Internet Message Format
RFC 5322
| Document | Type |
RFC - Draft Standard
(October 2008; Errata)
Updated by RFC 6854
Obsoletes RFC 2822
Updates RFC 4021
Was draft-resnick-2822upd (individual in app area)
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
| Stream | IETF | ||
| Formats | plain text pdf htmlized with errata bibtex | ||
| Reviews | |||
| Stream | WG state | (None) | |
| Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 5322 (Draft Standard) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | Lisa Dusseault | ||
| Send notices to | tony@att.com | ||
Network Working Group P. Resnick, Ed.
Request for Comments: 5322 Qualcomm Incorporated
Obsoletes: 2822 October 2008
Updates: 4021
Category: Standards Track
Internet Message Format
Status of This Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
This document specifies the Internet Message Format (IMF), a syntax
for text messages that are sent between computer users, within the
framework of "electronic mail" messages. This specification is a
revision of Request For Comments (RFC) 2822, which itself superseded
Request For Comments (RFC) 822, "Standard for the Format of ARPA
Internet Text Messages", updating it to reflect current practice and
incorporating incremental changes that were specified in other RFCs.
Resnick Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 5322 Internet Message Format October 2008
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1. Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2. Notational Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.1. Requirements Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.2. Syntactic Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.3. Structure of This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2. Lexical Analysis of Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1. General Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1.1. Line Length Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2. Header Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.1. Unstructured Header Field Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.2. Structured Header Field Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.3. Long Header Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3. Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3. Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2. Lexical Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2.1. Quoted characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2.2. Folding White Space and Comments . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2.3. Atom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2.4. Quoted Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2.5. Miscellaneous Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.3. Date and Time Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.4. Address Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.4.1. Addr-Spec Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.5. Overall Message Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.6. Field Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.6.1. The Origination Date Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.6.2. Originator Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.6.3. Destination Address Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.6.4. Identification Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.6.5. Informational Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.6.6. Resent Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.6.7. Trace Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.6.8. Optional Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4. Obsolete Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.1. Miscellaneous Obsolete Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.2. Obsolete Folding White Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.3. Obsolete Date and Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.4. Obsolete Addressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.5. Obsolete Header Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.5.1. Obsolete Origination Date Field . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.5.2. Obsolete Originator Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.5.3. Obsolete Destination Address Fields . . . . . . . . . 37
4.5.4. Obsolete Identification Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.5.5. Obsolete Informational Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Resnick Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 5322 Internet Message Format October 2008
4.5.6. Obsolete Resent Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.5.7. Obsolete Trace Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
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