RFC 524 (rfc524) - Page 1 of 40

Proposed Mail Protocol

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Network Working Group                                           J. White
Request for Comments: 524                                        SRI-ARC
NIC: 17140                                                  13 June 1973


                         A Proposed Mail Protocol

AUTHOR'S INTENT

   This is the document I offered in (15146,) to write.  It's a proposed
   specification for handling mail in the Network -- a Mail Protocol.

   Main handling is currently implemented as two FTP commands, MAIL and
   MLFL, which permit an FTP user process to deliver a file or string of
   text to an FTP server process, designating it as mail to be made
   available to a user, identified by a local name, in its host.  The
   protocol proposed here is much richer than that, both in terms of the
   functions it supports, and in terms of the flexibility it provides.

   Although one can (I think) and might, implement software on the basis
   of this document, this REALLY IS a Request for Comments.  Comments,
   questions, position papers are solicited.  There are, I'm sure, bugs
   in the protocol specified here, and I hope that readers will point
   them out via RFC as they discover them.

   Various members of the Network community have, during the last few
   months, pointed out to me specific inadequacies in the existing mail
   commands and asked me to be conscious of them in designing a new
   protocol.  I've tried to do that.  If anyone feels that his concern
   wasn't properly dealt with here, or that it slipped through the
   cracks entirely (for which I apologize in advance), I would
   appreciate it if he would prod me once more.

INTRODUCTION

   THE MAIL PROTOCOL ENVIRONMENT

      The Mail Protocol (MP) is implemented by Mail user and server
      processes, in keeping with the model for previous high-level
      protocols.  The Mail user and server processes are further
      specified to be also FTP user and server processes, respectively.
      That is, MP is implemented as a set of commands accessible from
      within the FTP command space.

      The MP command set is defined to lie conceptually within a
      subsystem, invoked from the FTP command space with the command
      MAIL .




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