Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ncrlnk!ciss!coss!tmoore
From: tmoore@coss.Dayton.NCR.COM (Tom Moore)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Attachments to mail messages
Keywords: attachment binary mail enclosures
Message-ID: <637@coss.Dayton.NCR.COM>
Date: 20 Sep 90 14:20:13 GMT
Reply-To: Tom.Moore@Dayton.NCR.COM
Organization: NCR  CISS-Network Application Services   Dayton, Ohio  45479
Lines: 44

I am looking for a way to attach one or more items in a mail message.
Such attachments could be arbitrary, binary data.  The intent is to
provide the functionality in a UA to implement a command such as

   attach filename ...

and have the UA append the properly formatted attachment to the message.
Properly formatted implies any processing needed to convert the specified
file(s) to an ascii format if necessary and then delimit it in some
fashion to show the bounds of the attachment.  The information that should
be included as part of the attachment would be what it is (word processor
file, spread sheet, etc) and what was used to process it for mailing
(uuencode, compress + uuencode, nothing, etc).

The recipient UA would have a command such as

   detach [attachment_identifier]

which would examine the information describing the attachment and then
extract and store it as a separate file in its original form.

As a matter of implementation, the above functionality would not need to
be contained within the UA itself.  A stand-alone command called from the
editor during message generation and a similar command to which the
recipient could pipe the message would do nicely.

I am considering the use of the message encapsulating scheme proposed in
RFC934 as a way to delimit the attachments and providing headers within
each attachment to convey the necessary information about the attachment.
The Content-Type header of RFC1049 is being examined as a standard header
that could possibly be used but it appears more suited for providing
information on how to post-process and display textual data than on how to
unpackage and store it.

I would appreciate any assistance in implementing this in a standard
manner.  If an existing standard implementation of this functionality
already exists, I would happily use it.  If not, I would like to implement
a procedure that is useful to as large a community as possible.

Please respond via news or mail as you deem appropriate.
-- 
* Tom Moore                NCR Corporation  PCD-6              (513) 445-1373 *
* Consulting Analyst       1700 S. Patterson Blvd.         VOICEplus 622-1373 *
* Network Applications     Dayton, OH 45479          Tom.Moore@Dayton.NCR.COM *