rfc2919.txt

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Network Working Group                                          R. Chandhok
Request for Comments: 2919                                       G. Wenger
Category: Standards Track                                   QUALCOMM, Inc.
                                                                March 2001


                                List-Id:
                A Structured Field and Namespace for the
                    Identification of Mailing Lists

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.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   Software that handles electronic mailing list messages (servers and
   user agents) needs a way to reliably identify messages that belong to
   a particular mailing list.  With the advent of list management
   headers, it has become even more important to provide a unique
   identifier for a mailing list regardless of the particular host that
   serves as the list processor at any given time.

   The List-Id header provides a standard location for such an
   identifier.  In addition, a namespace for list identifiers based on
   fully qualified domain names is described.  This namespace is
   intended to guarantee uniqueness for list owners who require it,
   while allowing for a less rigorous namespace for experimental and
   personal use.

   By including the List-Id field, list servers can make it easier for
   mail clients to provide automated tools for users to perform list
   functions.  The list identifier can serve as a key to make many
   automated processing tasks easier, and hence more widely available.

1. Introduction

   Internet mailing lists have evolved into fairly sophisticated forums
   for group communication and collaboration; however, corresponding
   changes in the underlying infrastructure have lagged behind.  Recent



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RFC 2919                        List-Id                       March 2001


   proposals like [RFC2369] have expanded the functionality that the MUA
   can provide by providing more information in each message sent by the
   mailing list distribution software.

   Actually implementing such functionality in the MUA depends on the
   ability to accurately identify messages as belonging to a particular
   mailing list.  The problem then becomes what attribute or property to
   use to identify a mailing list.  The most likely candidate is the
   submission address of the mailing list itself.  Unfortunately, when
   the list server host, the list processing software, or the submission
   policy of the list changes the submission address itself can change.
   This causes great difficulty for automated processing and filtering.

   In order to further automate (and make more accurate) the processing
   a software agent can do, there needs to be some unique identifier to
   use as an identifier for the mailing list.  This identifier can be
   simply used for string matching in a filter, or it can be used in
   more sophisticated systems to uniquely identify messages as belonging
   to a particular mailing list independent of the particular host
   delivering the actual messages.  This identifier can also act as a
   key into a database of mailing lists.

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

2. The List Identifier Syntax

   The list identifier will, in most cases, appear like a host name in a
   domain of the list owner.  In other words, the domain name system is
   used to delegate namespace authority for list identifiers just as it
   has been used to distribute that authority for other internet
   resources.

   Using the domain name system as a basis for the list identifier
   namespace is intended to leverage an existing authority structure
   into a new area of application.  By using the domain name system to
   delegate list identifier namespace authority, it becomes instantly
   clear who has the right to create a particular list identifier, and
   separates the list identifier from any particular delivery host or
   mechanism.  Only the rights-holder of a domain or subdomain has the
   authority to create list identifiers in the namespace of that domain.
   For example, only the rights-holder to the "acm.org" domain has the
   authority to create list identifiers in "acm.org" domain.







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RFC 2919                        List-Id                       March 2001


   While it is perfectly acceptable for a list identifier to be
   completely independent of the domain name of the host machine
   servicing the mailing list, the owner of a mailing list MUST NOT
   generate list identifiers in any domain namespace for which they do
   not have authority.  For example, a mailing list hosting service may
   choose to assign list identifiers in their own domain based
   namespace, or they may allow their clients (the list owners) to
   provide list identifiers in a namespace for which the owner has
   authority.

   If the owner of the list does not have the authority to create a list
   identifier in a domain-based namespace, they may create unmanaged
   list identifiers in the special unmanaged domain "localhost".  This
   would apply to personal users, or users unable to afford domain name
   registration fees.

   The syntax for a list identifier in ABNF [RFC2234] follows:

   list-id = list-label "." list-id-namespace

   list-label = dot-atom-text

   list-id-namespace = domain-name / unmanaged-list-id-namespace

   unmanaged-list-id-namespace    = "localhost"

   domain-name = dot-atom-text

   Where:

       dot-atom-text is defined in [DRUMS]

       "localhost" is a reserved domain name is defined in [RFC2606]

   In addition, a list identifier (list-id) MUST NOT be longer than 255
   octets in length, for future compatibility.  It should be noted that
   "localhost" is not valid for the domain-name rule.

3. The List-Id Header Field

   This document presents a header field which will provide an
   identifier for an e-mail distribution list.  This header SHOULD be
   included on all messages distributed by the list (including command
   responses to individual users), and on other messages where the
   message clearly applies to this particular distinct list.  There MUST
   be no more than one of each field present in any given message.





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   This field MUST only be generated by mailing list software, not end
   users.

   The contents of the List-Id header mostly consist of angle-bracket
   ('<', '>') enclosed identifier, with internal whitespace being
   ignored.  MTAs MUST NOT insert whitespace within the brackets, but
   client applications should treat any such whitespace, that might be
   inserted by poorly behaved MTAs, as characters to ignore.

   The list header fields are subject to the encoding and character
   restrictions for mail headers as described in [RFC822].

   The List-Id header MAY optionally include a description by including
   it as a "phrase" [DRUMS] before the angle-bracketed list identifier.
   The MUA MAY choose to use this description in its user interface;
   however, any MUA that intends to make use of the description should
   be prepared to properly parse and decode any encoded strings or other
   legal phrase components.  For many MUAs the parsing of the List-Id
   header will simply consist of extracting the list identifier from
   between the delimiting angle brackets.

   The syntax of the List-Id header follows:

   list-id-header = "List-ID:" [phrase] "<" list-id ">" CRLF

   where phrase and CRLF are as defined in [DRUMS].  Unlike most headers
   in [RFC822], the List-Id header does not allow free insertion of
   whitespace and comments around tokens.  Any descriptive text must be
   presented in the optional phrase component of the header.

   Examples:

List-Id: List Header Mailing List <list-header.nisto.com>
List-Id: <commonspace-users.list-id.within.com>
List-Id: "Lena's Personal Joke List"
         <lenas-jokes.da39efc25c530ad145d41b86f7420c3b.021999.localhost>
List-Id: "An internal CMU List" <0Jks9449.list-id.cmu.edu>
List-Id: <da39efc25c530ad145d41b86f7420c3b.052000.localhost>

4. Persistence of List Identifiers

   Although the list identifier MAY be changed by the mailing list
   administrator this is not desirable.  (Note that there is no
   disadvantage to changing the description portion of the List-Id
   header.)  A MUA may not recognize the change to the list identifier
   because the MUA SHOULD treat a different list identifier as a
   different list.  As such the mailing list administrator SHOULD avoid
   changing the list identifier even when the host serving the list



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RFC 2919                        List-Id                       March 2001


   changes.  On the other hand, transitioning from an informal
   unmanaged-list-id-namespace to a domain namespace is an acceptable
   reason to change the list identifier.  Also if the focus of the list
   changes sufficiently the administrator may wish to retire the
   previous list and its associated identifier to start a new list
   reflecting the new focus.

5. Uniqueness of List Identifiers

   This proposal seeks to leverage the existing administrative process
   already in place for domain name allocation.  In particular, we
   exploit the fact that domain name ownership creates a namespace that
   by definition can be used to create unique identifiers within the
   domain.

   In addition, there must be a mechanism for identification of mailing
   lists that are administrated by some entity without administrative
   access to a domain.  In this case, general heuristics can be given to
   reduce the chance of collision, but it cannot be guaranteed.  If a
   list owner requires a guarantee, they are free to register a domain
   name under their control.

   It is suggested, but not required, that list identifiers be created
   under a subdomain of "list-id" within any given domain.  This can