SMTP Extension for Internationalized Email
RFC 6531

• Status
• IESG evaluation record
• IESG writeups
• Email expansions
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• 16

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                            J. Yao
Request for Comments: 6531                                        W. Mao
Obsoletes: 5336                                                    CNNIC
Category: Standards Track                                  February 2012
ISSN: 2070-1721

               SMTP Extension for Internationalized Email

Abstract

   This document specifies an SMTP extension for transport and delivery
   of email messages with internationalized email addresses or header
   information.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6531.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

   This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
   Contributions published or made publicly available before November
   10, 2008.  The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
   material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow

Yao & Mao                    Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 6531               SMTP Extension for SMTPUTF8         February 2012

   modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
   Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
   the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
   outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
   not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
   it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
   than English.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     1.1.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     1.2.  Changes Made to Other Specifications . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Overview of Operation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.  Mail Transport-Level Protocol  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     3.1.  Framework for the Internationalization Extension . . . . .  4
     3.2.  The SMTPUTF8 Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     3.3.  Extended Mailbox Address Syntax  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.4.  MAIL Command Parameter Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     3.5.  Non-ASCII Addresses and Reply-Codes  . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     3.6.  Body Parts and SMTP Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     3.7.  Additional ESMTP Changes and Clarifications  . . . . . . . 10
       3.7.1.  The Initial SMTP Exchange  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       3.7.2.  Mail eXchangers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       3.7.3.  Trace Information  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       3.7.4.  UTF-8 Strings in Replies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   4.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     4.1.  SMTP Service Extensions Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     4.2.  SMTP Enhanced Status Code Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     4.3.  WITH Protocol Types Sub-Registry of the Mail
           Transmission Types Registry  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   5.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   6.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   7.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     7.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     7.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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RFC 6531               SMTP Extension for SMTPUTF8         February 2012

1.  Introduction

   The document defines a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol [RFC5321]
   extension so servers can advertise the ability to accept and process
   internationalized email addresses (see Section 1.1) and
   internationalized email headers [RFC6532].