next page page above previous page

Next: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions Up: Lecture 5 Previous: Electronic Mail Features

Internet E-mail

RFC 5322 defines format of Internet e-mail as 7 bit octets in 3 parts

Primary headers include:

To:e-mail address(es) of primary recipient(s)
Cc:e-mail address(es) of secondary recipient(s)
Bcc:e-mail address(es) of unadvertised secondary recipients
From:person or people who created message
Sender:e-mail address of actual sender
Received:line added by transfer agent along route
Return-Path:added by final transfer agent to give reply path

Secondary headers commonly used by user agents include

Date:date and time message was sent
Reply-To:e-mail address to which replies should be sent
Message-Id:unique number for referencing this message later
In-Reply-To:Message-Id of message to which this is a reply
Subject:short summary of message for one line display

Users can invent their own headers provided they start with "X-".


Lecture 5XHTML 1.0Slide 4