markh@caen.engin.umich.edu (Mark Harris) (06/11/89)
I have noticed that a number of mailers will generate From: lines like: From: John Q. Public <JQP@MIT-AI.ARPA> This is clearly wrong according to a strict interpretation of RFC-822, since periods are not allowed in a 'phrase', unless they are part of a 'quoted-string', which must be enclosed in quotes. Not only have I found that several mailers use such syntax, but some RFCs as well! (In fact, the above line was taken from RFC-821, page 53.) Is such syntax acceptable, or should my mailer put quotes around all user names containing periods? On a related note, I have also seen the following header: In-Reply-To: Your message of Tue, 30 May 89 15:49:35 EDT Although it may look pretty, this header is also wrong according to RFC-822 since neither commas nor colons are allowed in a 'phrase'. This header would look a lot uglier if quotes were used, however. Are all mailers that generate either of these two types of headers broken, or am I missing something? I know that there is a correction to the RFC-822 'mailbox' definition in the Host Requirements RFC, but have there been other changes that I missed? Thanks in advance to anyone that can enlighten me. -- Disclaimer: I speak only for myself. Mark Harris <markh@caen.engin.umich.edu>
wunder@hp-ses.SDE.HP.COM (Walter Underwood) (06/22/89)
> I have noticed that a number of mailers will generate From: lines like: > From: John Q. Public <JQP@MIT-AI.ARPA> A safe version of this is: From: (John Q. Public) JQP@MIT-AI.ARPA In strict 822-land, the angle brackets are only allowed if there is a route address, but the draft host requirements RFC amends the BNF to allow that. The above example could have angle brackets, but they are not necessary. wunder
7thson@daffy.slcs.slb.com (Chris Garrigues) (06/24/89)
In article <1760002@hp-ses.SDE.HP.COM> wunder@hp-ses.SDE.HP.COM (Walter Underwood) writes: >> I have noticed that a number of mailers will generate From: lines like: >> From: John Q. Public <JQP@MIT-AI.ARPA> > >A safe version of this is: > > From: (John Q. Public) JQP@MIT-AI.ARPA > >In strict 822-land, the angle brackets are only allowed if there is a >route address, but the draft host requirements RFC amends the BNF to >allow that. The above example could have angle brackets, but they >are not necessary. > >wunder I don't see the problem with the other form. Some of the rules from RFC822: authentic = "From" ":" mailbox ; Single author / ( "Sender" ":" mailbox ; Actual submittor "From" ":" 1#mailbox) ; Multiple authors ; or not sender mailbox = addr-spec ; simple address / phrase route-addr ; name & addr-spec route-addr = "<" [route] addr-spec ">" addr-spec = local-part "@" domain ; global address and a parse tree of the sample given above: From: John Q. Public <JPQ@MIT-AI.ARPA> => From: phrase <local-part@domain> => From: phrase <addr-spec> => From: phrase route-addr => From: mailbox => authentic What's the problem? Chris Garrigues, 7thSon@SLCS.SLB.COM
miller@uwovax.uwo.ca (Greg Miller) (06/26/89)
In article <399@linus.SLCS.SLB.COM>, 7thson@daffy.slcs.slb.com (Chris Garrigues) writes: > and a parse tree of the sample given above: > From: John Q. Public <JPQ@MIT-AI.ARPA> => > What's the problem? The problem is that unquoted periods in the name tag are not allowed by RFC 822. So the above should be written as - From: "John Q. Public" <JPQ@MIT-AI.ARPA> //Greg Miller//