rfc724.txt

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     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