RFC #  724
     NIC #37435                                            12 May 1977












                    Proposed Official Standard for the
                      Format of ARPA Network Messages










                                    by


              Ken Pogran, MIT-LCS/CSR    (Pogran at MIT-Multics)
              John Vittal, BBN            (Vittal at BBN-TENEXA)
              Dave Crocker, RAND-ISD     (DCrocker at Rand-Unix)
              Austin Henderson, BBN    (Henderson at BBN-TENEXD)



     Proposed Standard for Message Format                         / ii





                                  PREFACE



          ARPA's  Committee  on  Computer-Aided  Human   Communication
     (CAHCOM) wishes to promulgate an official standard for the format
     of ARPA Network mail headers which will adequately meet the needs
     of  the  various message service subsystems on the Network today.
     The authors  of  this  RFC  constitute  the  CAHCOM  subcommittee
     charged  with  the  task  of  developing  this new standard; this
     document presents our  current  thoughts  on  the  matter  and  a
     specific proposal.

          This document is organized as follows: First, we  present  a
     history,  of the development of what has become known as the ARPA
     Network "mail" or "message" service, and the issues which we feel
     are  most  pressing  --  problems for which solutions are lacking
     today, inhibiting the further development of message  subsystems.
     We  then  present  the  specification  for  the  new ARPA Network
     Message Header  standard.   This  is  followed  by  a  References
     section.

          Essentially, we propose a revision to Request  for  Comments
     (RFC)  561,  "Standardizing  Network  Mail Headers", and RFC 680,
     "Message  Transmission  Protocol".   This  revision  removes  and
     compacts  portions  of  the  previous  syntax  and  adds  several
     features to network address  specification.   In  particular,  we
     focus  on  people  and  not  mailboxes  as  recipients  and allow
     reference to stored address lists.   We  expect  this  syntax  to
     provide  sufficient  capabilities  to  meet most users' immediate
     needs and, therefore, give developers enough  breathing  room  to
     produce  a new mail transmission protocol "properly".  We believe
     that there is enough of a consensus in the Network  community  in
     favor  of such a standard syntax to make possible its adoption at
     this time.

          We would like to make clear  the  status  of  this  proposed
     standard:  The CAHCOM Steering Committee has replaced the Message
     Service Committee as the ARPANET  standards-setting  organization
     in  the  area  of  message  services.   It  is  expected that the
     proposal of this CAHCOM subcommittee, when  in  its  final  form,
     will  be  adopted  as  an  ARPANET  standard  by  CAHCOM.  In the
     interests of making this standard the best possible one,  we  are
     distributing  this  proposal as an RFC.

          Please send any  comments  and  criticisms  to  any  of  the
     authors  of  this  RFC  by  15 June 1977.  It is planned that the
     standard will be officially adopted by  1  September  1977,  with
     hosts expected to accept its syntax by 1 January 1978.



     Proposed Standard for Message Format                        / iii











                             CONTENTS



                  I.  PROBLEMS WITH ARPANET
                      MESSAGE STANDARDS

                      A.  Background and History
                      B.  Issues and Conclusions
                      C.  Message Parts
                      D.  Adoption of the Standard



                 II.  STANDARD FOR THE FORMAT
                      OF ARPA NETWORK MESSAGES

                      A.  Framework
                      B.  Syntax
                      C.  Semantics
                      D.  Examples



                III.  REFERENCES




                              APPENDIX

                  A.  Alphabetical Listing of Syntax Rules



     I. Problems with ARPANET Message Standards                    / 1
     A. Background and History





              I.  PROBLEMS WITH ARPANET MESSAGE STANDARDS



     A.  BACKGROUND AND HISTORY


          Today's ARPA Network "mail" or "message" service  uses,  for
     its delivery mechanism, two special commands of the File Transfer
     Protocol.  Viewed from within the structure of  FTP,  the  entire
     message,  both header and text, is data for the FTP MAIL and MLFL
     commands.  This facility was added to the File Transfer  Protocol
     as  an  afterthought;  it was an interim solution to be used only
     until  a  separate  mail  transmission  protocol  was  specified.
     Several  versions of such a protocol have been proposed, but none
     has yet received general acceptance.   Meanwhile,  attempts  have
     been made to improve upon the original interim facility.

          As  message  service  subsystems  on  various  host  systems
     (especially  TENEX)  developed  to  the  point  where rudimentary
     parsing of incoming messages was being done, it became clear that
     it  would  be  desirable to standardize the format and content of
     the headers of messages transmitted between hosts using these FTP
     commands.   To this end, an ad hoc committee wrote RFC 561, which
     suggested a standard message header format.   The  committee  was
     unofficial,  so  it could not legislate a standard, it could only
     recommend.  However, the standard it suggested adequately met  an
     urgent need, and was generally adopted.

          Several  salient  points should be noted:

          1. RFC 561 defined the concept  of  a  message  header,  and
             specified  the  syntax which delimited it from the actual
             text of a message;

          2. It proposed a standard format for the  most  obvious  and
             most  urgently-needed header items: "From:", "Date:", and
             "Subject:";

          3. It proposed that a general standard syntax  be  used  for
             all other header items;

          4. RFC 561 is still, today, an unofficial standard,  adhered
             to by most because of its utility;

          5. Its syntax was designed to allow humans to read the  text
             easily,  without  the  aid  of special message processing
             systems.



     I. Problems with ARPANET Message Standards                    / 2
     A. Background and History



          As message services grew in  sophistication,  the  need  for
     specific header items in RFC 561's "miscellaneous" category grew:
     "To:" and "cc:", especially, were  generated  and  recognized  by
     several  different  message  services.   However,  there  was  no
     specific standard for the syntax of the contents of these  items.
     The  message  service  subsystems on TENEX developed a particular
     format for these items; since more messages originated  from  the
     TENEX  hosts  on  the  Network  than  from any other type of host
     system, the TENEX format for these fields soon became a de  facto
     standard.   Message  service  subsystems  on TENEX began to parse
     these fields, expecting them to be in the TENEX-generated format.
     Message service subsystems on other hosts -- Multics, for example
     -- began to dabble with other formats  for  these  fields,  since
     there  was  no standard for them, only to receive complaints from
     users of  TENEX  message  service  subsystems  that  their  "non-
     standard"  message  headers  could not be parsed according to the
     (de facto) "standard" syntax.

          Recognizing that the time had come to  make  an  attempt  to
     standardize  the  additional header fields that had come into use
     since RFC 561 was published,  ARPA's  Message  Service  Committee
     chartered  a  small group in 1975 to develop a revised version of
     RFC 561 which would define the syntax of these additional message
     header  fields.   Several things should be noted about this small
     group of  people:  first,  they  were  TENEX-oriented;  when  the
     functionality  of  the  message  header  items  they  desired was
     matched by  the  functionality  of  an  already-existing  message
     header  item  of  the  TENEX message subsystems, they adopted the
     syntax used by the TENEX message subsystems.  Second, they  based
     additional  header  items  not  already  found  on  TENEX message
     subsystems on the deliberations of the Message Service Committee.
     Third,  they were not familiar with the procedure for publication
     of a document as a Network RFC.

          The document which this group produced,  labelled  RFC  680,
     "Message    Transmission   Protocol",   received   only   limited
     distribution.  Matters were further confused  because  its  title
     was  misleading, since it was not a protocol for the transmission
     of messages between ARPA Network hosts, but rather a standard for
     the format of messages transmitted via the standard File Transfer
     Protocol.    Some,   including  the  Message  Service  Committee,
     believed that RFC 680 became a Network Standard.   This  was  not
     strictly true, because it never received proper distribution, and
     it had never been "officially blessed" by anyone, to turn it from
     a  request  for  comments  into an accepted official ARPA Network
     standard document.  Reflecting this confusion over the status  of
     the  document  are  the  facts  that  the document DOES currently
     reside in the "official"  ARPANET  Protocol  Handbook,  and  most
     users and message system implementors remain unaware that this is
     so.



     I. Problems with ARPANET Message Standards                    / 3
     A. Background and History



          For all its shortcomings, RFC 680  has  performed  a  needed
     service,  just  as  did RFC 561 before it.  It defined additional
     message header items at a time  when  this  needed  to  be  done.
     Unfortunately,  since  the  group  had not sought ideas and input
     from others, the specification did not adequately  respond  to  a
     sufficient  set  of  community needs.  In addition, the manner in
     which the document was promulgated -- or not promulgated --  left
     a great deal to be desired.  Implementators of message-processing
     subsystems who had not received RFC 680 proceeded to go their own
     ways, feeling justified in doing so, while those who accepted RFC
     680 as a standard felt justified in complaining to --  and  about
     --  those  whom  they  considered  to be maverick implementors of
     idiosyncratic message service subsystems.

          Perhaps because of the ad-hoc nature  of  the  interim  mail
     facility,  users  have not, until recently, attempted to push the
     system to the limits of their imagination.   Presently,  however,
     several different sites are using the "interim" mail facility for
     more than it was designed and in ways which are incompatible both
     with  each  other  and  with the original intent of the facility.
     Mail subsystem  implementors  are  increasingly  being  asked  to
     provide for the handling of mail from idiosyncratic hosts.  Also,
     it has become clear that there are a few very  specific features,
     too useful to ignore, which cannot reasonably be specified within
     the syntax of RFC 680.



     B.  ISSUES AND CONCLUSIONS


          At first glance, it would seem that a resolution of  today's
     somewhat  chaotic situation could best be obtained by immediately
     junking the existing "interim" mail facility, and adopting a true
     mail  transmission protocol.  We strongly believe that this would
     be ill-advised at this time, for we feel that there is no general
     understanding  within  the  Network  community  today  of  how to
     specify and implement  a  full  and  adequate  mail  transmission
     protocol.   However,  we  are convinced that there is, finally, a
     strong commitment within the Network  community  to  attack  this
     problem  (which  there  was  not  at  the time the "interim" mail
     transmission facility was specified and developed).

          The frontal attacks on the mail protocol  problem  have,  so
     far, resulted in at least two suggestions for a mail transmission
     protocol.  Why should not  one  of  these  protocols  be  adopted
     immediately? We feel that, in general, there has been a  tendency
     for  experimental  Network  software to be prematurely treated as
     though  it  were  adequately  designed  and  fully   operational.
     Typically, the system or protocol proposed is so much better than
     what was previously available that  its  experimental  nature  is
     disregarded,  and  it is pressed into service before it has had a


     I. Problems with ARPANET Message Standards                    / 4
     B. Issues and Conclusions



     chance to properly develop and mature.   We  are  very  concerned
     that this phenomenon not afflict the Network mail system any more
     than it already has.

          While it is true that there are several sites  in  the  ARPA
     Community  which  have  mail  systems  that understand the syntax
     specified in RFC's 561 and 680, in addition to some of the  "non-
     standard"  syntax  provided  by  the  mail generating programs at
     several other sites, most mail systems do not parse much  of  the
     contents  of  received  messages.   A consideration of the syntax
     specified here is that messages which are sent to  people  should
     be  easily  read  by  people.   Parsers  which  can turn an ugly,
     syntactically expedient form into something which is easy to read
     are  the  exception,  rather  than  the  rule, in today's message
     systems.  Also, the modifications to the existing  "non-standard"
     syntax  should  be  kept  to a minimum, enhancing the probability
     that the requirement of small perturbations to existing  software
     will be accepted.

          With this syntax, we introduce mechanisms so that:

          1. Users of mail systems can have multiple mailboxes, either
             on  one  machine  or  multiple machines, all of which are
             treated identically; the default mailbox for  a  user  is
             not  necessarily  associated  (directly)  with  his login
             name.

          2. Mail for a person can be sent to  other  than  a  single,
             default mailbox.

          3. Named   groups  may  consist  of  both  individuals   and
             (possibly)  other  named  groups  (i.e.,  nesting  within
             groups is permitted).

          4. Address lists may contain references  to  other,  stored,
             lists.  The complete path with which one can retrieve the
             stored list may be specified in  order  to  allow  either
             manual or automatic retrieval of the stored list.

          5. Address lists may contain references to  addresses  which
             are  not  accessible through the standard ARPANET message
             system.  For example, U.S.  Postal system  addresses  can
             be specified.  Such addresses are, of course, expected to
             be ignored by the  ARPANET  system,  although  individual
             sites  may  provide  services  for  using the information
             (e.g., automatically sending a copy of the  message to  a
             line printer, in preparation for transmission through the
             Postal system).

          6. Parenthetical remarks, or comments, can be  included  and
             syntactically  recognized  as  such  within  some  header
             items.


     I. Problems with ARPANET Message Standards                    / 5
     B. Issues and Conclusions



          7. Received messages are capable of  being  read  by  humans
             without  a  program having to parse the message (or parts
             of it) before presenting the message to the user; however
             there  is  sufficient  formal  syntax to enable a parsing
             program to modify the appearance and content of  material
             presented  to  users.   Although message-display software
             may   exercise   considerable   control   over    message
             appearance, the degree to which a message's actual format
             is  PLEASANT  for  humans  to  read   is   entirely   the
             responsibility of the message creation program.

     No mechanism for authentication is provided,  since  the  Network
     provides  no  mechanisms for enforcing mail security.  The syntax
     does provide for one aspect of "correctness":  a  distinction  is
     made  between  an  address which is claimed to be a valid network
     address and one which is  simply  free  text,  included  for  the
     convenience of the human participants.




     C. MESSAGE PARTS

          Some  confusion  has  existed  over  the  roles  played   by
     different message parts.  Einar Stefferud has suggested using the
     perspective of envelope, letter head, and  letter  content.   The
     presence of structured portions in messages additionally requires
     reference to "headers".

          In  computer-based  message  systems,  human  users  do  not
     generally  encounter  "envelopes",  which  are  often constructed
     automatically, to be  used  by  the  participating  system(s)  to
     deliver  the  message.  For example on TENEX, the envelope is the
     name of the file containing a message awaiting transmission.  For
     FTP  servers,  it is the data portion of the MAIL or MLFL command
     line.  Some systems attach  "envelope-like"  information  to  the
     message header, such as time-stamp and originating host name.

          In paper-based communications,  headers  occur  both  before
     (e.g., "To:" and "From:" and after (e.g., "cc:" and "enclosure:")
     the body of the message.  Within this standard, all headers occur
     before  the  body  of the message, although local message display
     programs may choose to alter that ordering.

          Wayne Hathaway has pointed out that ARPANET  message  format
     does not support specification of letterheads, since these are  a
     type   of   organizational   public   relations   symbol.    Some
     idiosyncrasies are supported, however, by way of choosing special
     field names.

          In general, it is  important  to  realize  that  the  header
     portion  of  a  message  plays several roles during the life of a


     I. Problems with ARPANET Message Standards                    / 6
     C. Message Parts



     message, variously participating in each of the  three  functions
     suggested by Stefferud.



     D. ADOPTION OF THE STANDARD


         During the early phases of specifying this standard, a  great
     deal  of  concern  was  expressed  over the problems which may be
     experienced during the transition from the  current  standard  to
     this  new  one.   We  feel  that  the true problem is the lack of
     realization that THERE IS NO CURRENT OFFICIAL  STANDARD.   Enough
     systems  have  enough  overlapping behaviors to allow the current
     mail environment to function, but this in no  way  constitutes  a
     standard.

          In fact, we  strongly  believe  that  the  new  requirements
     imposed by the proposed standard involve less complexity than the
     ambiguities resulting  from  the  current  variations  in  system
     behaviors.



     II. Standard for the Format of Messages                       / 7







                     II. STANDARD FOR THE FORMAT
                         OF ARPA NETWORK MESSAGES



          This standard supercedes the informal standards specified in
     ARPANET  Request for Comments numbers 561, "Standardizing Network
     Mail Headers", and 680, "Message Transmission Protocol".  In this
     document, a general framework is described.  The formal syntax is
     then specified,  followed  by  a  discussion  of  the  semantics.
     Finally, a number of examples are given.

          This specification is intended strictly as a  definition  of
     what is to be passed  between hosts  on the  ARPANET.   It is NOT
     intended to dictate either features which systems on the  Network
     are  expected  to support, or user interfaces to message creating
     or reading programs.

          A distinction should be made between what the  specification
     requires  and  what it allows.  Certain equivalences are defined,
     such as between a space  character    and  an  end-of-line
     character  , which both facilitate the formal specification
     and indicate  what  the  OFFICIAL  semantics  are  for  messages.
     Particular   implementations   may   wish   to  preserve  further
     distinctions which the specification does not require.



     A. FRAMEWORK


          Since there are many message systems which exist outside the
     ARPANET environment, as well as those within it, it may be useful
     to consider the general framework, and resulting capabilities and
     limitations, of this standard.

          Messages are expected to  consist  of  lines  of  text.   No
     special provisions are made, at this time, for encoding drawings,
     facimile, speech, or structured text.

          No significant consideration has been given to questions  of
     data   compression   or   transmission/storage  efficiency.   The
     standard, in fact, tends to be very free with the number of  bits
     consumed.   For  example, field names are specified as free text,
     rather than special terse codes.

          A general "memo" framework is  used.   That  is,  a  message
     consists  of some information, in a rigid format, followed by the
     main part of the message, which is text  and whose format is  not


     II. Standard for the Format of Messages                       / 8
      A. Framework



     specified  in this document.  The syntax of several fields of the
     rigidly-formated  ("header")   section   is   defined   in   this
     specification;  some of the header fields must be included in all
     messages.  In addition to the fields specified in this  document,
     it  is  expected  that  other fields will gain common use.  User-
     defined header fields allow systems to extend their functionality
     while  maintaining  a uniform framework.  Our approach is similar
     to that of the TELNET protocol, in that we are defining  a  basic
     standard which includes a mechanism  for  (optionally)  extending
     itself.    The   authors  of  this  document  will  regulate  the
     publishing of specifications for these extensions.

          Such a framework severely  constrains  document  "tone"  and
     appearance  and  is  primarily useful for most intra-organization
     communications  and  relatively   structured   inter-organization
     communication.   A more robust environment might allow for multi-
     font, multi-color, multi-dimension encoding  of  information.   A
     less  robust  environment,  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.  Relative to
     paper-based communication, 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
     capabilties of their individual message systems.



     II. Standard for the Format of Messages                       / 9
      B. Syntax





     B.  SYNTAX


          This  syntax  is  given  in  four  parts.   The  first  part
     describes  a  base-level lexical analyzer which feeds the higher-
     level parser described in the succeeding  sections.   The  second
     part  gives  a  general  syntax  for messages and standard header
     fields.  The third part specifies the  syntax  of  addresses.   A
     final  section  specifies  some general syntax which supports the
     other sections.



     1.  LEXICAL ANALYSIS OF MESSAGES


     a.  General Description

         A message consists of headers and, optionally, a  body  (i.e.
         the  ).   The    part  is  just a
         sequence of  ASCII  characters;  it  is  separated  from  the
         headers  by  a null line (i.e., a line with nothing preceding
         the ).

         1) Folding and unfolding of headers

            Each header item can be viewed as a single, logical,  long
            line   of   ASCII   characters.    For  convenience,  this
            conceptual  entity  can  be  split  into  a  multiple-line
            representation (i.e., "folded").  The general rule is that
            wherever there can be  characters, you
            can  instead  insert  a   immediately followed by AT
            LEAST  one    character.   Thus,   the
            single line

               To:  "Joe Dokes & J. Harvey" , JJV at BBN

            can be represented as

               To:  "Joe Dokes & J. Harvey" ,
                    JJV at BBN

            and

               To:  "Joe Dokes & J. Harvey"
                                ,
                JJV at BBN



     II. Standard for the Format of Messages                      / 10
      B. Syntax
      1. Lexical Analysis



            and

               To:  "Joe Dokes
                & J. Harvey" , JJV at BBN

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


         2) Structure of header fields

            Once header fields have been unfolded, they may be  viewed
            as  being  composed  of  a   followed by a ":"
            (colon), followed by  a  .   The  
            must  be  composed  of  printable  ASCII characters (i.e.,
            characters which have decimal values between 33  and  126)
            and  characters.  The  may
            composed of any ASCII  characters  (other  than    and
            , which have been removed by unfolding).

            Certain header fields may be interpreted according  to  an
            internal  syntax  which  some  systems  may wish to parse.
            These fields will be referred  to  as  structured  fields.
            Examples  include  fields  containing dates and addresses.
            Other fields, such as  the  subject  field,  are  regarded
            simply as a single line of text.

         3) Field names

            To aid in the creation and reading of  s,  the
            free   insertion  of    characters  is
            allowed in reasonable places.  Rather than  obscuring  the
            syntax  specification  for   with the explicit
            syntax  for  these    characters,  the
            existence  of a simple "lexical" analyzer is assumed.  The
            analyzer reinterprets the unfolded  text  which  comprises
            the    as  a  sequence of  separated by
             characters.  The field  name  may  be
            conveniently  represented  by the sequence of these atoms,
            separated by a single ASCII space character.



     II. Standard for the Format of Messages                      / 11
      B. Syntax
      1. Lexical Analysis



         4) Field bodies

            To aid in the creation and reading  of  structured fields,
            the  free  insertion of  characters is
            allowed in reasonable places.  Rather than  obscuring  the
            syntax specifications for  these  structured  fields  with
            explicit syntax for these  characters,
            the existence of  another  simple  "lexical"  analyzer  is
            assumed.   It  provides  an interpretation of the unfolded
            text comprising the body of the field  as  a  sequence  of
            lexical symbols.  These include

                    -  individual special characters
                    -  quoted strings
                    -  comments
                    -  atoms

            The first three symbols are  self-delimiting.   Atoms  are
            not;  they  therefore are delimited by the self-delimiting
            symbols and by .

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

                    ":sysmail"@ Some-Host,
                    Muhammed(I am the greatest)Ali at WBA

            is analyzed into the following lexical symbols and types:

                    ":sysmail"              quoted string
                    @                       special
                    Some-Host               atom
                    ,                       special
                    Muhammed                atom
                    (I am the greatest)     comment
                    Ali                     atom
                    at                      atom
                    WBA                     atom


     b.  Formal Definition

                    ::=    ":" 
               ::=   
                               |  

               ::=   
                               |  
                                    
                                    



     II. Standard for the Format of Messages                      / 12
      B. Syntax
      1. Lexical Analysis



          ::= , as defined in
                                    the following sections, and
                                    consisting of combinations of
                                    , , ,
                                    and  tokens>

                     ::=    >

            ::=   
                                     <">

                 ::=   
                                    and  >

              ::=   

               ::=    | 
                               |  | 

                 ::=   "(" | ")" | "<" | ">"
                               | "@" | "," | ";" | ":" | <">

                  ::=   "("  > ")"

         ::= 
                               | 
                                    
         ::=   | 

                    ::=   
                      ::=   
                       ::=   
                       ::=   
                     ::=   



     II. Standard for the Format of Messages                      / 13
      B. Syntax
      1. Lexical Analysis



     c.  Clarifications

         1) Comments

            Comments  may  appear   only   within   s   of
            structured fields.   A  comment is any set of TELNET ASCII
            characters, which is not within a quoted string, and which
            is  enclosed in matching parentheses; parentheses nest, so
            that if a left paren occurs in  a  comment  string,  there
            must also be a matching right paren.

            Comments are NOT passed to the FTP server, as  part  of  a
            MAIL  or  MLFL command, since comments are not part of the
            "formal" address.


         2) "White space"

            Remember that in structured fields, MULTIPLE LINEAR  WHITE
            SPACE TELNET ASCII CHARACTERS (namely s and s)
            ARE TREATED AS SINGLE SPACES AND MAY FREELY  SURROUND  ANY
            SYMBOL.   In  all  header  fields, at least one  is
            REQUIRED only at the beginning of folded lines.

            Writers of mail-sending (i.e.  header generating) programs
            should realize that there is no Network-wide definition of
            the  effect  of    TELNET  ASCII  characters  on  the
            appearance of text at another Network host; therefore, the
            use of s in message  headers,  though  permitted,  is
            discouraged.

            Note that the contents of messages are required to conform
            with  TELNET  NVT conventions (e.g.   must be followed
            by either , making a , or , if the  is
            to stand alone).

         3) Quoted strings

            Where  permitted  (i.e.,  in  structured  fields)   quoted
            strings  are  treated as a single symbol (i.e.  equivalent
            to an  syntactically).  However, if  quoted  strings
            are  to  be  "folded" onto multiple lines, then the syntax
            for folding must be  adhered  to  (See  items  II.B.1.a.1,
            above,  and  II.B.1.c.6,  below.)  Note  that the official
            semantics do not  encounter  s  in  quoted  strings,
            although  particular  parsing  programs  may  wish to note
            their presence.



     II. Standard for the Format of Messages                      / 14
      B. Syntax
      1. Lexical Analysis



         4) Bracketing characters

            There are two types of brackets which must be well nested:

                - Parentheses are used to indicate comments.

                - Angle brackets  ("<"  and  ">")  are  used
                  where  there is a question of the presence
                  of machine-usable code (e.g.  deliminating
                  mailboxes).

         5) Case independence of certain specials s

            It should be assumed by all  mail  reading  programs  that
            certain  s  can be represented in any combination of
            upper and lower case.  These are:

                - s,
                - "File", in a ,
                - "at", in an ,
                - s,
                - s,
                - s, and
                - s

            For example, the s "From", "FROM", "from", and
            even "FroM" should all be treated identically.  Note that,
            at the level of this specification, case  IS  relevant  to
            other   s   and   s.   Also  see  Section
            II.C.1.a.4, below.

         6) Folding long lines

            Each header item (field of the message) may be represented
            on  exactly  one  line consisting of the name of the field
            and its body, and this  is  what  the  parser  sees.   For
            readability,  it  is  recommended  that  the  
            portion of long header items  be  "folded"  onto  multiple
            lines of the actual header.


         7) Backspace characters

            Backspace TELNET ASCII characters (ASCII  BS,  decimal  8)
            may  be  included  in    and  to
            effect overstriking; however, any use of backspaces  which
            effects  an overstrike to the left of the beginning of the
             or  is prohibited.




     II. Standard for the Format of Messages                      / 15
      B. Syntax
      2. Messages



     2.  GENERAL SYNTAX OF MESSAGES:

         NOTE: The syntax indicates that items  in  
         must  be  in  a  specific  order and precede all other header
         items.  Header fields, in fact, are NOT required to occur  in
         any  particular  order.  Required header items must be unique
         (occur exactly once).  This  specification  permits  multiple
         occurrences   of   most   optional   fields.    However,  the
         interpretation of such multiple occurrences is not  specified
         here.

                  ::=   
                               |   

                  ::=   
                               |  
          ::=   
               ::=   
                               |  
                               |  
                               |  
                                    

               ::=   "Date"        ":" 
          ::=   "From"        ":" 
           ::=   "From"        ":" 
           ::=   "From"        ":" 
             ::=   "Sender"      ":" 
           ::=   "Reply-To"    ":" 

         ::=   
                               | 
                                    

          ::= 
                               | 

          ::=   "To"          ":" 
                               | "cc"          ":" 
                               | "bcc"         ":" 
                               | "Fcc"         ":" 

          ::=   "In-Reply-To" ":" 
                               | "Keywords"    ":" 
                               | "Message-Id"  ":" 
                               | "References"  ":" 
                               | "Subject"     ":" 
                               | "Comments"    ":" 
                               | 



     II. Standard for the Format of Messages                      / 16
      B. Syntax
      2. Messages



          ::=  which has a 
                                    not defined in this specification>



     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 section  on  Lexical  Analysis  (section  II.B.1)
     indicated  how  such long strings can be represented on more than
     one line in the actual transmitted message.


     3.  SYNTAX OF GENERAL ADDRESSEE ITEMS

           ::=   
                               |  "," 

             ::=   
                               | 
                               |  "," 
             ::=   
                               |  ":"  ";"
                               | 
                               | 

           ::=   
                               |  "<"  ">"

               ::=   
                 ::=   

             ::=   
                               |  "," 
                  ::=   

                     ::=   ":" "File" ":" 
                ::=   
                               | "<"  ">"
                ::=   
                               |  "," 
                ::=   




     II. Standard for the Format of Messages                      / 17
      B. Syntax
      4. Supporting Constructs



     4.  SUPPORTING SYNTAX

           ::=   
                               | 
                               |  "," 
           ::=   
                               | 

         ::=   "<"  ">"
              ::=    
           ::=    
             ::=   "at" | "@"
                ::=   
                               | 

                ::=      >

              ::=   "("  > ")"

                   ::=   
                 ::=   

                 ::=    | 
           ::=   "Date"        ":" 
            ::=     

               ::=   

        ::=   

     ::=   
                           |  
      ::=  | 

           ::=   
                           |  
                           |  
                           |  
                                

                 ::=   ":" "File" ":" 
            ::=   
            ::=    |  "," 
            ::=    | "<"  ">"

               ::=    |  
          ::=    | 
                           |  "," 

       ::=    | 
       ::=    | 
                           |  "," 

        ::=   
                                 <">

       ::=   "Reply-To"    ":" 

      ::=   

         ::=   "Sender"      ":" 

           ::=    "/" 
                                             "/" <2-digit-year>
                ::=   

             ::=   "(" | ")" | "<" | ">"
                           | "@" | "," | ";" | ":" | <">

          ::=    
         ::=   "January"  | "Jan" | "February" | "Feb"


     Appendix                                                     / 33
     Alphabetical Listing of Syntax Rules




                           | "March"    | "Mar" | "April"    | "Apr"
                           | "May"              | "June"     | "Jun"
                           | "July"     | "Jul" | "August"   | "Aug"
                           | "September"| "Sep" | "October"  | "Oct"
                           | "November" | "Nov" | "December" | "Dec"

                  ::=   

             ::=    and  >

      which has a  not
                                defined in this specification>

                 ::=    |