Re: non-US-ASCII characters in mail headers

From: Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply (helbig_at_astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de)
Date: 03/31/05 

Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 12:14:21 +0000 (UTC)

In article <1112263567.925ba1a7c3930e13e4e31b1cdd3088b9@teranews>, JF
Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot@teksavvy.com> writes:

> Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply wrote:
> > The reason I ask is that yesterday, for the first time ever, I got an
> > error message from a mail server because the Subject: header of a mail
> > message I sent had such a character in it. Is this in violation of any
> > RFC, i.e. was the mail server correct in rejecting it?
>
> Yes and no. There are 8 bit exxtesions to RFC822 which allow raw 8 bit
> characters. Many SMTP serves automatically translate messages to quoted
> printable when they see any caractedr greater than 127 which is what was
> required prior to the 8 bit extensions becoming "legal".

OK, but the server in question rejected it.

> Strictly speaking, you are not RFC822 complaint when you send raw 8 bit
> characters. But you are compliant with other RFCs which superceded RFC822.

OK, but is it RFC822-compliant to reject such a message as well?
(Presumably, it would be compliant with the extended standards, but I'm
thinking of RFC822-compliance here.)

>
> TCPIP services on VMS seem to simply chop the high bit of charcaters
> when you tell you don't have any 8bit clean channel. (As oppposed to
> encoding charcaters). But I haven,t tested this in a long while though.

Right; I have 8-bit transport switched on.

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