MIME Content Type for BinHex Encoded Files
RFC 1741

Network Working Group                                       P. Faltstrom
Request for Comments: 1741                 Royal Institute of Technology
Category: Informational                                       D. Crocker
                                                  Brandenburg Consulting
                                                                 E. Fair
                                                     Apple Computer Inc.
                                                           December 1994

               MIME Content Type for BinHex Encoded Files

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   This memo describes the format to use when sending BinHex4.0 files
   via MIME [BORE93].  The format is compatible with existing mechanisms
   for distributing Macintosh files.  Only when available software
   and/or user practice dictates, should this method be employed.  It is
   recommended to use application/applefile [FALT94] for maximum
   interoperability.

1.  Introduction

   Files on the Macintosh consists of two parts, called forks:

   DATA FORK:       The actual data included in the file.  The Data
                    fork is typically the only meaningful part of a
                    Macintosh file on a non-Macintosh computer system.
                    For example, if a Macintosh user wants to send a
                    file of data to a user on an IBM-PC, she would only
                    send the Data fork.

   RESOURCE FORK:   Contains a collection of arbitrary attribute/value
                    pairs, including program segments, icon bitmaps,
                    and parametric values.

   Additional information regarding Macintosh files is stored by the
   Finder has in a hidden file, called the "Desktop Database".

   Because of the complications in storing different parts of a
   Macintosh file in a non-Macintosh filesystem that only handles
   consecutive data in one part, it is common to convert the Macintosh
   file into some other format before transferring it over the network.

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RFC 1741             Content Type for BinHex Files         December 1994

   AppleDouble file format [APPL90], encoded in MIME as
   multipart/appledouble [FALT94] and application/applefile [FALT94] is
   the preferred format for a Macintosh file that is to be included in
   an Internet mail message, because it provides recipients with
   Macintosh computers the entire document, including Icons and other
   Macintosh specific information, while other users easily can extract
   the Data fork (the actual data).

   However, this specification provides for use of the currently popular
   BinHex4.0 encoding schemes, as a convinience to the installed base of
   users.

2.  MIME format for BinHex4.0

   MIME-base Apple information is specified by:

   MIME type-name:            APPLICATION
   MIME subtype name:         MAC-BINHEX40
   Required parameters:       none
   Optional parameters:       NAME, which must be a "value" as
                              defined in RFC-1521 [BORE93].
   Encoding considerations:   none
   Security considerations:   See separate section in the document
   Published specification:   Appendix A
   Rationale:                 Permits MIME-based transmission of data
                              with Apple Macintosh file system specific
                              information using a currently popular,
                              though platform specific, format.

   2a.  Detail specific to MIME-based usage

      Macintosh documents do not always need to be sent in a special
      format.  Those documents with well-known MIME types and non-
      existent or trivial resource forks can be sent as regular MIME
      body parts, without use of AppleSingle, AppleDouble or BinHex4.0.

      Documents which lack a data fork must be sent as AppleSingle
      according to RFC 1740 [FALT94].

      Unless there are strong reasons not to, all other documents should
      be sent as AppleDouble according to RFC 1740 [FALT94].  This
      includes documents with non-trivial resource forks, and documents
      without corresponding well-known MIME types.

      It may be valuable in some cases to allow the user to choose one
      format over another, either because he disagrees with the
      implementor's definition of "trivial" resource forks, or for
      reasons of his own.

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RFC 1741             Content Type for BinHex Files         December 1994

      Only when available software and/or user practice dictates, should
      BinHex 4.0 be employed.

3.  BinHex

   BinHex 4.0 is a propular means of encoding Macintosh files for
   archiving on non-Macintosh file systems and for transmission via
   Internet mail.  (See Appendix A for a brief description of the BinHex
   4.0 format.)

   The content-type application/mac-binhex40 indicates that the body of
   the mail is a BinHex4.0 file.  Even though the BinHex encoding
   consists of characters which are not the same as those used in Base64
   (those regarded as safe according to RFC-1521 [BORE93]) a
   transportation encoding should not be done.

   Even though a BinHex file includes the original Macintosh filename,
   it is recommended that a name parameter be included on the Content-
   Type header to give the recipient a hint as to what file is attached.
   The value of the name parameter must be a "value" as defined by RFC-
   1521 [BORE93].  Note that this restricts the value to seven-bit US-
   ASCII characters.

   3a.  BinHex example

        Content-Type: application/mac-binhex40; name="car.hqx"

            [The BinHex4.0 file goes here]

4.  References

   APPL90   AppleSingle/AppleDouble Formats for Foreign Files
            Developer's Note, Apple Computer, Inc., 1990.

   FALT94   Faltstrom P., Crocker, D., and E. Fair, "MIME
            Encapsulation of Macintosh Files - MacMIME", RFC 1740,
            KTH, Brandenburg Consulting, Apple Computer Inc.,
            December 1994.

   BORE93   Borenstein N., and N. Freed, "MIME (Multipurpose Internet
            Mail Extensions): Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing
            the Format of Internet Message Bodies", RFC 1521, Bellcore,
            Innosoft, September 1993.

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RFC 1741             Content Type for BinHex Files         December 1994

5.  Security Considerations

   To the extent that application/mac-binhex40 facilitates the
   transmission of operating-system sensitive data, it may open a door
   for easier relaxation of security rules than is intended either by
   the sender of the administrator of the sender's system.

6.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks to all of the people on the ietf-822 list who have provided
   much meaningful input for this document.  Some of them must though be
   remembered by name, because they have almost crushed my mailbox the
   last weeks with a very nice and interesting debate:

      Johan Berglund, Steve Dorner, David Gelhar, David Herron, Raymond
      Lau, Jamey Maze, John B. Melby, Jan Michael Rynning, Rens Troost,
      and Peter Svanberg.

7.  Authors' Addresses

      Patrik Faltstrom
      Department of Numerical Analysis and Computing Science
      Royal Institute of Technology
      S-100 44 Stockholm
      Sweden

      EMail: paf@nada.kth.se

      Dave Crocker
      Brandenburg Consulting
      675 Spruce Dr.
      Sunnyvale, CA  94086

      EMail: dcrocker@mordor.stanford.edu

      Erik E. Fair
      Engineering Computer Operations
      Apple Computer Inc.

      EMail: fair@apple.com

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RFC 1741             Content Type for BinHex Files         December 1994

Appendix A.  The BinHex format

   Here is a description of the Hqx7 (7 bit format as implemented in
   BinHex 4.0) formats for Macintosh Application and File transfers.

   The main features of the format are:

   1) Error checking even using ASCII download
   2) Compression of repetitive characters
   3) 7 bit encoding for ASCII download

   The format is processed at three different levels:

      1) 8 bit encoding of the file:

   Byte:    Length of FileName (1->63)
   Bytes:   FileName ("Length" bytes)
   Byte:    Version
   Long:    Type
   Long:    Creator
   Word:    Flags (And $F800)
   Long:    Length of Data Fork
   Long:    Length of Resource Fork
   Word:    CRC
   Bytes:   Data Fork ("Data Length" bytes)
   Word:    CRC
   Bytes:   Resource Fork ("Rsrc Length" bytes)
   Word:    CRC

      2) Compression of repetitive characters.

   ($90 is the marker, encoding is made for 3->255 characters)

   00 11 22 33 44 55 66 77   -> 00 11 22 33 44 55 66 77
   11 22 22 22 22 22 22 33   -> 11 22 90 06 33
   11 22 90 33 44            -> 11 22 90 00 33 44

   The whole file is considered as a stream of bits.  This stream will
   be divided in blocks of 6 bits and then converted to one of 64
   characters contained in a table.  The characters in this table have
   been chosen for maximum noise protection.  The format will start
   with a ":" (first character on a line) and end with a ":".
   There will be a maximum of 64 characters on a line.  It must be
   preceded, by this comment, starting in column 1 (it does not start
   in column 1 in this document):

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    (This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0)

   Any text before this comment is to be ignored.

   The characters used is:

    !"#$%&'()*+,- 012345689@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNPQRSTUVXYZ[`abcdefhijklmpqr

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