Network Working Group                                          J. Palme
Request for Comments: 2076                     Stockholm University/KTH
Category: Informational                                   February 1997


                   Common Internet Message Headers

Status of this Memo

  This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
  does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
  this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

  This memo contains a table of commonly occurring headers in headings
  of e-mail messages. The document compiles information from other RFCs
  such as RFC 822, RFC 1036, RFC 1123, RFC 1327, RFC 1496, RFC 1521,
  RFC 1766, RFC 1806, RFC 1864 and RFC 1911. A few commonly occurring
  headers which are not defined in RFCs are also included. For each
  header, the memo gives a short description and a reference to the RFC
  in which the header is defined.

Table of contents
  1. Introduction..............................................  2
  2. Use of gatewaying headers.................................  3
  3. Table of headers..........................................  3
       3.1 Phrases used in the tables..........................  3
       3.2 Trace information...................................  5
       3.3 Format and control information......................  5
       3.4 Sender and recipient indication.....................  6
       3.5 Response control....................................  9
       3.6 Message identification and referral headers......... 11
       3.7 Other textual headers............................... 12
       3.8 Headers containing dates and times.................. 13
       3.9 Quality information................................. 13
       3.10 Language information............................... 14
       3.11 Size information................................... 14
       3.12 Conversion control................................. 15
       3.13 Encoding information............................... 15
       3.14 Resent-headers..................................... 16
       3.15 Security and reliability........................... 16
       3.16 Miscellaneous...................................... 16
  4. Acknowledgments........................................... 18







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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  5. References................................................ 18
  6. Author's Address.......................................... 20
  Appendix A:
  Headers sorted by Internet RFC document in which they appear. 21
  Appendix B:
  Alphabetical index........................................... 25

1. Introduction

  Many different Internet standards and RFCs define headers which may
  occur on Internet Mail Messages and Usenet News Articles. The
  intention of this document is to list all such headers in one
  document as an aid to people developing message systems or interested
  in Internet Mail standards.

  The document contains all headers which the author has found in the
  following Internet standards: , RFC 822 [2], RFC 1036 [3], RFC 1123
  [5], RFC 1327 [7], RFC 1496 [8], RFC 1521 [11], RFC 1766 [12], RFC
  1806 [14], RFC 1864[17] and RFC 1911[20]. Note in particular that
  heading attributes defined in PEM (RFC 1421-1424) and MOSS (RFC 1848
  [16]) are not included. PEM and MOSS headers only appear inside the
  body of a message, and thus are not headers in the RFC 822 sense.
  Mail attributes in envelopes, i.e. attributes controlling the message
  transport mechanism between mail and news servers, are not included.
  This means that attributes from SMTP [1], UUCP [18] and NNTP [15] are
  mainly not covered either. Headings used only in HTTP [19] are not
  included yet, but may be included in future version of this memo. A
  few additional headers which often can be found in e-mail headings
  but are not part of any Internet standard are also included.

  For each header, the document gives a short description and a
  reference to the Internet standard or RFC, in which they are defined.

  The header names given here are spelled the same way as when they are
  actually used. This is usually American but sometimes English
  spelling.  One header in particular, "Organisation/Organization",
  occurs in e-mail headers sometimes with the English and other times
  with the American spelling.

  The following words are used in this memo with the meaning specified
  below:

  heading           Formatted text at the top of a message, ended by a
                    blank line

  header = heading  One field in the heading, beginning with a field
  field             name, colon, and followed by the field value(s)




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  It is my intention to continue updating this document after its
  publication as an RFC. The latest version, which may be more up-to-
  date (but also less fully checked out) will be kept available for
  downloading from URL
  http://www.dsv.su.se/~jpalme/ietf-mail-attributes.pdf.

  Please e-mail me (Jacob Palme <[email protected]>) if you have noted
  headers which should be included in this memo but are not.

2. Use of gatewaying headers

  RFC 1327 defines a number of new headers in Internet mail, which are
  defined to map headers which X.400 has but which were previously not
  standardized in Internet mail. The fact that a header occurs in RFC
  1327 indicates that it is recommended for use in gatewaying messages
  between X.400 and Internet mail, but does not mean that the header is
  recommended for messages wholly within Internet mail. Some of these
  headers may eventually see widespread implementation and use in
  Internet mail, but at the time of this writing (1996) they are not
  widely implemented or used.

  Headers defined only in RFC 1036 for use in Usenet News sometimes
  appear in mail messages, either because the messages have been
  gatewayed from Usenet News to e-mail, or because the messages were
  written in combined clients supporting both e-mail and Usenet News in
  the same client. These headers are not standardized for use in
  Internet e-mail and should be handled with caution by e-mail agents.

3. Table of headers

3.1 Phrases used in the tables

  "not for general        Used to mark headers which are defined in RFC
  usage"                  1327 for use in messages from or to Internet
                          mail/X.400 gateways. These headers have not
                          been standardized for general usage in the
                          exchange of messages between Internet mail-
                          based systems.













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  "not standardized       Used to mark headers defined only in RFC 1036
  for use in e-mail"      for use in Usenet News. These headers have no
                          standard meaning when appearing in e-mail,
                          some of them may even be used in different
                          ways by different software. When appearing in
                          e-mail, they should be handled with caution.
                          Note that RFC 1036, although generally used as
                          a de-facto standard for Usenet News, is not an
                          official IETF standard or even on the IETF
                          standards track.

  "non-standard"          This header is not specified in any of
                          referenced RFCs which define Internet
                          protocols, including Internet Standards, draft
                          standards or proposed standards. The header
                          appears here because it often appears in e-
                          mail or Usenet News. Usage of these headers is
                          not in general recommended. Some header
                          proposed in ongoing IETF standards development
                          work, but not yet accepted, are also marked in
                          this way.

  "discouraged"           This header, which is non-standard, is known
                          to create problems and should not be
                          generated. Handling of such headers in
                          incoming mail should be done with great
                          caution.

  "controversial"         The meaning and usage of this header is
                          controversial, i.e. different implementors
                          have chosen to implement the header in
                          different ways. Because of this, such headers
                          should be handled with caution and
                          understanding of the different possible
                          interpretations.

  "experimental"          This header is used for newly defined headers,
                          which are to be tried out before entering the
                          IETF standards track. These should only be
                          used if both communicating parties agree on
                          using them. In practice, some experimental
                          protocols become de-facto-standards before
                          they are made into IETF standards.








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3.2 Trace information

  Used to convey the information       Return-Path:   RFC 821,
  from the MAIL FROM envelope                         RFC 1123: 5.2.13.
  attribute in final delivery, when
  the message leaves the SMTP
  environment in which "MAIL FROM"
  is used.

  Trace of MTAs which a message has    Received:      RFC 822: 4.3.2,
  passed.                                             RFC 1123: 5.2.8.

  List of MTAs passed.                 Path:          RFC 1036: 2.1.6,
                                                      only in Usenet
                                                      News, not in e-
                                                      mail.

  Trace of distribution lists          DL-Expansion-  RFC 1327, not for
  passed.                              History-       general usage.
                                       Indication:

3.3 Format and control information

  An indicator that this message is    MIME-Version:  RFC 1521: 3.
  formatted according to the MIME
  standard, and an indication of
  which version of MIME is
  utilized.

  Special Usenet News actions only.    Control:       RFC 1036: 2.1.6,
                                                      only in Usenet
                                                      News, not in e-
                                                      mail.

  Special Usenet News actions and a    Also-Control:  son-of-RFC1036
  normal article at the same time.                    [21], non-
                                                      standard, only in
                                                      Usenet News, not
                                                      in e-mail

  Which body part types occur in       Original-      RFC 1327, not for
  this message.                        Encoded-       general usage.
                                       Information-
                                       Types:







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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  Controls whether this message may    Alternate-     RFC 1327, not for
  be forwarded to alternate            Recipient:     general usage.
  recipients such as a postmaster
  if delivery is not possible to
  the intended recipient. Default:
  Allowed.

  Whether recipients are to be told    Disclose-      RFC 1327, not for
  the names of other recipients of     Recipients:    general usage.
  the same message. This is
  primarily an X.400 facility. In
  X.400, this is an envelope
  attribute and refers to
  disclosure of the envelope
  recipient list. Disclosure of
  other recipients is in Internet
  mail done via the To:, cc: and
  bcc: headers.

  Whether a MIME body part is to be    Content-       RFC 1806,
  shown inline or is an attachment;    Disposition:   experimental
  can also indicate a suggested
  filename for use when saving an
  attachment to a file.

3.4 Sender and recipient indication

  Authors or persons taking            From:          RFC 822: 4.4.1,
  responsibility for the message.                     RFC 1123: 5.2.15-
                                                      16, 5.3.7,
  Note difference from the "From "                    RFC 1036 2.1.1
  header (not followed by ":")
  below.


  (1) This header should never         From           not standardized
  appear in e-mail being sent, and                    for use in e-mail
  should thus not appear in this
  memo. It is however included,
  since people often ask about it.











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  This header is used in the so-
  called Unix mailbox format, also
  known as Berkely mailbox format
  or the MBOX format. This is a
  format for storing a set of
  messages in a file. A line
  beginning with "From " is used to
  separate successive messages in
  such files.

  This header will thus appear when
  you use a text editor to look at
  a file in the Unix mailbox
  format. Some mailers also use
  this format when printing
  messages on paper.

  The information in this header
  should NOT be used to find an
  address to which replies to a
  message are to be sent.

  (2) Used in Usenet News mail         From           RFC 976: 2.4 for
  transport, to indicate the path      or             use in Usenet News
  through which an article has gone    >From
  when transferred to a new host.

  Sometimes called "From_" header.

  Name of the moderator of the         Approved:      RFC 1036: 2.2.11,
  newsgroup to which this article                     not standardized
  is sent; necessary on an article                    for use in e-mail.
  sent to a moderated newsgroup to
  allow its distribution to the
  newsgroup members. Also used on
  certain control messages, which
  are only performed if they are
  marked as Approved.

  The person or agent submitting       Sender:        RFC 822: 4.4.2,
  the message to the network, if                      RFC 1123: 5.2.15-
  other than shown by the From:                       16, 5.3.7.
  header.

  Primary recipients.                  To:            RFC 822: 4.5.1,
                                                      RFC 1123: 5.2.15-
                                                      16, 5.3.7.




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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  Secondary, informational             cc:            RFC 822: 4.5.2,
  recipients. (cc = Carbon Copy)                      RFC 1123. 5.2.15-
                                                      16, 5.3.7.

  Recipients not to be disclosed to    bcc:           RFC 822: 4.5.3,
  other recipients. (bcc = Blind                      RFC 1123: 5.2.15-
  Carbon Copy).                                       16, 5.3.7.

  Primary recipients, who are          For-Handling:  Non-standard
  requested to handle the
  information in this message
  or its attachments.

  Primary recipients, who are          For-Comment:   Non-standard
  requested to comment on the
  information in this message
  or its attachments.

  In Usenet News: group(s) to which    Newsgroups:    RFC 1036: 2.1.3,
  this article was posted.                            not standardized
  Some systems provide this header                    and controversial
  also in e-mail although it is not                   for use in e-mail.
  standardized there.

  Unfortunately, the header can
  appear in e-mail with two
  different and contradictory
  meanings:

  (a) Indicating the newsgroup
  recipient of an article/message
  sent to both e-mail and Usenet
  News recipients.

  (b) In a personally addressed
  reply to an article in a news-
  group, indicating the newsgroup
  in which this discussion
  originated.












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  Inserted by Sendmail when there      Apparently-    Non-standard,
  is no "To:" recipient in the         To:            discouraged,
  original message, listing                           mentioned in
  recipients derived from the                         RFC 1211.
  envelope into the message
  heading. This behavior is not
  quite proper, MTAs should not
  modify headings (except inserting
  Received lines), and it can in
  some cases cause Bcc recipients
  to be wrongly divulged to non-Bcc
  recipients.

  Geographical or organizational       Distribution:  RFC 1036: 2.2.7,
  limitation on where this article                    not standardized
  can be distributed.                                 for use in e-mail.

  Fax number of the originator.        Fax:,          Non-standard.
                                       Telefax:

  Phone number of the originator.      Phone:         Non-standard.

  Information about the client         Mail-System-   Non-standard.
  software of the originator.          Version:,
                                       Mailer:,
                                       Originating-
                                       Client:, X-
                                       Mailer, X-
                                       Newsreader

3.5 Response control

  This header is meant to indicate     Reply-To:      RFC 822: 4.4.3,
  where the sender wants replies to                   RFC 1036: 2.2.1
  go. Unfortunately, this is                          controversial.
  ambiguous, since there are
  different kinds of replies, which
  the sender may wish to go to
  different addresses. In
  particular, there are personal
  replies intended for only one
  person, and group replies,
  intended for the whole group of
  people who read the replied-to
  message (often a mailing list,
  anewsgroup name cannot appear
  here because of different syntax,
  see "Followup-To" below.).



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  Some mail systems use this header
  to indicate a better form of the
  e-mail address of the sender.
  Some mailing list expanders puts
  the name of the list in this
  header. These practices are
  controversial. The personal
  opinion of the author of this RFC
  is that this header should be
  avoided except in special cases,
  but this is a personal opinion
  not shared by all specialists in
  the area.

  Used in Usenet News to indicate      Followup-To:   RFC 1036: 2.2.3,
  that future discussions (=follow-                   not standardized
  up) on an article should go to a                    for use in e-mail.
  different set of newsgroups than
  the replied-to article. The most
  common usage is when an article
  is posted to several newsgroups,
  and further discussions is to
  take place in only one of them.

  In e-mail, this header may occur
  in a message which is sent to
  both e-mail and Usenet News, to
  show where follow-up in Usenet
  news is wanted. The header does
  not say anything about where
  follow-up in e-mail is to be
  sent.

  Note that the value of this
  header must always be one or more
  newsgroup names, never e-mail
  addresses.

  Address to which notifications       Errors-To:,    Non-standard,
  are to be sent and a request to      Return-        discouraged.
  get delivery notifications.          Receipt-To:
  Internet standards recommend,
  however, the use of RCPT TO and
  Return-Path, not Errors-To, for
  where delivery notifications are
  to be sent.





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  Whether non-delivery report is       Prevent-       RFC 1327, not for
  wanted at delivery error. Default    NonDelivery-   general usage.
  is to want such a report.            Report:

  Whether a delivery report is         Generate-      RFC 1327, not for
  wanted at successful delivery.       Delivery-      general usage.
  Default is not to generate such a    Report:
  report.

  Indicates whether the content of     Content-       RFC 1327, not for
  a message is to be returned with     Return:        general usage.
  non-delivery notifications.

  Possible future change of name       X400-Content-  non-standard
  for "Content-Return:"                Return:

3.6 Message identification and referral headers

  Unique ID of this message.           Message-ID:    RFC 822: 4.6.1
                                                      RFC 1036: 2.1.5.

  Unique ID of one body part of the    Content-ID:    RFC 1521: 6.1.
  content of a message.

  Base to be used for resolving        Content-Base:  Non-standard
  relative URIs within this content
  part.

  URI with which the content of        Content-       Non-standard
  this content part might be           Location:
  retrievable.

  Reference to message which this      In-Reply-To:   RFC 822: 4.6.2.
  message is a reply to.

  In e-mail: reference to other        References:    RFC 822: 4.6.3
  related messages, in Usenet News:                   RFC 1036: 2.1.5.
  reference to replied-to-articles.

  References to other related          See-Also:      Son-of-RFC1036
  articles in Usenet News.                            [21], non-standard

  Reference to previous message        Obsoletes:     RFC 1327, not for
  being corrected and replaced.                       general usage.
  Compare to "Supersedes:" below.
  This field may in the future be
  replaced with "Supersedes:".




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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  Commonly used in Usenet News in      Supersedes:    son-of-RFC1036
  similar ways to the "Obsoletes"                     [21], non-standard
  header described above. In Usenet
  News, however, Supersedes causes
  a full deletion of the replaced
  article in the server, while
  "Supersedes" and "Obsoletes" in e-
  mail is implemented in the client
  and often does not remove the old
  version of the text.

  Only in Usenet News, similar to      Article-       son-of-RFC1036
  "Supersedes:" but does not cause     Updates:       [21], non-standard
  the referenced article to be
  physically deleted.

  Reference to specially important     Article-       son-of-RFC1036
  articles for a particular Usenet     Names:         [21], non-standard
  Newsgroup.

3.7 Other textual headers

  Search keys for data base            Keywords:      RFC 822: 4.7.1
  retrieval.                                          RFC 1036: 2.2.9.

  Title, heading, subject. Often       Subject:       RFC 822: 4.7.1
  used as thread indicator for                        RFC 1036: 2.1.4.
  messages replying to or
  commenting on other messages.

  Comments on a message.               Comments:      RFC 822: 4.7.2.

  Description of a particular body     Content-       RFC 1521: 6.2.
  part of a message.                   Description:

  Organization to which the sender     Organization:  RFC 1036: 2.2.8,
  of this article belongs.                            not standardized
                                                      for use in e-mail.

  See Organization above.              Organisation:  Non-standard.

  Short text describing a longer       Summary:       RFC 1036: 2.2.10,
  article. Warning: Some mail                         not standardized
  systems will not display this                       for use in e-mail,
  text to the recipient. Because of                    discouraged.
  this, do not use this header for
  text which you want to ensure
  that the recipient gets.



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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  A text string which identifies       Content-       RFC 1327, not for
  the content of a message.            Identifier:    general usage.

3.8 Headers containing dates and times

  The time when a message was          Delivery-      RFC 1327, not for
  delivered to its recipient.          Date:          general usage.

  In Internet, the date when a         Date:          RFC 822: 5.1,
  message was written, in X.400,                      RFC 1123: 5.2.14
  the time a message was submitted.                   RFC 1036: 2.1.2.
  Some Internet mail systems also
  use the date when the message was
  submitted.

  A suggested expiration date. Can     Expires:       RFC 1036: 2.2.4,
  be used both to limit the time of                   not standardized
  an article which is not                             for use in e-mail.
  meaningful after a certain date,
  and to extend the storage of
  important articles.

  Time at which a message loses its    Expiry-Date:   RFC 1327, not for
  validity. This field may in the                     general usage.
  future be replaced by "Expires:".

  Latest time at which a reply is      Reply-By:      RFC 1327, not for
  requested (not demanded).                           general usage.

3.9 Quality information

  Can be "normal", "urgent" or "non-   Priority:      RFC 1327, not for
  urgent" and can influence                           general usage.
  transmission speed and delivery.

  Sometimes used as a priority         Precedence:    Non-standard,
  value which can influence                           controversial,
  transmission speed and delivery.                    discouraged.
  Common values are "bulk" and
  "first-class". Other uses is to
  control automatic replies and to
  control return-of-content
  facilities, and to stop mailing
  list loops.







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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  A hint from the originator to the    Importance:    RFC 1327 and
  recipients about how important a                    RFC 1911,
  message is. Values: High, normal                    experimental
  or low. Not used to control
  transmission speed.

  How sensitive it is to disclose      Sensitivity:   RFC 1327 and
  this message to other people than                   RFC 1911,
  the specified recipients. Values:                   experimental
  Personal, private, company
  confidential. The absence of this
  header in messages gatewayed from
  X.400 indicates that the message
  is not sensitive.

  Body parts are missing.              Incomplete-    RFC 1327, not for
                                       Copy:          general usage.

3.10 Language information

  Can include a code for the           Language:      RFC 1327, not for
  natural language used in a                          general usage.
  message, e.g. "en" for English.

  Can include a code for the           Content-       RFC 1766, proposed
  natural language used in a           Language:      standard.
  message, e.g. "en" for English.

3.11 Size information

  Inserted by certain mailers to       Content-       Non-standard,
  indicate the size in bytes of the    Length:        discouraged.
  message text. This is part of a
  format some mailers use when
  showing a message to its users,
  and this header should not be
  used when sending a message
  through the net. The use of this
  header in transmission of a
  message can cause several
  robustness and interoperability
  problems.

  Size of the message.                 Lines:         RFC 1036: 2.2.12,
                                                      not standardized
                                                      for use in e-mail.





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3.12 Conversion control

  The body of this message may not     Conversion:    RFC 1327, not for
  be converted from one character                     general usage.
  set to another. Values:
  Prohibited and allowed.

  Non-standard variant of              Content-       Non-standard.
  Conversion: with the same values.    Conversion:

  The body of this message may not     Conversion-    RFC 1327, not for
  be converted from one character      With-Loss:     general usage.
  set to another if information
  will be lost. Values: Prohibited
  and allowed.

3.13 Encoding information

  Format of content (character set     Content-Type:  RFC 1049,
  etc.) Note that the values for                      RFC 1123: 5.2.13,
  this header are defined in                          RFC 1521: 4.
  different ways in RFC 1049 and in                   RFC 1766: 4.1
  MIME (RFC 1521), look for the
  "MIME-version" header to
  understand if Content-Type is to
  be interpreted according to RFC
  1049 or according to MIME. The
  MIME definition should be used in
  generating mail.

  RFC 1766 defines a parameter
  "difference" to this header.

  Information from the SGML entity     Content-SGML-  non-standard
  declaration corresponding to the     Entity:
  entity contained in the body of
  the body part.

  Coding method used in a MIME         Content-       RFC 1521: 5.
  message body.                        Transfer-
                                       Encoding:

  Only used with the value             Message-Type:  RFC 1327, not for
  "Delivery Report" to indicates                      general usage.
  that this is a delivery report
  gatewayed from X.400.





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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  Used in several different ways by    Encoding:      RFC 1154,
  different mail systems. Some use                    RFC 1505,
  it for a kind of content-type                       experimental.
  information, some for encoding
  and length information, some for
  a kind of boundary information,
  some in other ways.

3.14 Resent-headers

  When manually forwarding a           Resent-Reply-  RFC 822: C.3.3.
  message, headers referring to the    To:,
  forwarding, not to the original      Resent-From:,
  message.  Note: MIME specifies       Resent-
  another way of resending             Sender:,
  messages, using the "Message"        Resent-From:,
  Content-Type.                        Resent-Date:,
                                       Resent-To:,
                                       Resent-cc:,
                                       Resent-bcc:,
                                       Resent-
                                       Message-ID:

3.15 Security and reliability

  Checksum of content to ensure        Content-MD5:   RFC 1864, proposed
  that it has not been modified.                      standard.

  Used in Usenet News to store         Xref:          RFC 1036: 2.2.13,
  information to avoid showing a                      only in Usenet
  reader the same article twice if                    News, not in e-
  it was sent to more than one                        mail.
  newsgroup. Only for local usage
  within one Usenet News server,
  should not be sent between
  servers.

3.16 Miscellaneous

  Name of file in which a copy of      Fcc:           Non-standard.
  this message is stored.

  Has been automatically forwarded.    Auto-          RFC 1327, not for
                                       Forwarded:     general usage.







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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  Can be used in Internet mail to      Discarded-     RFC 1327, not for
  indicate X.400 IPM extensions        X400-IPMS-     general usage.
  which could not be mapped to         Extensions:
  Internet mail format.

  Can be used in Internet mail to      Discarded-     RFC 1327, not for
  indicate X.400 MTS extensions        X400-MTS-      general usage.
  which could not be mapped to         Extensions:
  Internet mail format.

  This field is used by some mail      Status:         Non-standard,
  delivery systems to indicate the                     should never
  status of delivery for this                          appear in mail in
  message when stored. Common                          transit.
  values of this field are:

  U    message is not downloaded
       and not deleted.

  R    message is read or
       downloaded.

  O    message is old but not
       deleted.

  D    to be deleted.

  N    new (a new message also
       sometimes is distinguished
       by not having any "Status:"
       header.

  Combinations of these characters
  can occur, such as "Status: OR"
  to indicate that a message is
  downloaded but not deleted.















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4. Acknowledgments

  Harald Tveit Alvestrand, Ned Freed, Olle Jdrnefors, Keith Moore, Nick
  Smith and several other people have helped me with compiling this
  list.  I especially thank Ned Freed and Olle Jdrnefors for their
  thorough review and many helpful suggestions for improvements. I
  alone take responsibility for any errors which may still be in the
  list.

  An earlier version of this list has been published as part of [13].

5. References

Ref.    Author, title                                    IETF status
                                                        (July 1996)
-----   ---------------------------------------------    -----------
[1]     J. Postel: "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol",      Standard,
       STD 10, RFC 821, August 1982.                    Recommended

[2]     D. Crocker: "Standard for the format of ARPA     Standard,
       Internet text messages." STD 11, RFC 822,        Recommended
       August 1982.

[3]     M.R. Horton, R. Adams: "Standard for             Not an offi-
       interchange of USENET messages", RFC 1036,       cial IETF
       December 1987.                                   standard,
                                                        but in
                                                        reality a de-
                                                        facto
                                                        standard for
                                                        Usenet News

[4]     M. Sirbu: "A Content-Type header header for      Standard,
       internet messages", RFC 1049, March 1988.        Recommended,
                                                        but can in
                                                        the future
                                                        be expected
                                                        to be
                                                        replaced by
                                                        MIME

[5]     R. Braden (editor): "Requirements for            Standard,
       Internet Hosts -- Application and Support",      Required
       STD-3, RFC 1123, October 1989.

[6]     D. Robinson, R. Ullman: "Encoding Header         Non-standard
       Header for Internet Messages", RFC 1154,
       April 1990.



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[7]     S. Hardcastle-Kille: "Mapping between            Proposed
       X.400(1988) / ISO 10021 and RFC 822",  RFC       standard,
       1327 May 1992.                                   elective

[8]     H. Alvestrand & J. Romaguera: "Rules for         Proposed
       Downgrading Messages from X.400/88 to            standard,
       X.400/84 When MIME Content-Types are Present     elective
       in the Messages", RFC 1496, August 1993.

[9]     A. Costanzo: "Encoding Header Header for         Non-standard
       Internet Messages", RFC 1154, April 1990.

[10]    A. Costanzo, D. Robinson: "Encoding Header       Experimental
       Header for Internet Messages", RFC 1505,
       August 1993.

[11]    N. Borenstein & N. Freed: "MIME (Multipurpose    Draft
       Internet Mail Extensions) Part One:              Standard,
       Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing the     elective
       Format of Internet Message Bodies", RFC 1521,
       Sept 1993.

[12]    H. Alvestrand: "Tags for the Identification      Proposed
       of Languages", RFC 1766, February 1995.          standard,
                                                        elective

[13]    J. Palme: "Electronic Mail", Artech House        Non-standard
       publishers, London-Boston January 1995.

[14]    R. Troost, S. Dorner: "Communicating             Experimental
       Presentation Information in Internet
       Messages: The Content-Disposition Header",
       RFC 1806, June 1995.

[15]    B. Kantor, P. Lapsley, "Network News Transfer    Proposed
       Protocol: "A Proposed Standard for the Stream-   standard
       Based Transmission of News", RFC 977, January
       1986.

[16]    1848  PS   S. Crocker, N. Freed, J. Galvin,      Proposed
       S. Murphy, "MIME Object Security Services",      standard
       RFC 1848, March 1995.

[17]    J. Myers, M. Rose: The Content-MD5 Header        Draft
       Header, RFC 1864, October 1995.                  standard






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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


[18]    M. Horton, UUCP mail interchange format          Not an offi-
       standard, RFC 976, Januari 1986.                 cial IETF
                                                        standard,
                                                        but in
                                                        reality a de-
                                                        facto
                                                        standard for
                                                        Usenet News

[19]    T. Berners-Lee, R. Headering, H. Frystyk:        Not an official
       Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.0,         IETF standard,
       RFC 1945, May 1996.                              but the defacto
                                                        standard until
                                                        the next
                                                        version is
                                                        published

[20]    G. Vaudreuil: Voice Profile for Internet         Experimental
       Mail, RFC 1911, February 1996.

[21]    H. Spencer: News Article Format and              Not even an
       Transmission, June 1994,                         RFC, but
       FTP://zoo.toronto.edu/pub/news.ps                still widely
       FTP://zoo.toronto.edu/pub/news.txt.Z             used and
                                                        partly
       This document is often referenced under the      almost a de-
       name "son-of-RFC1036".                           facto
                                                        standard for
                                                        Usenet News


6. Author's Address

  Jacob Palme                          Phone: +46-8-16 16 67
  Stockholm University/KTH             Fax: +46-8-783 08 29
  Electrum 230                         E-mail: [email protected]
  S-164 40 Kista, Sweden














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Appendix A:
  Headers sorted by Internet RFC document in which they appear.

  RFC 822
  -------

  bcc
  cc
  Comments
  Date
  From
  In-Reply-To
  Keywords
  Message-ID
  Received
  References
  Reply-To
  Resent-
  Resent-bcc
  Resent-cc
  Resent-Date
  Resent-From
  Resent-From
  Resent-Message-ID
  Resent-Reply-To
  Resent-To
  Return-Path
  Sender
  Sender
  Subject
  To

  RFC 976
  -------

  "From " (followed by space, not colon (:")















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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  RFC 1036
  --------

  Approved
  Control
  Distribution
  Expires
  Followup-To
  Lines
  Newsgroups
  Organization
  Path
  Summary
  Xref

  RFC 1049
  --------

  Content-Type

  RFC 1327
  --------

  Alternate-recipient
  Auto-Forwarded
  Autoforwarded
  Content-Identifier
  Content-Return
  Conversion
  Conversion-With-Loss
  Delivery-Date
  Discarded-X400-IPMS-Extensions
  Discarded-X400-MTS-Extensions
  Disclose-Recipients
  DL-Expansion-History
  Expiry-Date
  Generate-Delivery-Report
  Importance
  Incomplete-Copy
  Language
  Message-Type Delivery
  Obsoletes
  Original-Encoded-Information-Types
  Prevent-NonDelivery-Report
  Priority
  Reply-By
  Report
  Sensitivity



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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  RFC 1505
  --------

  Encoding

  RFC 1521
  --------

  Content-Description
  Content-ID
  Content-Transfer-Encoding
  Content-Type
  MIME-Version

  RFC 1806
  --------

  Content-Disposition

  RFC 1864
  --------

  Content-MD5

  RFC 1911
  --------

  Importance
  Sensitivity

  son-of-RFC1036 [21]
  -------------------

  Also-Control
  Article-Names
  Article-Updates
  See-Also
  Supersedes













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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  Not Internet standard
  ---------------------

  Apparently-to
  Content-Base
  Content-Length
  Content-Location
  Content-SGML-Entity
  Encoding
  Errors-To
  Return-Receipt-To
  Fax
  "From " (not followed by ":")
  Telefax
  Fcc
  For-Comment
  For-Handling
  Mail-System-Version
  Mailer
  Organisation
  Originating-Client
  Phone
  Status
  Supersedes
  X400-Content-Return
  X-Mailer
  X-Newsreader
























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Appendix B:
  Alphabetical index

  Section Heading-header
  ------- --------------

  3.3     Also-Control
  3.3     Alternate-Recipient
  3.4     Apparently-To
  3.4     Approved
  3.6     Article-Names
  3.6     Article-Updates
  3.16    Auto-Forwarded
  3.4     bcc
  3.4     cc
          Client, see Originating-Client
  3.7     Comments
  3.6     Content-Base
  3.12    Content-Conversion
  3.7     Content-Description
  3.3     Content-Disposition
  3.6     Content-ID
  3.7     Content-Identifier
  3.10    Content-Language see also Language
  3.11    Content-Length
  3.6     Content-Location
  3.15    Content-MD5
  3.4     Content-Return
  3.13    Content-SGML-Entity
  3.13    Content-Transfer-Encoding
  3.13    Content-Type
  3.3     Control
  3.12    Conversion
  3.12    Conversion-With-Loss
  3.8     Date
  3.8     Delivery-Date
          Delivery-Report, see Generate-Delivery-Report, Prevent-
          Delivery-Report, Non-Delivery-Report, Content-Type
          Description, see Content-Description
  3.16    Discarded-X400-IPMS-Extensions
  3.16    Discarded-X400-MTS-Extensions
  3.3     Disclose-Recipients
          Disposition, see Content-Disposition
  3.4     Distribution
  3.2     DL-Expansion-History-Indication
  3.13    Encoding see also Content-Transfer-Encoding
  3.4     Errors-To




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RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  3.8     Expires
          Extension see Discarded-X400-IPMS-Extensions, Discarded-
          X400-MTS-Extensions
  3.4     Fax
  3.16    Fcc
  3.4     Followup-To
          Forwarded, see Auto-Forwarded
  3.4     For-Comment
  3.4     For-Handling
  3.4     From
  3.4     Generate-Delivery-Report
          History, see DL-Expansion-History-Indication
          ID, see Content-ID and Message-ID
          Identifier, see Content-ID and Message-ID
  3.9     Importance
  3.6     In-Reply-To
  3.9     Incomplete-Copy
  3.7     Keywords
  3.10    Language see also Content-Language
          Length see Content-Length
  3.11    Lines
  3.4     Mail-System-Version see also X-mailer
  3.4     Mailer
          MD5 see Content-MD5
  3.6     Message-ID
  3.13    Message-Type
  3.3     MIME-Version
  3.4     Newsgroups
          Newsreader, see X-Newsreader
  3.6     Obsoletes
  3.7     Organisation
  3.7     Organization
  3.3     Original-Encoded-Information-Types
  3.4     Originating-Client
  3.2     Path
  3.4     Phone
  3.9     Precedence
  3.4     Prevent-NonDelivery-Report
  3.9     Priority
  3.2     Received
          Recipient, see To, cc, bcc, Alternate-Recipient, Disclose-
          Recipient
  3.6     References
  3.8     Reply-By
  3.4     Reply-To, see also In-Reply-To, References
  3.14    Resent-
          Return see also Content-Return
  3.2     Return-Path



Palme                        Informational                     [Page 26]

RFC 2076                Internet Message Headers           February 1997


  3.5     Return-Receipt-To
  3.6     See-Also
  3.4     Sender
  3.9     Sensitivity
  3.16    Status
  3.7     Subject
  3.7     Summary
  3.6     Supersedes
  3.4     Telefax
  3.4     To
          Transfer-Encoding see Content-Transfer-Encoding
          Type see Content-Type, Message-Type, Original-Encoded-
          Information-Types
          Version, see MIME-Version, X-Mailer
  3.4     X400-Content-Return
  3.4     X-Mailer see also Mail-System-Version
  3.4     X-Newsreader
  3.15    Xref

































Palme                        Informational                     [Page 27]