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1.1 ! root 1: .bp ! 2: .sh 1 "Format of messages" ! 3: .pp ! 4: This section describes the format of messages. ! 5: Messages begin with a ! 6: .i from ! 7: line, which consists of the word ! 8: .q From ! 9: followed by a user name, followed by anything, followed by ! 10: a date in the format returned by the ! 11: .i ctime ! 12: library routine described in section 3 of the Unix Programmer's ! 13: Manual. A possible ! 14: .i ctime ! 15: format date is: ! 16: .(l ! 17: Tue Dec 1 10:58:23 1981 ! 18: .)l ! 19: The ! 20: .i ctime ! 21: date may be optionally followed by a single space and a ! 22: time zone indication, which ! 23: should be three capital letters, such as PDT. ! 24: .pp ! 25: Following the ! 26: .i from ! 27: line are zero or more ! 28: .i "header field" ! 29: lines. ! 30: Each header field line is of the form: ! 31: .(l ! 32: name: information ! 33: .)l ! 34: .i Name ! 35: can be anything, but only certain header fields are recognized as ! 36: having any meaning. The recognized header fields are: ! 37: .i article-id , ! 38: .i bcc , ! 39: .i cc , ! 40: .i from , ! 41: .i reply-to , ! 42: .i sender , ! 43: .i subject , ! 44: and ! 45: .i to . ! 46: Other header fields are also significant to other systems; see, ! 47: for example, the current Arpanet message standard for much more ! 48: on this topic. ! 49: A header field can be continued onto following lines by making the ! 50: first character on the following line a space or tab character. ! 51: .pp ! 52: If any headers are present, they must be followed by a blank line. ! 53: The part that follows is called the ! 54: .i body ! 55: of the message, and must be ASCII text, not containing null characters. ! 56: Each line in the message body must be terminated with an ASCII newline ! 57: character and no line may be longer than 512 characters. ! 58: If binary data must be passed through the mail system, it is suggested ! 59: that this data be encoded in a system which encodes six bits into ! 60: a printable character. ! 61: For example, one could use the upper and lower case letters, the digits, ! 62: and the characters comma and period to make up the 64 characters. ! 63: Then, one can send a 16-bit binary number ! 64: as three characters. These characters should be packed into lines, ! 65: preferably lines about 70 characters long as long lines are transmitted ! 66: more efficiently. ! 67: .pp ! 68: The message delivery system always adds a blank line to the end of ! 69: each message. This blank line must not be deleted. ! 70: .pp ! 71: The UUCP message delivery system sometimes adds a blank line to ! 72: the end of a message each time it is forwarded through a machine. ! 73: .pp ! 74: It should be noted that some network transport protocols enforce ! 75: limits to the lengths of messages.
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