| <!DOCTYPE html> |
| <html lang="en"> |
| <head> |
| <meta charset="utf-8"> |
| <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"> |
| <title>Internet Message Format :: Apache James</title> |
| <meta name="generator" content="Antora 3.1.2"> |
| <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../../../_/css/site.css"> |
| </head> |
| <body class="article"> |
| <header class="header"> |
| <nav class="navbar"> |
| <div class="navbar-brand"> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="https://james.apache.org"><img src="/_/img/james.svg" alt="james logo"> Apache James</a> |
| <button class="navbar-burger" data-target="topbar-nav"> |
| <span></span> |
| <span></span> |
| <span></span> |
| </button> |
| </div> |
| <div id="topbar-nav" class="navbar-menu"> |
| <div class="navbar-end"> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="#">Home</a> |
| <div class="navbar-item has-dropdown is-hoverable"> |
| <a class="navbar-link" href="#">Products</a> |
| <div class="navbar-dropdown"> |
| <div class="navbar-item"><strong>James server</strong></div> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="https://github.com/apache/james-project">Repository</a> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="https://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/JAMES/issues">Issue Tracker</a> |
| <hr class="navbar-divider"> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="https://james.apache.org/mime4j/index.html">Mime4J</a> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="https://james.apache.org/jsieve/index.html">jSieve</a> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="https://james.apache.org/jspf/index.html">jSPF</a> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="https://james.apache.org/jdkim/index.html">jDKIM</a> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="https://james.apache.org/hupa/index.html">HUPA</a> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="navbar-item has-dropdown is-hoverable"> |
| <a class="navbar-link" href="#">Community</a> |
| <div class="navbar-dropdown"> |
| <!-- Not ideal but dropping the version in the href requires tweaking james-projet docs module first --> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="/james-project/3.6.0/community/mailing-lists.html">Mailing lists</a> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="https://gitter.im/apache/james-project"><svg version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" viewBox="0 0 32 32" class="logo-gitter-sign" data-v-44ebcb1a=""><rect x="15" y="5" width="2" height="10"></rect> <rect x="10" y="5" width="2" height="20"></rect> <rect x="5" y="5" width="2" height="20"></rect> <rect width="2" height="15"></rect></svg> Gitter</a> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="https://twitter.com/ApacheJames"> |
| <span class="icon"> |
| <svg aria-hidden="true" data-icon="twitter" role="img" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512"> |
| <path fill="#57aaee" d="M459.37 151.716c.325 4.548.325 9.097.325 13.645 0 138.72-105.583 298.558-298.558 298.558-59.452 0-114.68-17.219-161.137-47.106 8.447.974 16.568 1.299 25.34 1.299 49.055 0 94.213-16.568 130.274-44.832-46.132-.975-84.792-31.188-98.112-72.772 6.498.974 12.995 1.624 19.818 1.624 9.421 0 18.843-1.3 27.614-3.573-48.081-9.747-84.143-51.98-84.143-102.985v-1.299c13.969 7.797 30.214 12.67 47.431 13.319-28.264-18.843-46.781-51.005-46.781-87.391 0-19.492 5.197-37.36 14.294-52.954 51.655 63.675 129.3 105.258 216.365 109.807-1.624-7.797-2.599-15.918-2.599-24.04 0-57.828 46.782-104.934 104.934-104.934 30.213 0 57.502 12.67 76.67 33.137 23.715-4.548 46.456-13.32 66.599-25.34-7.798 24.366-24.366 44.833-46.132 57.827 21.117-2.273 41.584-8.122 60.426-16.243-14.292 20.791-32.161 39.308-52.628 54.253z"></path> |
| </svg> |
| </span> Twitter |
| </a> |
| <a class="navbar-item" href="#"> <svg class="octicon octicon-mark-github v-align-middle" viewBox="0 0 16 16" version="1.1" aria-hidden="true"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M8 0C3.58 0 0 3.58 0 8c0 3.54 2.29 6.53 5.47 7.59.4.07.55-.17.55-.38 0-.19-.01-.82-.01-1.49-2.01.37-2.53-.49-2.69-.94-.09-.23-.48-.94-.82-1.13-.28-.15-.68-.52-.01-.53.63-.01 1.08.58 1.23.82.72 1.21 1.87.87 2.33.66.07-.52.28-.87.51-1.07-1.78-.2-3.64-.89-3.64-3.95 0-.87.31-1.59.82-2.15-.08-.2-.36-1.02.08-2.12 0 0 .67-.21 2.2.82.64-.18 1.32-.27 2-.27.68 0 1.36.09 2 .27 1.53-1.04 2.2-.82 2.2-.82.44 1.1.16 1.92.08 2.12.51.56.82 1.27.82 2.15 0 3.07-1.87 3.75-3.65 3.95.29.25.54.73.54 1.48 0 1.07-.01 1.93-.01 2.2 0 .21.15.46.55.38A8.013 8.013 0 0016 8c0-4.42-3.58-8-8-8z"></path></svg> Github</a> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <!-- <div class="navbar-item"> |
| <span class="control"> |
| <a class="button is-primary" href="#">Download</a> |
| </span> |
| </div> --> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </nav> |
| </header> |
| <div class="body"> |
| <div class="nav-container" data-component="james-project" data-version="3.6.0"> |
| <aside class="nav"> |
| <div class="panels"> |
| <div class="nav-panel-menu is-active" data-panel="menu"> |
| <nav class="nav-menu"> |
| <button class="nav-menu-toggle" aria-label="Toggle expand/collapse all" style="display: none"></button> |
| <h3 class="title"><a href="../../index.html">Apache James Server</a></h3> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="0"> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="1"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../index.html">Concepts</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../user/index.html">User Model</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../mail/index.html">Emails</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="#mail/messages/index.adoc">mail/messages/index.adoc</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="#mail/messages/imf.adoc">mail/messages/imf.adoc</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="#mail/messages/mime.adoc">mail/messages/mime.adoc</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../protocols/index.html">Protocols</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../protocols/smtp.html">SMTP</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../protocols/pop.html">POP</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../protocols/imap.html">IMAP</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../protocols/jmap.html">JMAP</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../protocols/esmtp.html">ESMTP</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../protocols/lmtp.html">LMTP</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../storage/index.html">Storage</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../storage/mailbox.html">Mailboxes</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../storage/users.html">Users</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../processing/index.html">Processing</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../configuration.html">Configuration</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../glossary.html">Glossary</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="0"> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="1"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/index.html">Servers</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/demo.html">Demo</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/5-minute-demo.html">Short Demo</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/15-minute-demo.html">Long Demo</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/basic/index.html">Basic</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/basic/context.html">Context</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/basic/objectives.html">Objectives</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/basic/concepts.html">Concepts</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/basic/architecture.html">Architecture</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/basic/conf/index.html">Configuration</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/basic/help.html">Help</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/extendable.html">Extendable</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed.html">Distributed</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/objectives.html">Objectives and motivation</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/architecture/index.html">Architecture</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/architecture/consistency-model.html">Consistency Model</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/architecture/specialized-instances.html">Specialized instances</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/run.html">Run</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/run-docker.html">Run with docker</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/index.html">Configuration</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <span class="nav-text">Protocols</span> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/imap.html">imapserver.xml</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/jmap.html">jmap.properties</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/jmx.html">jmx.properties</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/smtp.html">smtpserver.xml & lmtpserver.xml</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/smtp-hooks.html">Packaged SMTP hooks</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/pop3.html">pop3server.xml</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/webadmin.html">webadmin.properties</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/ssl.html">SSL & TLS</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <span class="nav-text">Storage dependencies</span> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/blobstore.html">blobstore.properties</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/cassandra.html">cassandra.properties</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/elasticsearch.html">elasticsearch.properties</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/rabbitmq.html">rabbitmq.properties</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/tika.html">tika.properties</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <span class="nav-text">Core components</span> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/batchsizes.html">batchsizes.properties</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/dns.html">dnsservice.xml</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/domainlist.html">domainlist.xml</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/healthcheck.html">healthcheck.properties</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/mailetcontainer.html">mailetcontainer.xml</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/mailets.html">Packaged Mailets</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/matchers.html">Packaged Matchers</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/mailrepositorystore.html">mailrepositorystore.xml</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/recipientrewritetable.html">recipientrewritetable.xml</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/usersrepository.html">usersrepository.xml</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <span class="nav-text">Extensions</span> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/vault.html">deletedMessageVault.properties</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/extensions.html">extensions.properties</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/listeners.html">listeners.xml</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/spam.html">Anti-Spam setup</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/remote-delivery-error-handling.html">About RemoteDelivery error handling</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/collecting-contacts.html">Contact collection</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/collecting-events.html">Event collection</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="5"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/configure/dsn.html">ESMTP DSN support</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/operate/index.html">Operate</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/operate/guide.html">Operator guide</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/operate/logging.html">Logging</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/operate/webadmin.html">WebAdmin REST administration API</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/operate/metrics.html">Metrics</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/operate/migrating.html">Migrating existing data</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/operate/cli.html">Command Line Interface</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/operate/cassandra-migration.html">Cassandra migration</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/extending/index.html">Extending server behavior</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/extending/mail-processing.html">Custom mail processing components</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/extending/mailbox-listeners.html">Custom Mailbox Listeners</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/extending/smtp-hooks.html">Custom SMTP hooks</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="4"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/distributed/extending/webadmin-routes.html">Custom WebAdmin routes</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../servers/test.html">Test</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="0"> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="1"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../customization/index.html">Customization</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="0"> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="1"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../development/index.html">Developer Guide</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="0"> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="1"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../community/index.html">Community</a> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../community/mailing-lists.html">Mailing lists</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../community/contributing.html">Contributing</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../community/guidelines.html">Guidelines</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../community/download.html">Download releases</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../community/website.html">Building and publishing the website</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../community/release.html">Creating an official Apache James release</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="../../community/support.html">Professional support</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="2"> |
| <button class="nav-item-toggle"></button> |
| <span class="nav-text">Apache Software Foundation</span> |
| <ul class="nav-list"> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="https://www.apache.org/">ASF</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="https://www.apache.org/foundation/getinvolved.html">Get involved</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="https://www.apache.org/foundation/faq.html">FAQ</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="https://www.apache.org/licenses/">Licenses</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="https://www.apache.org/security/">Security</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="https://www.apache.org/foundation/sponsorship.html">Sponsorship</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="nav-item" data-depth="3"> |
| <a class="nav-link" href="https://www.apache.org/foundation/thanks.html">Thanks</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </nav> |
| </div> |
| <div class="nav-panel-explore" data-panel="explore"> |
| <div class="context"> |
| <span class="title">Apache James Server</span> |
| <span class="version">3.6.0 Snapshot</span> |
| </div> |
| <ul class="components"> |
| <li class="component"> |
| <div class="title"><a href="../../../../james-distributed-app/3.8.1/index.html">Apache James Distributed Server</a></div> |
| <ul class="versions"> |
| <li class="version is-latest"> |
| <a href="../../../../james-distributed-app/3.8.1/index.html">3.8.1 SNAPSHOT</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="component is-current"> |
| <div class="title"><a href="../../../3.8.1/index.html">Apache James Server</a></div> |
| <ul class="versions"> |
| <li class="version is-latest"> |
| <a href="../../../3.8.1/index.html">3.8.1 SNAPSHOT</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="version is-current"> |
| <a href="../../index.html">3.6.0 Snapshot</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| <li class="component"> |
| <div class="title"><a href="../../../../james-site/latest/index.html">Apache James Site</a></div> |
| <ul class="versions"> |
| <li class="version is-latest"> |
| <a href="../../../../james-site/latest/index.html">latest</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </aside> |
| </div> |
| <main class="article"> |
| <div class="toolbar" role="navigation"> |
| <button class="nav-toggle"></button> |
| <a href="../../../../james-site/latest/homepage.html" class="home-link"></a> |
| <nav class="breadcrumbs" aria-label="breadcrumbs"> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="../../index.html">Apache James Server</a></li> |
| <li><a href="imf.html">Internet Message Format</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| </nav> |
| <div class="page-versions"> |
| <button class="version-menu-toggle" title="Show other versions of page">3.6.0 Snapshot</button> |
| <div class="version-menu"> |
| <a class="version" href="../../../3.8.1/concepts/messages/imf.html">3.8.1 SNAPSHOT</a> |
| <a class="version is-current" href="imf.html">3.6.0 Snapshot</a> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="edit-this-page"><a href="https://github.com/apache/james-project/blob/james-project-3.6.0/docs/modules/concepts/pages/messages/imf.adoc">Edit this Page</a></div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="content"> |
| <aside class="toc sidebar" data-title="Contents" data-levels="2"> |
| <div class="toc-menu"></div> |
| </aside> |
| <article class="doc"> |
| <h1 class="page">Internet Message Format</h1> |
| <div class="sect1"> |
| <h2 id="_overview"><a class="anchor" href="#_overview"></a>Overview</h2> |
| <div class="sectionbody"> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>What people casually call "email" actually refers more specifically to a |
| text message written in a specified format called |
| <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email">"Internet Message Format"</a> or "IMF". |
| After the first IMF specification was published in 1982 there was no looking back. |
| Email took the world by storm. Today it is arguably the most prevalent means of |
| communicating with a distant party.</p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>IMF is very basic, and is limited to only specifying a syntax for text messages. |
| For the transmission of images, audio, or other types of data we need to make |
| use of the <a href="#mail/messages/mime.adoc" class="xref unresolved">MIME</a> specification. |
| Although IMF forms the base standard upon which |
| email is based, email today is rarely used without MIME. We therefore consider |
| for practical purposes that an email message is essentially the equivalent of |
| a MIME message.</p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="sect1"> |
| <h2 id="_specifications"><a class="anchor" href="#_specifications"></a>Specifications</h2> |
| <div class="sectionbody"> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>The specifications for Internet Message Format (IMF) form the basis of what we commonly |
| call "email".</p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="sect2"> |
| <h3 id="_rfc822"><a class="anchor" href="#_rfc822"></a>RFC822</h3> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p><a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc822">RFC822</a> ("Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages") |
| was the original standard that defined the format of an email. It was obsoleted by |
| <a href="#_rfc2822">RFC2822</a>. The definition of an email under this standard was an attempt to take the lessons |
| learned from the ARPANET and extend the use of text messaging to a broader context.</p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>Electronic mail messages are defined as having contents and an envelope. The contents |
| consist of header fields and, optionally, a body. The body is nothing more than |
| a (potentially empty) sequence of lines of text.</p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>Although this sounds like a an extremely simple concept, to get two completely separate systems |
| to agree and understand each other is a surprisingly complex problem that most people |
| today take for granted. Most of RFC822 deals with the nitty-gritty of formatting and parsing |
| this type of text message.</p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>This specification deals with the headers, additionally relating them to the sending and |
| forwarding of messages. The body content is dealt with in <a href="#RFC2045">[RFC2045]</a></p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="sect2"> |
| <h3 id="_rfc2822"><a class="anchor" href="#_rfc2822"></a>RFC2822</h3> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p><a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822">RFC2822</a> ("Internet Message Format") |
| obsoletes <a href="#_rfc822">RFC822</a>, and was obsoleted by <a href="#_rfc5322">RFC5322</a>.</p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>The standard builds on RFC822, but limits its scope to only the sytax of the |
| message, and obsoletes much of what was defined by RFC822. The envelope was |
| split into a separate specification, <a href="#RFC2821">[RFC2821]</a>.</p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="sect2"> |
| <h3 id="_rfc5322"><a class="anchor" href="#_rfc5322"></a>RFC5322</h3> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p><a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5322">RFC5322</a> ("Internet Message Format") |
| was published in 2008. |
| It obsoletes <a href="#_rfc2822">RFC2822</a> and is currently the specification still actually in use.</p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>It builds on RFC2822, updating it to the then-current context and obsoleting |
| outdated parts of RFC2822.</p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="sect1"> |
| <h2 id="_james_model"><a class="anchor" href="#_james_model"></a>James Model</h2> |
| <div class="sectionbody"> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>While the general description of IMF is not sufficient for building a complex |
| system like James, the technical specifications are unfortunately |
| very messy and overly-complex due to their history and the context in which |
| they were developed.</p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>Since modern-day messaging almost always requires MIME, and since the |
| separation between IMF and MIME is not really useful from a usage perspective, |
| James considers an "email" to be both IMF- an MIME-compliant. For all intents |
| and purposes, James does not consider the concept of IMF in its domain model.</p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </article> |
| </div> |
| </main> |
| </div> |
| <footer class="footer"> |
| <p>This page was built using the Antora default UI.</p> |
| <p>The source code for this UI is licensed under the terms of the MPL-2.0 license.</p> |
| </footer> |
| <script id="site-script" src="../../../../_/js/site.js" data-ui-root-path="../../../../_"></script> |
| <script async src="../../../../_/js/vendor/highlight.js"></script> |
| </body> |
| </html> |