Copyright (c) 1980 Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement
specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
@(#)mail7.nr 6.1 (Berkeley) 5/23/86
.sh 1 "Format of messages" .pp This section describes the format of messages. Messages begin with a .i from line, which consists of the word .q From followed by a user name, followed by anything, followed by a date in the format returned by the .i ctime library routine described in section 3 of the Unix Programmer's Manual. A possible .i ctime format date is: .(l Tue Dec 1 10:58:23 1981 .)l The .i ctime date may be optionally followed by a single space and a time zone indication, which should be three capital letters, such as PDT. .pp Following the .i from line are zero or more .i "header field" lines. Each header field line is of the form: .(l name: information .)l .i Name can be anything, but only certain header fields are recognized as having any meaning. The recognized header fields are: .i article-id , .i bcc , .i cc , .i from , .i reply-to , .i sender , .i subject , and .i to . Other header fields are also significant to other systems; see, for example, the current Arpanet message standard for much more information on this topic. A header field can be continued onto following lines by making the first character on the following line a space or tab character. .pp If any headers are present, they must be followed by a blank line. The part that follows is called the .i body of the message, and must be ASCII text, not containing null characters. Each line in the message body must be no longer than 512 characters and terminated with an ASCII newline character. If binary data must be passed through the mail system, it is suggested that this data be encoded in a system which encodes six bits into a printable character (i.e.: uuencode). For example, one could use the upper and lower case letters, the digits, and the characters comma and period to make up the 64 characters. Then, one can send a 16-bit binary number as three characters. These characters should be packed into lines, preferably lines about 70 characters long as long lines are transmitted more efficiently. .pp The message delivery system always adds a blank line to the end of each message. This blank line must not be deleted. .pp The UUCP message delivery system sometimes adds a blank line to the end of a message each time it is forwarded through a machine. .pp It should be noted that some network transport protocols enforce limits to the lengths of messages.
All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement
specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
@(#)mail7.nr 6.1 (Berkeley) 5/23/86
.sh 1 "Format of messages" .pp This section describes the format of messages. Messages begin with a .i from line, which consists of the word .q From followed by a user name, followed by anything, followed by a date in the format returned by the .i ctime library routine described in section 3 of the Unix Programmer's Manual. A possible .i ctime format date is: .(l Tue Dec 1 10:58:23 1981 .)l The .i ctime date may be optionally followed by a single space and a time zone indication, which should be three capital letters, such as PDT. .pp Following the .i from line are zero or more .i "header field" lines. Each header field line is of the form: .(l name: information .)l .i Name can be anything, but only certain header fields are recognized as having any meaning. The recognized header fields are: .i article-id , .i bcc , .i cc , .i from , .i reply-to , .i sender , .i subject , and .i to . Other header fields are also significant to other systems; see, for example, the current Arpanet message standard for much more information on this topic. A header field can be continued onto following lines by making the first character on the following line a space or tab character. .pp If any headers are present, they must be followed by a blank line. The part that follows is called the .i body of the message, and must be ASCII text, not containing null characters. Each line in the message body must be no longer than 512 characters and terminated with an ASCII newline character. If binary data must be passed through the mail system, it is suggested that this data be encoded in a system which encodes six bits into a printable character (i.e.: uuencode). For example, one could use the upper and lower case letters, the digits, and the characters comma and period to make up the 64 characters. Then, one can send a 16-bit binary number as three characters. These characters should be packed into lines, preferably lines about 70 characters long as long lines are transmitted more efficiently. .pp The message delivery system always adds a blank line to the end of each message. This blank line must not be deleted. .pp The UUCP message delivery system sometimes adds a blank line to the end of a message each time it is forwarded through a machine. .pp It should be noted that some network transport protocols enforce limits to the lengths of messages.