded to a list or  that
               there is a group with one member.

            6.2.7.  EXPLICIT PATH SPECIFICATION

               At times, a  message  originator  may  wish  to  indicate  the
               transmission  path  that  a  message  should  follow.  This is
               called source routing.  The normal addressing scheme, used  in
               an  addr-spec,  is  carefully separated from such information;
               the <route> portion of a route-addr is provided for such occa-
               sions.  It specifies the sequence of hosts and/or transmission


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               services that are  to  be  traversed.   Both  domain-refs  and
               domain-literals may be used.

               Note:  The use of source routing is discouraged.   Unless  the
                      sender has special need of path restriction, the choice
                      of transmission route should be left to the mail  tran-
                      sport service.

            6.3.  RESERVED ADDRESS

                 It often is necessary to send mail to a site, without  know-
            ing  any  of its valid addresses.  For example, there may be mail
            system dysfunctions, or a user may wish to find  out  a  person's
            correct address, at that site.

                 This standard specifies a single, reserved  mailbox  address
            (local-part)  which  is  to  be valid at each site.  Mail sent to
            that address is to be routed to  a  person  responsible  for  the
            site's mail system or to a person with responsibility for general
            site operation.  The name of the reserved local-part address is:

                                       Postmaster

            so that "Postmaster@domain" is required to be valid.

            Note:  This reserved local-part must be  matched  without  sensi-
                   tivity to alphabetic case, so that "POSTMASTER", "postmas-
                   ter", and even "poStmASteR" is to be accepted.























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            7.  BIBLIOGRAPHY


            ANSI.  "USA Standard Code  for  Information  Interchange,"  X3.4.
               American  National Standards Institute: New York (1968).  Also
               in:  Feinler, E.  and J. Postel, eds., "ARPANET Protocol Hand-
               book", NIC 7104.

            ANSI.  "Representations of Universal Time, Local  Time  Differen-
               tials,  and United States Time Zone References for Information
               Interchange," X3.51-1975.  American National Standards  Insti-
               tute:  New York (1975).

            Bemer, R.W., "Time and the Computer."  In:  Interface  Age  (Feb.
               1979).

            Bennett, C.J.  "JNT Mail Protocol".  Joint Network Team,  Ruther-
               ford and Appleton Laboratory:  Didcot, England.

            Bhushan, A.K., Pogran, K.T., Tomlinson,  R.S.,  and  White,  J.E.
               "Standardizing  Network  Mail  Headers,"   ARPANET Request for
               Comments No. 561, Network Information Center  No.  18516;  SRI
               International:  Menlo Park (September 1973).

            Birrell, A.D., Levin, R.,  Needham,  R.M.,  and  Schroeder,  M.D.
               "Grapevine:  An Exercise in Distributed Computing," Communica-
               tions of the ACM 25, 4 (April 1982), 260-274.

            Crocker,  D.H.,  Vittal,  J.J.,  Pogran,  K.T.,  Henderson,  D.A.
               "Standard  for  the  Format  of  ARPA  Network  Text Message,"
               ARPANET Request for  Comments  No.  733,  Network  Information
               Center  No.  41952.   SRI International:  Menlo Park (November
               1977).

            Feinler, E.J. and Postel, J.B.  ARPANET Protocol  Handbook,  Net-
               work  Information  Center  No.  7104   (NTIS AD A003890).  SRI
               International:  Menlo Park (April 1976).

            Harary, F.   "Graph  Theory".   Addison-Wesley:   Reading,  Mass.
               (1969).

            Levin, R. and Schroeder, M.  "Transport  of  Electronic  Messages
               through  a  Network,"   TeleInformatics  79, pp. 29-33.  North
               Holland (1979).  Also  as  Xerox  Palo  Alto  Research  Center
               Technical Report CSL-79-4.

            Myer, T.H. and Henderson, D.A.  "Message Transmission  Protocol,"
               ARPANET  Request  for  Comments,  No. 680, Network Information
               Center No. 32116.  SRI International:  Menlo Park (1975).


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            NBS.  "Specification of Message Format for Computer Based Message
               Systems, Recommended Federal Information Processing Standard."
               National  Bureau   of   Standards:    Gaithersburg,   Maryland
               (October 1981).

            NIC.  Internet Protocol Transition Workbook.  Network Information
               Center,   SRI-International,  Menlo  Park,  California  (March
               1982).

            Oppen, D.C. and Dalal, Y.K.  "The Clearinghouse:  A Decentralized
               Agent  for  Locating  Named  Objects in a Distributed Environ-
               ment," OPD-T8103.  Xerox Office Products Division:  Palo Alto,
               CA. (October 1981).

            Postel, J.B.  "Assigned Numbers,"  ARPANET Request for  Comments,
               No. 820.  SRI International:  Menlo Park (August 1982).

            Postel, J.B.  "Simple Mail Transfer  Protocol,"  ARPANET  Request
               for Comments, No. 821.  SRI International:  Menlo Park (August
               1982).

            Shoch, J.F.  "Internetwork naming, addressing  and  routing,"  in
               Proc. 17th IEEE Computer Society International Conference, pp.
               72-79, Sept. 1978, IEEE Cat. No. 78 CH 1388-8C.

            Su, Z. and Postel, J.  "The Domain Naming Convention for Internet
               User  Applications,"  ARPANET  Request  for Comments, No. 819.
               SRI International:  Menlo Park (August 1982).























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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


                                        APPENDIX


            A.  EXAMPLES

            A.1.  ADDRESSES

            A.1.1.  Alfred Neuman <Neuman@BBN-TENEXA>

            A.1.2.  Neuman@BBN-TENEXA

                    These two "Alfred Neuman" examples have identical  seman-
               tics, as far as the operation of the local host's mail sending
               (distribution) program (also sometimes  called  its  "mailer")
               and  the remote host's mail protocol server are concerned.  In
               the first example, the  "Alfred  Neuman"  is  ignored  by  the
               mailer,  as "Neuman@BBN-TENEXA" completely specifies the reci-
               pient.  The second example contains  no  superfluous  informa-
               tion,  and,  again,  "Neuman@BBN-TENEXA" is the intended reci-
               pient.

               Note:  When the message crosses name-domain  boundaries,  then
                      these specifications must be changed, so as to indicate
                      the remainder of the hierarchy, starting with  the  top
                      level.

            A.1.3.  "George, Ted" <Shared@Group.Arpanet>

                    This form might be used to indicate that a single mailbox
               is  shared  by several users.  The quoted string is ignored by
               the originating host's mailer, because  "Shared@Group.Arpanet"
               completely specifies the destination mailbox.

            A.1.4.  Wilt . (the  Stilt) Chamberlain@NBA.US

                    The "(the  Stilt)" is a comment, which is NOT included in
               the  destination  mailbox  address  handed  to the originating
               system's mailer.  The local-part of the address is the  string
               "Wilt.Chamberlain", with NO space between the first and second
               words.

            A.1.5.  Address Lists

            Gourmets:  Pompous Person <WhoZiWhatZit@Cordon-Bleu>,
                       Childs@WGBH.Boston, Galloping Gourmet@
                       ANT.Down-Under (Australian National Television),
                       Cheapie@Discount-Liquors;,
              Cruisers:  Port@Portugal, Jones@SEA;,
                Another@Somewhere.SomeOrg


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               This group list example points out the use of comments and the
               mixing of addresses and groups.

            A.2.  ORIGINATOR ITEMS

            A.2.1.  Author-sent

                    George Jones logs into his host  as  "Jones".   He  sends
               mail himself.

                   From:  Jones@Group.Org

               or

                   From:  George Jones <Jones@Group.Org>

            A.2.2.  Secretary-sent

                    George Jones logs in as Jones on his  host.   His  secre-
               tary,  who logs in as Secy sends mail for him.  Replies to the
               mail should go to George.

                   From:    George Jones <Jones@Group>
                   Sender:  Secy@Other-Group

            A.2.3.  Secretary-sent, for user of shared directory

                    George Jones' secretary sends mail  for  George.  Replies
               should go to George.

                   From:     George Jones<Shared@Group.Org>
                   Sender:   Secy@Other-Group

               Note that there need not be a space between  "Jones"  and  the
               "<",  but  adding a space enhances readability (as is the case
               in other examples.

            A.2.4.  Committee activity, with one author

                    George is a member of a committee.  He wishes to have any
               replies to his message go to all committee members.

                   From:     George Jones <Jones@Host.Net>
                   Sender:   Jones@Host
                   Reply-To: The Committee: Jones@Host.Net,
                                            Smith@Other.Org,
                                            Doe@Somewhere-Else;

               Note  that  if  George  had  not  included  himself   in   the


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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


               enumeration  of  The  Committee,  he  would not have gotten an
               implicit reply; the presence of the  "Reply-to"  field  SUPER-
               SEDES the sending of a reply to the person named in the "From"
               field.

            A.2.5.  Secretary acting as full agent of author

                    George Jones asks his secretary  (Secy@Host)  to  send  a
               message for him in his capacity as Group.  He wants his secre-
               tary to handle all replies.

                   From:     George Jones <Group@Host>
                   Sender:   Secy@Host
                   Reply-To: Secy@Host

            A.2.6.  Agent for user without online mailbox

                    A friend  of  George's,  Sarah,  is  visiting.   George's
               secretary  sends  some  mail to a friend of Sarah in computer-
               land.  Replies should go to George, whose mailbox is Jones  at
               Registry.

                   From:     Sarah Friendly <Secy@Registry>
                   Sender:   Secy-Name <Secy@Registry>
                   Reply-To: Jones@Registry.

            A.2.7.  Agent for member of a committee

                    George's secretary sends out a message which was authored
               jointly by all the members of a committee.  Note that the name
               of the committee cannot be specified, since <group> names  are
               not permitted in the From field.

                   From:   Jones@Host,
                           Smith@Other-Host,
                           Doe@Somewhere-Else
                   Sender: Secy@SHost














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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            A.3.  COMPLETE HEADERS

            A.3.1.  Minimum required

            Date:     26 Aug 76 1429 EDT        Date:     26 Aug 76 1429 EDT
            From:     Jones@Registry.Org   or   From:     Jones@Registry.Org
            Bcc:                                To:       Smith@Registry.Org

               Note that the "Bcc" field may be empty, while the  "To"  field
               is required to have at least one address.

            A.3.2.  Using some of the additional fields

            Date:     26 Aug 76 1430 EDT
            From:     George Jones<Group@Host>
            Sender:   Secy@SHOST
            To:       "Al Neuman"@Mad-Host,
                      Sam.Irving@Other-Host
            Message-ID:  <some.string@SHOST>

            A.3.3.  About as complex as you're going to get

            Date     :  27 Aug 76 0932 PDT
            From     :  Ken Davis <KDavis@This-Host.This-net>
            Subject  :  Re: The Syntax in the RFC
            Sender   :  KSecy@Other-Host
            Reply-To :  Sam.Irving@Reg.Organization
            To       :  George Jones <Group@Some-Reg.An-Org>,
                        Al.Neuman@MAD.Publisher
            cc       :  Important folk:
                          Tom Softwood <Balsa@Tree.Root>,
                          "Sam Irving"@Other-Host;,
                        Standard Distribution:
                          /main/davis/people/standard@Other-Host,
                          "<Jones>standard.dist.3"@Tops-20-Host>;
            Comment  :  Sam is away on business. He asked me to handle
                        his mail for him.  He'll be able to provide  a
                        more  accurate  explanation  when  he  returns
                        next week.
            In-Reply-To: <some.string@DBM.Group>, George's message
            X-Special-action:  This is a sample of user-defined field-
                        names.  There could also be a field-name
                        "Special-action", but its name might later be
                        preempted
            Message-ID: <4231.629.XYzi-What@Other-Host>






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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            B.  SIMPLE FIELD PARSING

                 Some mail-reading software systems may wish to perform  only
            minimal  processing,  ignoring  the internal syntax of structured
            field-bodies and treating them the  same  as  unstructured-field-
            bodies.  Such software will need only to distinguish:

                o   Header fields from the message body,

                o   Beginnings of fields from lines which continue fields,

                o   Field-names from field-contents.

                 The abbreviated set of syntactic rules  which  follows  will
            suffice  for  this  purpose.  It describes a limited view of mes-
            sages and is a subset of the syntactic rules provided in the main
            part of this specification.  One small exception is that the con-
            tents of field-bodies consist only of text:

            B.1.  SYNTAX


            message         =   *field *(CRLF *text)

            field           =    field-name ":" [field-body] CRLF

            field-name      =  1*<any CHAR, excluding CTLs, SPACE, and ":">

            field-body      =   *text [CRLF LWSP-char field-body]


            B.2.  SEMANTICS

                 Headers occur before the message body and are terminated  by
            a null line (i.e., two contiguous CRLFs).

                 A line which continues a header field begins with a SPACE or
            HTAB  character,  while  a  line  beginning a field starts with a
            printable character which is not a colon.

                 A field-name consists of one or  more  printable  characters
            (excluding  colon,  space, and control-characters).  A field-name
            MUST be contained on one line.  Upper and lower case are not dis-
            tinguished when comparing field-names.







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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            C.  DIFFERENCES FROM RFC #733

                 The following summarizes the differences between this  stan-
            dard  and the one specified in Arpanet Request for Comments #733,
            "Standard for the Format of ARPA  Network  Text  Messages".   The
            differences  are  listed  in the order of their occurrence in the
            current specification.

            C.1.  FIELD DEFINITIONS

            C.1.1.  FIELD NAMES

               These now must be a sequence of  printable  characters.   They
               may not contain any LWSP-chars.

            C.2.  LEXICAL TOKENS

            C.2.1.  SPECIALS

               The characters period ("."), left-square  bracket  ("["),  and
               right-square  bracket ("]") have been added.  For presentation
               purposes, and when passing a specification to  a  system  that
               does  not conform to this standard, periods are to be contigu-
               ous with their surrounding lexical tokens.   No  linear-white-
               space  is  permitted  between them.  The presence of one LWSP-
               char between other tokens is still directed.

            C.2.2.  ATOM

               Atoms may not contain SPACE.

            C.2.3.  SPECIAL TEXT

               ctext and qtext have had backslash ("\") added to the list  of
               prohibited characters.

            C.2.4.  DOMAINS

               The lexical tokens  <domain-literal>  and  <dtext>  have  been
               added.

            C.3.  MESSAGE SPECIFICATION

            C.3.1.  TRACE

               The "Return-path:" and "Received:" fields have been specified.





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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            C.3.2.  FROM

               The "From" field must contain machine-usable addresses  (addr-
               spec).   Multiple  addresses may be specified, but named-lists
               (groups) may not.

            C.3.3.  RESENT

               The meta-construct of prefacing field names  with  the  string
               "Resent-"  has been added, to indicate that a message has been
               forwarded by an intermediate recipient.

            C.3.4.  DESTINATION

               A message must contain at least one destination address field.
               "To" and "CC" are required to contain at least one address.

            C.3.5.  IN-REPLY-TO

               The field-body is no longer a comma-separated list, although a
               sequence is still permitted.

            C.3.6.  REFERENCE

               The field-body is no longer a comma-separated list, although a
               sequence is still permitted.

            C.3.7.  ENCRYPTED

               A field has been specified that permits  senders  to  indicate
               that the body of a message has been encrypted.

            C.3.8.  EXTENSION-FIELD

               Extension fields are prohibited from beginning with the  char-
               acters "X-".

            C.4.  DATE AND TIME SPECIFICATION

            C.4.1.  SIMPLIFICATION

               Fewer optional forms are permitted  and  the  list  of  three-
               letter time zones has been shortened.

            C.5.  ADDRESS SPECIFICATION






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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            C.5.1.  ADDRESS

               The use of quoted-string, and the ":"-atom-":" construct, have
               been  removed.   An  address  now  is  either a single mailbox
               reference or is a named list of addresses.  The  latter  indi-
               cates a group distribution.

            C.5.2.  GROUPS

               Group lists are now required to to have a name.   Group  lists
               may not be nested.

            C.5.3.  MAILBOX

               A mailbox specification  may  indicate  a  person's  name,  as
               before.   Such  a  named  list  no longer may specify multiple
               mailboxes and may not be nested.

            C.5.4.  ROUTE ADDRESSING

               Addresses now are taken to be absolute, global specifications,
               independent  of transmission paths.  The <route> construct has
               been provided, to permit explicit specification  of  transmis-
               sion  path.   RFC  #733's  use  of multiple at-signs ("@") was
               intended as a general syntax  for  indicating  routing  and/or
               hierarchical addressing.  The current standard separates these
               specifications and only one at-sign is permitted.

            C.5.5.  AT-SIGN

               The string " at " no longer is used as an  address  delimiter.
               Only at-sign ("@") serves the function.

            C.5.6.  DOMAINS

               Hierarchical, logical name-domains have been added.

            C.6.  RESERVED ADDRESS

            The local-part "Postmaster" has been reserved, so that users  can
            be guaranteed at least one valid address at a site.










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            D.  ALPHABETICAL LISTING OF SYNTAX RULES

            address     =  mailbox                      ; one addressee
                        /  group                        ; named list
            addr-spec   =  local-part "@" domain        ; global address
            ALPHA       =  <any ASCII alphabetic character>
                                                        ; (101-132, 65.- 90.)
                                                        ; (141-172, 97.-122.)
            atom        =  1*<any CHAR except specials, SPACE and CTLs>
            authentic   =   "From"       ":"   mailbox  ; Single author
                        / ( "Sender"     ":"   mailbox  ; Actual submittor
                            "From"       ":" 1#mailbox) ; Multiple authors
                                                        ;  or not sender
            CHAR        =  <any ASCII character>        ; (  0-177,  0.-127.)
            comment     =  "(" *(ctext / quoted-pair / comment) ")"
            CR          =  <ASCII CR, carriage return>  ; (     15,      13.)
            CRLF        =  CR LF
            ctext       =  <any CHAR excluding "(",     ; => may be folded
                            ")", "\" & CR, & including
                            linear-white-space>
            CTL         =  <any ASCII control           ; (  0- 37,  0.- 31.)
                            character and DEL>          ; (    177,     127.)
            date        =  1*2DIGIT month 2DIGIT        ; day month year
                                                        ;  e.g. 20 Jun 82
            dates       =   orig-date                   ; Original
                          [ resent-date ]               ; Forwarded
            date-time   =  [ day "," ] date time        ; dd mm yy
                                                        ;  hh:mm:ss zzz
            day         =  "Mon"  / "Tue" /  "Wed"  / "Thu"
                        /  "Fri"  / "Sat" /  "Sun"
            delimiters  =  specials / linear-white-space / comment
            destination =  "To"          ":" 1#address  ; Primary
                        /  "Resent-To"   ":" 1#address
                        /  "cc"          ":" 1#address  ; Secondary
                        /  "Resent-cc"   ":" 1#address
                        /  "bcc"         ":"  #address  ; Blind carbon
                        /  "Resent-bcc"  ":"  #address
            DIGIT       =  <any ASCII decimal digit>    ; ( 60- 71, 48.- 57.)
            domain      =  sub-domain *("." sub-domain)
            domain-literal =  "[" *(dtext / quoted-pair) "]"
            domain-ref  =  atom                         ; symbolic reference
            dtext       =  <any CHAR excluding "[",     ; => may be folded
                            "]", "\" & CR, & including
                            linear-white-space>
            extension-field =
                          <Any field which is defined in a document
                           published as a formal extension to this
                           specification; none will have names beginning
                           with the string "X-">


            August 13, 1982              - 44 -                      RFC #822
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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            field       =  field-name ":" [ field-body ] CRLF
            fields      =    dates                      ; Creation time,
                             source                     ;  author id & one
                           1*destination                ;  address required
                            *optional-field             ;  others optional
            field-body  =  field-body-contents
                           [CRLF LWSP-char field-body]
            field-body-contents =
                          <the ASCII characters making up the field-body, as
                           defined in the following sections, and consisting
                           of combinations of atom, quoted-string, and
                           specials tokens, or else consisting of texts>
            field-name  =  1*<any CHAR, excluding CTLs, SPACE, and ":">
            group       =  phrase ":" [#mailbox] ";"
            hour        =  2DIGIT ":" 2DIGIT [":" 2DIGIT]
                                                        ; 00:00:00 - 23:59:59
            HTAB        =  <ASCII HT, horizontal-tab>   ; (     11,       9.)
            LF          =  <ASCII LF, linefeed>         ; (     12,      10.)
            linear-white-space =  1*([CRLF] LWSP-char)  ; semantics = SPACE
                                                        ; CRLF => folding
            local-part  =  word *("." word)             ; uninterpreted
                                                        ; case-preserved
            LWSP-char   =  SPACE / HTAB                 ; semantics = SPACE
            mailbox     =  addr-spec                    ; simple address
                        /  phrase route-addr            ; name & addr-spec
            message     =  fields *( CRLF *text )       ; Everything after
                                                        ;  first null line
                                                        ;  is message body
            month       =  "Jan"  /  "Feb" /  "Mar"  /  "Apr"
                        /  "May"  /  "Jun" /  "Jul"  /  "Aug"
                        /  "Sep"  /  "Oct" /  "Nov"  /  "Dec"
            msg-id      =  "<" addr-spec ">"            ; Unique message id
            optional-field =
                        /  "Message-ID"        ":"   msg-id
                        /  "Resent-Message-ID" ":"   msg-id
                        /  "In-Reply-To"       ":"  *(phrase / msg-id)
                        /  "References"        ":"  *(phrase / msg-id)
                        /  "Keywords"          ":"  #phrase
                        /  "Subject"           ":"  *text
                        /  "Comments"          ":"  *text
                        /  "Encrypted"         ":" 1#2word
                        /  extension-field              ; To be defined
                        /  user-defined-field           ; May be pre-empted
            orig-date   =  "Date"        ":"   date-time
            originator  =   authentic                   ; authenticated addr
                          [ "Reply-To"   ":" 1#address] )
            phrase      =  1*word                       ; Sequence of words




            August 13, 1982              - 45 -                      RFC #822
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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            qtext       =  <any CHAR excepting <">,     ; => may be folded
                            "\" & CR, and including
                            linear-white-space>
            quoted-pair =  "\" CHAR                     ; may quote any char
            quoted-string = <"> *(qtext/quoted-pair) <">; Regular qtext or
                                                        ;   quoted chars.
            received    =  "Received"    ":"            ; one per relay
                              ["from" domain]           ; sending host
                              ["by"   domain]           ; receiving host
                              ["via"  atom]             ; physical path
                             *("with" atom)             ; link/mail protocol
                              ["id"   msg-id]           ; receiver msg id
                              ["for"  addr-spec]        ; initial form
                               ";"    date-time         ; time received

            resent      =   resent-authentic
                          [ "Resent-Reply-To"  ":" 1#address] )
            resent-authentic =
                        =   "Resent-From"      ":"   mailbox
                        / ( "Resent-Sender"    ":"   mailbox
                            "Resent-From"      ":" 1#mailbox  )
            resent-date =  "Resent-Date" ":"   date-time
            return      =  "Return-path" ":" route-addr ; return address
            route       =  1#("@" domain) ":"           ; path-relative
            route-addr  =  "<" [route] addr-spec ">"
            source      = [  trace ]                    ; net traversals
                             originator                 ; original mail
                          [  resent ]                   ; forwarded
            SPACE       =  <ASCII SP, space>            ; (     40,      32.)
            specials    =  "(" / ")" / "<" / ">" / "@"  ; Must be in quoted-
                        /  "," / ";" / ":" / "\" / <">  ;  string, to use
                        /  "." / "[" / "]"              ;  within a word.
            sub-domain  =  domain-ref / domain-literal
            text        =  <any CHAR, including bare    ; => atoms, specials,
                            CR & bare LF, but NOT       ;  comments and
                            including CRLF>             ;  quoted-strings are
                                                        ;  NOT recognized.
            time        =  hour zone                    ; ANSI and Military
            trace       =    return                     ; path to sender
                           1*received                   ; receipt tags
            user-defined-field =
                          <Any field which has not been defined
                           in this specification or published as an
                           extension to this specification; names for
                           such fields must be unique and may be
                           pre-empted by published extensions>
            word        =  atom / quoted-string




            August 13, 1982              - 46 -                      RFC #822
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            Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


            zone        =  "UT"  / "GMT"                ; Universal Time
                                                        ; North American : UT
                        /  "EST" / "EDT"                ;  Eastern:  - 5/ - 4
                        /  "CST" / "CDT"                ;  Central:  - 6/ - 5
                        /  "MST" / "MDT"                ;  Mountain: - 7/ - 6
                        /  "PST" / "PDT"                ;  Pacific:  - 8/ - 7
                        /  1ALPHA                       ; Military: Z = UT;
            <">         =  <ASCII quote mark>           ; (     42,      34.)











































            August 13, 1982              - 47 -                      RFC #822