On Mon, 24 Feb 2003, Sang Park wrote: > I know that this isn't necessarily about IMAP but I was wondering if anyone > here has ever come across a mime validation tool while developing an IMAP > server or client. The reason I ask is because an IMAP/SMTP API that I've > developed has come across a bug where in a message with only a text/plain > body part the Content-Type header of the message would read > > Content-Type: text/plain; boundary="--xxxx--"; > > someone notified me that a boundary parameter on a single part message is > NOT valid mime and causes problems with servers and clients that adhere > strictly to the RFC. > > First of all, according to my understanding of RFC1521, there should be no > boudnary parameter when creating a message with only one part. can anyone > just verify my understanding of this? >
RFC 2045 only states that 'the "boundary" parameter is required for any subtype of the "multipart" media type'. RFC 2046, section 5.1 Multipart Media Types, touches more on the same idea. It seems obvious but i can't find any verbage stating that a boundary Must Not appear in non-Multipart MIME. > Secondly, I was wondering if anyone has come across a tool for validating > the MIME of a message that validates it's syntax strictly according to the > RFC1521. Ideally, all mail clients and servers would be RFC1521 compliant > but this is not the case. Yes indeed, for every MUA, MTA or Mail Retrieval program that adhears strictly to RFC's, there are probablly two that throw RFC compliance to the wind. Unfortunately, there are times when strict RFC compliance may not always be the best practice while working with various applications. :) And no, i've not seen such a tool as of yet. > > If the answer to the above question is no, would people be interested in > such a tool? > Yes. > Thanks in advance for any feedback or comments! > > s.park > tim otis NFR Security
