"Costello, Roger L. via Unicode" <unicode@unicode.org> wrote: |Suppose an application splits a UTF-8 multi-octet sequence. The application \ |then sends the split sequence to a client. The client must restore \ |the original sequence. | |Question: is it possible to split a UTF-8 multi-octet sequence in such \ |a way that the client cannot unambiguously restore the original sequence? | |Here is the source of my question: | |The iCalendar specification [RFC 5545] says that long lines must be folded: | | Long content lines SHOULD be split | into a multiple line representations | using a line "folding" technique. | That is, a long line can be split between | any two characters by inserting a CRLF | immediately followed by a single linear | white-space character (i.e., SPACE or HTAB). | |The RFC says that, when parsing a content line, folded lines must first \ |be unfolded using this technique: | | Unfolding is accomplished by removing | the CRLF and the linear white-space | character that immediately follows. | |The RFC acknowledges that simple implementations might generate improperly \ |folded lines: | | Note: It is possible for very simple | implementations to generate improperly | folded lines in the middle of a UTF-8 | multi-octet sequence. For this reason, | implementations need to unfold lines | in such a way to properly restore the | original sequence.
That is not what the RFC says. It says that simple implementations simply split lines when the limit is reached, which might be in the middle of an UTF-8 sequence. The RFC is thus improved compared to other RFCs in the email standard section, which do not give any hints on how to do that. Even RFC 2231, which avoids many of the ambiguities and problems of RFC 2047 (for a different purpose, but still), does not say it so exactly for the reversing character set conversion (which i for one perform _once_ after joining together the chunks, but is not a written word and, thus, ...). --steffen | |Der Kragenbaer, The moon bear, |der holt sich munter he cheerfully and one by one |einen nach dem anderen runter wa.ks himself off |(By Robert Gernhardt)
