mail headers: what's allowable?

mail headers: what's allowable?

[John H Palmieri]

Hi,

After seeing mail headers like 

X-Now-Reading: Italo Calvinos _Usynlige byer_

I am led to the questions: What is allowable for a mail header?  What
is the syntax?  For example, how about

X-Spook: Peking CIA Waco, Texas Semtex Ft. Bragg radar Honduras
Soviet strategic explosion genetic cryptographic Panama South
Africa assassination

as produced by 'M-x spook'?

I suspect that having entries longer than one line is bad, but can
someone confirm this?

-- 
John H. Palmieri
e-mail: palmieri.2@nd.edu             205 Computing/Math Bldg.
URL:http://www.nd.edu/~jpalmier/      University of Notre Dame
(219) 631-8846                        Notre Dame, IN 46556

Re: mail headers: what's allowable?

[Chris Tessone]

May I suggest just reading the RFC?

-- 
Chris Tessone              tessone@imsa.edu              tessone@fnal.gov
IMSA PH/Postmaster SNPC                     http://www.imsa.edu/~tessone/
print pack"C*",split/\D+/,`echo "16iII*o\U@{$/=$z;[(pop,pop,unpack"H*",<>
)]}\EsMsKsN0[lN*1lK[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<J]dsJxp"|dc`

Re: mail headers: what's allowable?

[Kai.Grossjohann]

John H Palmieri <John.H.Palmieri.2@nd.edu> writes:

  > I suspect that having entries longer than one line is bad, but can
  > someone confirm this?

Lines beginning with linear whitespace (i.e., space or tab) are
considered to be continuation lines of the previous line.

This also means that it is important to distinguish between blank and
empty lines -- only empty lines may be used for separating the header
from the body of a message.

kai
-- 
I like _\bb_\bo_\bt_\bh kinds of music.