Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!linac!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!jarthur!ucivax!gateway From: buclin%CLSEPF51.bitnet@relay.eu.NET Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.x400 Subject: Re: Sending mail from internet to x400 networks Message-ID: <1991Jan17.105919.1@sic.epfl.ch> Date: 17 Jan 91 10:44:08 GMT References: <10099.664060821@nma> Organization: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Lines: 307 Approved: usenet@ICS.UCI.EDU x-attn: jns X-Previously-To: comp-protocols-iso-x400@cernvax.cern.ch ReSent-From: Jerry Sweet ReSent-To: mhsnews@ICS.UCI.EDU > To clear the record, can someone who has the text handy, resend a copy > of the published rules for RFC822 left hand side encoding of X.400 > Standard Attributes, and a copy of the text from the RARE agreement on > business card representation of the same SA information? I do not have > any handy access to the published electronic texts. > The RFC 822 left hand side mapping is defined in RFC 987 chapter 4. I have included below the OSI documentation. Regards, Bertrand Buclin Swiss Federal Institute of Technology CH-1015 Lausanne ------------------------ RECOMMENDATION FOR A SHORT HAND X.400 ADDRESS NOTATION Reference: WG1-MHS-89.02.14 Status: Final Date: 14 Feb 1989 Authors: R.Grimm, GMD, Darmstadt, W. Germany D. Heagerty, CERN, Switzerland Abstract -------- This recommendation describes a short hand notation for writing X.400 addresses, thus allowing experienced X.400 users to exchange their addresses in a single, precise format. An example X.400 address written in the recommended notation is: C=uk; ADMD=gold 400; PRMD=funny-films; O=cartoons; S=rabbit; G=tabatha Aims of this Recommendation --------------------------- In X.400, messages are addressed to recipients by giving values to what are termed "attributes of the O/R-address (Originator/Recipient address)". The general attributes (1988) include Country code, Admin- istration Management Domain, X121 address, Terminal identifier, Termi- nal type, Private Management Domain, Organisation Name, Organisational Units, Unique user agent identifier, Common name, Personal Name, Sur- name, Given Name, Initials and Generation Qualifier. X.400 does not however define a user interface for entering values for these attri- butes. Some X.400 systems prompt for values via menus, others define their own differing syntax for assigning values to attributes. This has the consequence that there is no standard textual representation for people to exchange their X.400 addresses, for example, on the back of a business card or attendance lists at meetings. If each attribute name is written in full then deducing the values is rather obvious, however the tendency is to use a short hand representation. The objectives of this recommendation are therefore: * To suggest a preferred short hand notation for writing X.400 addresses which could be used and understood by any experienced X.400 user. * To simplify local X.400 user guides which should define the mapping between the recommended notation and the local user interface. (Note that the recommended notation is not intended to replace the local user interface.) * To give a meaning to some alternative notations already known to be in use. The short hand notation described here is intended for communities of experienced X.400 users. When exchanging addresses with those unfamil- iar with X.400 O/R-addresses, a longer self-explanatory form is more appropriate, as discussed in the section 'Guidelines for Business Cards' at the end of this recommendation. Examples of the Recommended Notation ------------------------------------ C=de; ADMD=dbp; PRMD=gmd; OU=darmstadt; S=grimm C=fr; ADMD=atlas; PRMD=aristote; O=inria; OU=mirsa; S=huitema C=gb; ADMD=gold 400; PRMD=uk.ac; O=rutherford; S=craigie; G=jim Definition of the Notation -------------------------- The notation takes the form: =; =; ... = where can be: C Country name ADMD Administration management domain name X121 X121 address (network address) T-ID Terminal identifier T-TY Terminal type PRMD Private management domain name O Organisation name OU Organisational unit name UA-ID Unique user agent identifier (numeric user identifier) CN Common name S Surname G Given name I Initials GQ Generation Qualifier Note: 1. Keywords and their values should be written in hierarchically descending order starting with country name. (C>ADMD>X121>T-ID>T-TY>PRMD>O>OU>UA-ID>CN>S>G>I>GQ). 2. Organisation Units are written in their natural hierarchically descending order (i.e. OU1>OU2...>OUn). 3. Keywords with empty values are omitted. 4. No distinction is made between upper and lower case although key- words in upper case and their values in lower case gives a clearer display. 5. Consecutive spaces inside are interpreted as a single space. Leading or trailing spaces inside along with all other space characters are considered as insignificant. 6. No keyword abbreviation is given for the personal name attribute since it is more completely described by the 4 attributes: S,G,I and GQ. Why use the recommended notation? --------------------------------- Agreeing to use a single notation for expressing X.400 addresses has the obvious result of simplifying exchange of addresses for people who should not have to be knowledgeable about the internal structure of X.400 messages. Some reasons for selecting the recommended notation defined in this paper are outlined below. * The keywords match those defined in recommendation RFC 987 (Mapping between X.400 and RFC 822). RFC 987 will play an important role in the migration phase towards X.400 and consistent use of keywords were chosen to minimise any confusion. * Descending order of keywords (C>ADMD>X121>T-ID>T-TY>PRMD>O>OU>UA-ID>CN>S>G>I>GQ) gives the most natural order for organisational units (O>OU1>OU2...>OUn). In addi- tion, descending order seems to be preferred by the members of stan- dards bodies who have used this order in their examples of X.400 addresses. * Semicolon (;) was chosen as a separator since, unlike slash (/), it is unlikely to cause conflict with characters forming part of a key- word value and comma (,) is often used as a separator in a list of addresses. * The notation is brief, complete, unambiguous and simple to under- stand. Formal Description: ------------------- DEFINITIONS ::= BEGIN --- An address of X.400 standard attributes is represented by a --- hierarchically descending ordered list of Standard Attribute --- Value Assertions. --- List of Standard Attribute Value Assertions: SAVAList ::= SAVA | SAVA ";" Spaces SAVAList --- Standard Attribute Value Assertion: SAVA ::= KeywordRepresentation "=" ValueRepresentation KeywordRepresentation ::= "C" | "ADMD" | "X121" | "T-ID" | "T-TY"| "PRMD" | "O" | "OU" | "UA-ID" | "CN" | "S" | "G" | "I" | "GQ" ValueRepresentation ::= PrintableCharacter | PrintableCharacter ValueRepresentation | empty Spaces ::= Space | Space Spaces | empty Space ::= SPACE | TAB | CR | LF --- No formal end of SAVAList is defined here. The start and stop --- delimiter of a SAVAList must be made clear by the context. --- (It is considered to be outside the scope of this description). END Domain Defined Attributes ------------------------- Domain defined attributes are not standard attributes and will not nor- mally form part of an X.400 address. They are used to express non-X.400 addresses. As some implementations of X.400 are unable to generate domain defined attributes their use should be avoided however when no X.400 address with standard attributes is possible, domain defined attributes can be written after any general attributes with the nota- tion: DD.=; DD.=; ... e.g. C=us; ADMD=xyz; PRMD=gw; DD.rfc-822=user(a)subdomains.domain C=nl; ADMD=abc; PRMD=gw; DD.uucp=host!user C=gb; ADMD=gold 400; PRMD=gw; DD.jnt-mail=user(a)domain.subdomains (Note that '@' is not a valid character for X.400 attribute values and is replaced by '(a)') The simple = notation has been extended to . = since domain defined attributes (unlike standard attributes) are composed of a type as well as a value. Alternative Notations --------------------- For technical or historical reasons you may find X.400 addresses writ- ten in alternative notations. These are not recommended notations but are mentioned here with the aim of clarifying their interpretation. Most alternative notations follow the idea of using keyword expressions (keyword = value) but with many variations in the keywords used and the separator/delimiter between the expressions. Some alternative keywords you may need to understand are: Country name C CO COUNTRY CTN Administration domain name ADMD A ADM X121 address X121 X Terminal identifier T-ID T Terminal Type T-TY TT Private domain name PRMD P PMD PRI Organisational name O ON ORG Organisational unit name OU OU1 OU2 ... OUN Unique UA identifier UA-ID U Common name CN COM Surname S SN SUR Given name G GI GN GIV Initials I IN INI Generation Qualifier GQ GE GEN Domain defined attributes, DDV type XXX DD.XXX D.XXX DDT Numeric User Identifier NUS Network Address for telex TLX teletex TTX facsimile FAX videotex VTX Alternative Separators/delimiters you may see are: ";" "/" "," Keywords are sometimes expressed in ascending order, rather than the preferred hierarchically descending order (C>ADMD>X121>T-ID>T-TY>PRMD>O >OU ..). You should note that in ascending order the organisation units should be interpreted with the least significant appearing first (OUn...