From: Bruce Lilly (blilly@erols.com)
Date: Fri Sep 27 2002 - 16:24:10 CDT
Charles Lindsey wrote:
> Actually, I don't think the term "ESMTP" is used anywhere in RFC 2821.
Mail-parameters = esmtp-param *(SP esmtp-param)
Rcpt-parameters = esmtp-param *(SP esmtp-param)
Klensin Standards Track [Page 36]
RFC 2821 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol April 2001
esmtp-param = esmtp-keyword ["=" esmtp-value]
esmtp-keyword = (ALPHA / DIGIT) *(ALPHA / DIGIT / "-")
esmtp-value = 1*(%d33-60 / %d62-127)
; any CHAR excluding "=", SP, and control characters
And in case you're not satisfied with lower-case:
Klensin Standards Track [Page 52]
RFC 2821 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol April 2001
; servers SHOULD NOT use unregistered names.
Protocol = "ESMTP" / "SMTP" / Attdl-Protocol
> But the whole point is that it is exceedinly rare to encounter a server
> that does not support 8BITMIME in some form. Hence my claim that,
> practically speaking, 8bit stuff in the headers of multiparts will get
> through unscathed so often that it is hardly worth the trouble for a
> gateway to worry about it (sadly, that is not true for such headers at
> the top level, because of the sendmail problem).
That's a red herring and you know it. The issue is not about MTAs alone.
See http://www.imc.org/ietf-822/mail-archive/msg01923.html
in which Keith Moore explains it to Charles.