ietf-smtp
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Last Call: draft-klensin-rfc2821bis (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to Draft Standard

2007-12-29 14:23:39

I'll have to check this, but it certainly was not intentional in
the DRUMS work.  I can see lots of reasons for getting rid of
the other control characters, but none at all for retaining them
and prohibiting space.

   john


--On Sunday, 30 December, 2007 00:01 +0300 Alexey Melnikov
<alexey(_dot_)melnikov(_at_)isode(_dot_)com> wrote:

The IESG wrote:
The IESG has received a request from an individual submitter
to consider the following document:

- 'Simple Mail Transfer Protocol '
   <draft-klensin-rfc2821bis-06.txt> as a Draft Standard

The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and
solicits final comments on this action.  Please send
substantive comments to the ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org mailing lists by
2007-12-24. Exceptionally,  comments may be sent to
iesg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org instead. In either case, please  retain the
beginning of the Subject line to allow automated sorting.
  
I know that the IETF LC has ended, but I believe the issue is
important enough and hopefully will be addressed.
My co-worker has pointed out that RFC 821 allowed for space
characters (0x20) in local part of email addresses, but RFC
2821 and 2821bis don't allow for that:

   Local-part     = Dot-string / Quoted-string
                  ; MAY be case-sensitive

   Dot-string     = Atom *("."  Atom)

   Atom           = 1*atext

   Quoted-string  = DQUOTE *qcontent DQUOTE

where qcontent is defined in RFC 2822 as:

   qtext           =       NO-WS-CTL /     ; Non white space
controls
                        %d33 /          ; The rest of the
US-ASCII
                        %d35-91 /       ;  characters not
including "\"
                        %d93-126        ;  or the quote
character

   qcontent        =       qtext / quoted-pair

   NO-WS-CTL       =       %d1-8 /         ; US-ASCII control
characters
                        %d11 /          ;  that do not include
the
                        %d12 /          ;  carriage return,
line feed,
                        %d14-31 /       ;  and white space
characters
                        %d127

Was this change between RFC 821 and RFC 2821 intentional?
Prohibition of spaces in quoted parts breaks gatewaying
to/from X.400 (MIXER, RFC 2156).

Regards,
Alexey




<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>