rfc822.txt

java邮件开发必备的rfc文档

     August 13, 1982               - 3 -                      RFC #822


 
     Standard for ARPA Internet Text Messages


     2.7.  #RULE:  LISTS

          A construct "#" is defined, similar to "*", as follows:

                              <l>#<m>element

     indicating at least <l> and at most <m> elements, each  separated
     by  one  or more commas (","). This makes the usual form of lists
     very easy; a rule such as '(element *("," element))' can be shown
     as  "1#element".   Wherever this construct is used, null elements
     are allowed, but do not  contribute  to  the  count  of  elements
     present.   That  is,  "(element),,(element)"  is  permitted,  but
     counts as only two elements.  Therefore, where at least one  ele-
     ment  is required, at least one non-null element must be present.
     Default values are 0 and infinity so that "#(element)" allows any
     number,  including  zero;  "1#element" requires at least one; and
     "1#2element" allows one or two.

     2.8.  ; COMMENTS

          A semi-colon, set off some distance to  the  right  of  rule
     text,  starts  a comment that continues to the end of line.  This
     is a simple way of including useful notes in  parallel  with  the
     specifications.



























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     3.  LEXICAL ANALYSIS OF MESSAGES

     3.1.  GENERAL DESCRIPTION

          A message consists of header fields and, optionally, a body.
     The  body  is simply a sequence of lines containing ASCII charac-
     ters.  It is separated from the headers by a null line  (i.e.,  a
     line with nothing preceding the CRLF).

     3.1.1.  LONG HEADER FIELDS

        Each header field can be viewed as a single, logical  line  of
        ASCII  characters,  comprising  a field-name and a field-body.
        For convenience, the field-body  portion  of  this  conceptual
        entity  can be split into a multiple-line representation; this
        is called "folding".  The general rule is that wherever  there
        may  be  linear-white-space  (NOT  simply  LWSP-chars), a CRLF
        immediately followed by AT LEAST one LWSP-char may instead  be
        inserted.  Thus, the single line

            To:  "Joe & J. Harvey" <ddd @Org>, JJV @ BBN

        can be represented as:

            To:  "Joe & J. Harvey" <ddd @ Org>,
                    JJV@BBN

        and

            To:  "Joe & J. Harvey"
                            <ddd@ Org>, JJV
             @BBN

        and

            To:  "Joe &
             J. Harvey" <ddd @ Org>, JJV @ BBN

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

        Note:  While the standard  permits  folding  wherever  linear-
               white-space is permitted, it is recommended that struc-
               tured fields, such as those containing addresses, limit
               folding  to higher-level syntactic breaks.  For address
               fields, it  is  recommended  that  such  folding  occur


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               between addresses, after the separating comma.

     3.1.2.  STRUCTURE OF HEADER FIELDS

        Once a field has been unfolded, it may be viewed as being com-
        posed of a field-name followed by a colon (":"), followed by a
        field-body, and  terminated  by  a  carriage-return/line-feed.
        The  field-name must be composed of printable ASCII characters
        (i.e., characters that  have  values  between  33.  and  126.,
        decimal, except colon).  The field-body may be composed of any
        ASCII characters, except CR or LF.  (While CR and/or LF may be
        present  in the actual text, they are removed by the action of
        unfolding the field.)

        Certain field-bodies of headers may be  interpreted  according
        to  an  internal  syntax  that some systems may wish to parse.
        These  fields  are  called  "structured   fields".    Examples
        include  fields containing dates and addresses.  Other fields,
        such as "Subject"  and  "Comments",  are  regarded  simply  as
        strings of text.

        Note:  Any field which has a field-body  that  is  defined  as
               other  than  simply <text> is to be treated as a struc-
               tured field.

               Field-names, unstructured field bodies  and  structured
               field bodies each are scanned by their own, independent
               "lexical" analyzers.

     3.1.3.  UNSTRUCTURED FIELD BODIES

        For some fields, such as "Subject" and "Comments",  no  struc-
        turing  is assumed, and they are treated simply as <text>s, as
        in the message body.  Rules of folding apply to these  fields,
        so  that  such  field  bodies  which occupy several lines must
        therefore have the second and successive lines indented by  at
        least one LWSP-char.

     3.1.4.  STRUCTURED FIELD BODIES

        To aid in the creation and reading of structured  fields,  the
        free  insertion   of linear-white-space (which permits folding
        by inclusion of CRLFs)  is  allowed  between  lexical  tokens.
        Rather  than  obscuring  the  syntax  specifications for these
        structured fields with explicit syntax for this  linear-white-
        space, the existence of another "lexical" analyzer is assumed.
        This analyzer does not apply  for  unstructured  field  bodies
        that  are  simply  strings  of  text, as described above.  The
        analyzer provides  an  interpretation  of  the  unfolded  text


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        composing  the body of the field as a sequence of lexical sym-
        bols.

        These symbols are:

                     -  individual special characters
                     -  quoted-strings
                     -  domain-literals
                     -  comments
                     -  atoms

        The first four of these symbols  are  self-delimiting.   Atoms
        are not; they are delimited by the self-delimiting symbols and
        by  linear-white-space.   For  the  purposes  of  regenerating
        sequences  of  atoms  and quoted-strings, exactly one SPACE is
        assumed to exist, and should be used, between them.  (Also, in
        the "Clarifications" section on "White Space", below, note the
        rules about treatment of multiple contiguous LWSP-chars.)

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

            ":sysmail"@  Some-Group. Some-Org,
            Muhammed.(I am  the greatest) Ali @(the)Vegas.WBA




























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        is analyzed into the following lexical symbols and types:

                    :sysmail              quoted string
                    @                     special
                    Some-Group            atom
                    .                     special
                    Some-Org              atom
                    ,                     special
                    Muhammed              atom
                    .                     special
                    (I am  the greatest)  comment
                    Ali                   atom
                    @                     atom
                    (the)                 comment
                    Vegas                 atom
                    .                     special
                    WBA                   atom

        The canonical representations for the data in these  addresses
        are the following strings:

                        ":sysmail"@Some-Group.Some-Org

        and

                            [e-mail]

        Note:  For purposes of display, and when passing  such  struc-
               tured information to other systems, such as mail proto-
               col  services,  there  must  be  NO  linear-white-space
               between  <word>s  that are separated by period (".") or
               at-sign ("@") and exactly one SPACE between  all  other
               <word>s.  Also, headers should be in a folded form.


















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     3.2.  HEADER FIELD DEFINITIONS

          These rules show a field meta-syntax, without regard for the
     particular  type  or internal syntax.  Their purpose is to permit
     detection of fields; also, they present to  higher-level  parsers
     an image of each field as fitting on one line.

     field       =  field-name ":" [ field-body ] CRLF

     field-name  =  1*<any CHAR, excluding CTLs, SPACE, and ":">

     field-body  =  field-body-contents
                    [CRLF LWSP-char field-body]

     field-body-contents =
                   <the ASCII characters making up the field-body, as
                    defined in the following sections, and consisting
                    of combinations of atom, quoted-string, and
                    specials tokens, or else consisting of texts>