The MIME Application/Vnd.pwg-multiplexed Content-Type
RFC 3391
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RFC - Informational
(December 2002; No errata)
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Author |
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Robert Herriot
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Last updated |
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2015-10-14
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Legacy
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plain text
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htmlized
bibtex
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Legacy state
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(None)
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Consensus Boilerplate |
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Unknown
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RFC Editor Note |
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(None)
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IESG |
IESG state |
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RFC 3391 (Informational)
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Telechat date |
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Responsible AD |
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Ned Freed
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IESG note |
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published 19-Dec-2002
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(None)
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Network Working Group R. Herriot
Request for Comments: 3391 December 2002
Category: Informational
The MIME Application/Vnd.pwg-multiplexed Content-Type
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002). All Rights Reserved.
IESG Note
The IESG believes use of this media type is only appropriate in
situations where the producer is fully aware of the capabilities and
limitations of the consumer. In particular, this mechanism is very
dependent on the producer knowing when the consumer will need a
particular component of a multipart object. But consumers
potentially work in many different ways and different consumers may
need different things at different times. This mechanism provides no
means for a producer to determine the needs of a particular consumer
and how they are to be accommodated.
Alternative mechanisms, such as a protocol based on BEEP which is
capable of bidirectional communication between the producer and
consumer, should be considered when the capabilities of the consumer
are not known by the producer.
Abstract
The Application/Vnd.pwg-multiplexed content-type, like the
Multipart/Related content-type, provides a mechanism for representing
objects that consist of multiple components. An
Application/Vnd.pwg-multiplexed entity contains a sequence of chunks.
Each chunk contains a MIME message or a part of a MIME message. Each
MIME message represents a component of the compound object, just as a
body part of a Multipart/Related entity represents a component. With
a Multipart/Related entity, a body part and its reference in some
other body part may be separated by many octets. With an
Application/Vnd.pwg-multiplexed entity, a message and its reference
in some other message can be made quite close by chunking the message
containing the reference. For example, if a long message contains
Herriot Informational [Page 1]
RFC 3391 Application/Multiplexed December 2002
references to images and the producer does not know of the need for
each image until it generates the reference, then
Application/Vnd.pwg-multiplexed allows the consumer to process the
reference to the image and the image before it consumes the entire
long message. This ability is important in printing and scanning
applications. This document defines the Application/Vnd.pwg-
multiplexed content-type. It also provides examples of its use.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction....................................................2
2. Terminology.....................................................7
3. Details.........................................................9
3.1 Syntax of Application/Vnd.pwg-multiplexed Contents...........10
3.2 Parameters for Application/Vnd.pwg-multiplexed...............12
3.2.1 The "type" Parameter.......................................12
3.2.2 Syntax.....................................................12
4. Handling Application/Vnd.pwg-multiplexed Entities..............12
5. Examples.......................................................13
5.1 Example With Multipart/Related...............................14
5.2 Examples with Application/Vnd.pwg-multiplexed................15
5.2.1 Example Where Each Chunk Has a Complete Message............15
5.2.2 Example of Chunking the Root Message.......................17
5.2.3 Example of Chunking the Several Messages...................18
5.2.4 Example of Chunks with Empty Payloads......................20
6. Security Considerations........................................22
7. Registration Information for Application/Vnd.pwg-multiplexed...22
8. Acknowledgments................................................23
9. References.....................................................23
10. Author's Address..............................................24
11. Full Copyright Statement......................................25
1. Introduction
The simple MIME content-types, such as "text/plain" provide a
mechanism for representing a simple object, such as a text document.
The Multipart/Related [RFC2387] content-type provides a mechanism for
representing a compound object, such as a text document with two gif
images.
A compound object consists of multiple components. One such
component is the root component, which contains references to other
components of the compound object. These components may, in turn,
contain references to other components of the compound object. For
example, a compound object could consist of a root html text
component and two gif image components -- each referenced by the root
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