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Barry Leiba | 31 Jul 2012 03:19
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Update to RFC 5322 to allow "group" syntax in the "from" header field

The EAI working group has a specific need to use "group" syntax to
"downgrade" email addresses that are in UTF-8, when they are presented
to a POP or IMAP client that does not understand such addresses.
After a great deal of discussion of alternatives, replacing the UTF-8
addresses with empty groups turns out to be the only reasonable
approach.  But as it also turns out, RFC 5322 does not allow group
syntax in the "from" header field.

I have written a draft that "updates" RFC 5322, making one change:
allowing group syntax in "from":
   http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-leiba-5322upd-from-group/

EAI only needs to use this in presenting messages to certain POP and
IMAP clients, and does NOT need it as messages wend their ways through
MTAs.  That said, I think it would be better to remove the restriction
than to document a specific-case violation.

Please review the draft and comment.  Please particularly note if you
are aware of failures that will be caused by this change.  Please,
*speculation* is much less useful than specifics of what you *know*
will break.

Barry
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Hector Santos | 31 Jul 2012 05:21
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Re: Update to RFC 5322 to allow "group" syntax in the "from" header field

Hi Barry,

Barry Leiba wrote:
> The EAI working group has a specific need to use "group" syntax to
> "downgrade" email addresses that are in UTF-8, when they are presented
> to a POP or IMAP client that does not understand such addresses.
> After a great deal of discussion of alternatives, replacing the UTF-8
> addresses with empty groups turns out to be the only reasonable
> approach.  But as it also turns out, RFC 5322 does not allow group
> syntax in the "from" header field.
> 
> I have written a draft that "updates" RFC 5322, making one change:
> allowing group syntax in "from":
>    http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-leiba-5322upd-from-group/
> 
> EAI only needs to use this in presenting messages to certain POP and
> IMAP clients, and does NOT need it as messages wend their ways through
> MTAs.  That said, I think it would be better to remove the restriction
> than to document a specific-case violation.
> 
> Please review the draft and comment.  Please particularly note if you
> are aware of failures that will be caused by this change.  Please,
> *speculation* is much less useful than specifics of what you *know*
> will break.

hmmmmmm, not sure if I follow but wouldn't parser of From: field fail 
due to it not supporting group addressing and there isn't any 
expectation that it would be supported currently?

Currently, I am pretty sure our software will not break, but if a
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