RFC 3464 (rfc3464) - Page 1 of 40
An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status Notifications
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group K. Moore
Request for Comments: 3464 University of Tennessee
Obsoletes: 1894 G. Vaudreuil
Category: Standards Track Lucent Technologies
January 2003
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.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This memo defines a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (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 "Local Area Network
(LAN)-based" systems), the Delivery Status Notification (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.
Moore & Vaudreuil Standards Track