RFC 1894 (rfc1894) - Page 1 of 39
An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status Notifications
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group K. Moore
Request for Comments: 1894 University of Tennessee
Category: Standards Track G. Vaudreuil
Octel Network Services
January 1996
An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status Notifications
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
This memo defines a MIME content-type that may be used by a message
transfer agent (MTA) or electronic mail gateway to report the result
of an attempt to deliver a message to one or more recipients. This
content-type is intended as a machine-processable replacement for the
various types of delivery status notifications currently used in
Internet electronic mail.
Because many messages are sent between the Internet and other
messaging systems (such as X.400 or the so-called "LAN-based"
systems), the DSN protocol is designed to be useful in a multi-
protocol messaging environment. To this end, the protocol described
in this memo provides for the carriage of "foreign" addresses and
error codes, in addition to those normally used in Internet mail.
Additional attributes may also be defined to support "tunneling" of
foreign notifications through Internet mail.
Any questions, comments, and reports of defects or ambiguities in
this specification may be sent to the mailing list for the NOTARY
working group of the IETF, using the address
[email protected]>. Requests to subscribe to the mailing
list should be addressed to [email protected]>.
Implementors of this specification are encouraged to subscribe to the
mailing list, so that they will quickly be informed of any problems
which might hinder interoperability.
NOTE: This document is a Proposed Standard. If and when this
protocol is submitted for Draft Standard status, any normative text
(phrases containing SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, MUST, MUST NOT, or MAY) in
this document will be re-evaluated in light of implementation
Moore & Vaudreuil Standards Track