Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!caen.engin.umich.edu!markh From: markh@caen.engin.umich.edu (Mark Harris) Newsgroups: comp.mail.headers Subject: RFC-822 'phrase' question Keywords: RFC-822 Message-ID: <43c2245d.129dc@blue.engin.umich.edu> Date: 11 Jun 89 03:01:00 GMT Organization: U of M Engineering, Ann Arbor, Mich. Lines: 26 I have noticed that a number of mailers will generate From: lines like: From: John Q. Public This is clearly wrong according to a strict interpretation of RFC-822, since periods are not allowed in a 'phrase', unless they are part of a 'quoted-string', which must be enclosed in quotes. Not only have I found that several mailers use such syntax, but some RFCs as well! (In fact, the above line was taken from RFC-821, page 53.) Is such syntax acceptable, or should my mailer put quotes around all user names containing periods? On a related note, I have also seen the following header: In-Reply-To: Your message of Tue, 30 May 89 15:49:35 EDT Although it may look pretty, this header is also wrong according to RFC-822 since neither commas nor colons are allowed in a 'phrase'. This header would look a lot uglier if quotes were used, however. Are all mailers that generate either of these two types of headers broken, or am I missing something? I know that there is a correction to the RFC-822 'mailbox' definition in the Host Requirements RFC, but have there been other changes that I missed? Thanks in advance to anyone that can enlighten me. -- Disclaimer: I speak only for myself. Mark Harris