Electronic Mail Related RFC Documents

This document lists RFC documents that affect electronic mail applications. Last RFC at the time of update was RFC-2498.

Message Delivery

RFC-753 Internet Message Protocol: Status: UNKNOWN
RFC-821 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol: Obsoletes: RFC-788, RFC-780, RFC-722
Also: STD-10
Status: STANDARD
RFC-974 Mail Routing and the Domain System: Also: STD-14
Status: STANDARD
RFC-1047 Duplicate messages and SMTP: Status: UNKNOWN
RFC-1090 SMTP on X.25: Status: UNKNOWN
RFC-1846 SMTP 521 Reply Code: Status: EXPERIMENTAL
RFC-1869 SMTP Service Extensions: Obsoletes: RFC-1651, RFC-1425
Also: STD-10
Status: STANDARD

RFC-1652 SMTP Service Extension for 8bit-MIMEtransport
Obsoletes: RFC-1426
Status: DRAFT STANDARD
RFC-1830 SMTP Service Extensions for Transmission of Large and Binary MIME Messages
Status: EXPERIMENTAL
RFC-1845 SMTP Service Extension for Checkpoint/Restart
Status: EXPERIMENTAL
RFC-1870 SMTP Service Extension for Message Size Declaration
Obsoletes: RFC-1653, RFC-1427
Also: STD-11
Status: STANDARD
RFC-1891 SMTP Service Extension for Delivery Status Notifications
Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-1985 SMTP Service Extension for Remote Message Queue Starting
Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2034 SMTP Service Extension for Returning Enhanced Error Codes
Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2197 SMTP Service Extension for Command Pipelining
Obsoletes: RFC-1854
Status: DRAFT STANDARD
RFC-2487 SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over TLS
Status: PROPOSED STANDARD

RFC-1893 Enhanced Mail System Status Codes: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-1894 An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status Notifications: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2033 Local Mail Transfer Protocol: Status: INFORMATIONAL

Message Gateways

RFC-1344 Implications of MIME for Internet Mail Gateways: Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-1494 Equivalences between 1988 X.400 and RFC-822 Message Bodies: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-1496 Rules for Downgrading Messages from X.400/88 to X.400/84 when MIME Content-Types Are Present in the Messages: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-1506 A Tutorial on Gatewaying between X.400 and Internet Mail: Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-2156 MIXER (Mime Internet X.400 Enhanced Relay): Mapping between X.400 and RFC 822/MIME: Obsoletes: RFC-1495, RFC-1327, RFC-1148, RFC-1138, RFC-1026, RFC-987
Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2157 Mapping between X.400 and RFC-822/MIME Message Bodies: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
XXX: Does this obsolete RFC-1494 or update it?
RFC-2162 MaXIM-11 - Mapping between X.400 / Internet Mail and Mail-11 Mail: Obsoletes: RFC-1405
Status: EXPERIMENTAL

Message Submission

RFC-1204 Message Posting Protocol (MPP): Status: EXPERIMENTAL
RFC-2476 Message Submission: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD

Address Format

RFC-720 Address Specification Syntax for Network Mail: Status: UNKNOWN
RFC-754 Out-of-Net Host Addresses for Mail: Status: UNKNOWN
RFC-763 Role Mailboxes: Status: UNKNOWN
RFC-2142 Mailbox Names for Common Services, Roles and Functions: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2303 Minimal PSTN Address Format in Internet Mail: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2304 Minimal FAX Address Format in Internet Mail: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD

Message Format

RFC-469 Network Mail Meeting Summary: Status: UNKNOWN
RFC-822 Standard for the Format of ARPA Network Text Messages: Obsoletes: RFC-733, RFC-724, RFC-680, RFC-561
Updated by: RFC-1123, RFC-2156
Also: STD-11
Status: STANDARD
RFC-886 Proposed Standard for Message Header Munging: Status: UNKNOWN
RFC-934 Proposed Standard for Message Encapsulation: Status: UNKNOWN
RFC-1049 Content-Type Header Field for Internet Messages: Also: STD-11
Status: HISTORIC
RFC-1123 Requirements for Internet Hosts - Application and Support: Updates: RFC-822
Updated by: RFC-2181
Also: STD-3
Status: STANDARD
RFC-1153 Digest Message Format: Status: EXPERIMENTAL
RFC-1505 Encoding Header Field for Internet Messages: Obsoletes: RFC-1154
Status: EXPERIMENTAL

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)

RFC-2045 Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies
Obsoletes: RFC-1590, RFC-1522, RFC-1521, RFC-1341
Updated by: RFC-2184, RFC-2231
Status: DRAFT STANDARD
RFC-2046 Part Two: Media Types
Obsoletes: RFC-1590, RFC-1522, RFC-1521, RFC-1342
Status: DRAFT STANDARD
RFC-2047 Part Three: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text
Obsoletes: RFC-1590, RFC-1522, RFC-1521, RFC-1342
Updated by: RFC-2184, RFC-2231
Status: DRAFT STANDARD
RFC-2048 Part Four: Registration Procedures
Obsoletes: RFC-1590, RFC-1522, RFC-1521
Also: BCP-13
Status: BEST CURRENT PRACTICE
RFC-2049 Part Five: Conformance Criteria and Examples
Obsoletes: RFC-1590, RFC-1522, RFC-1521
Status: DRAFT STANDARD

Character Encoding

RFC-1468 Japanese Character Encoding for Internet Messages
Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-1555 Hebrew Character Encoding for Internet Messages
Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-1557 Korean Character Encoding for Internet Messages
Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-1842 ASCII Printable Characters-Based Chinese Character Encoding for Internet Messages
Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-1922 Chinese Character Encoding for Internet Messages
Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-1947 Greek Character Encoding for Electronic Mail Messages
Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-2237 Japanese Character Encoding for Internet Messages
Status: INFORMATIONAL
XXX: Does this obsolete RFC-1468 or update it?

RFC-2076 Common Internet Message Headers: Status: INFORMATIONAL

RFC-1036 Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages: Obsoletes: RFC-850
Status: UNKNOWN
RFC-1343 A User Agent Configuration Mechanism for Multimedia Mail Format Information: Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-1524 A User Agent Configuration Mechanism For Multimedia Mail Format Information: Status: INFORMATIONAL
XXX: Does this obsolete RFC-1343 or update it?
RFC-1556 Handling of Bi-directional Texts in MIME: Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-1844 Multimedia E-mail (MIME) User Agent Checklist: Obsoletes: RFC-1820
Status: INFORMATIONAL

Privacy and Security

RFC-644 On the Problem of Signature Authentication for Network Mail: Status: UNKNOWN

Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail

RFC-1421 Part I: Message Encryption and Authentication Procedures
Obsoletes: RFC-1113, RFC-1040, RFC-989
Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-1422 Part II: Certificate-Based Key Management
Obsoletes: RFC-1114
Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-1423 Part III: Algorithms, Modes, and Identifiers
Obsoletes: RFC-1115
Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-1424 Part IV: Key Certification and Related Services
Status: PROPOSED STANDARD

RFC-1991 PGP Message Exchange Formats: Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-2311 S/MIME Version 2 Message Specification: Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-2315 PKCS 7: Cryptographic Message Syntax Version 1.5: Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-2440 OpenPGP Message Format: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD

IMAP

RFC-1176 Interactive Mail Access Protocol: Version 2: Obsoletes: RFC-1064
Status: EXPERIMENTAL
RFC-1203 Interactive Mail Access Protocol: Version 3: Obsoletes: RFC-1176, RFC-1064
Status: HISTORIC
RFC-2060 Internet Message Access Protocol - Version 4rev1: Obsoletes: RFC-1730
Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2061 IMAP4 Compatibility with IMAP2BIS: Obsoletes: RFC-1732
Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-2062 Internet Message Access Protocol - Obsolete Syntax: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-1731 IMAP4 Authentication Mechanisms: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-1733 Distributed Electronic Mail Models in IMAP4: Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-2086 IMAP4 ACL Extension: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2087 IMAP4 QUOTA Extension: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2088 IMAP4 Non-synchronizing Literals: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2177 IMAP4 IDLE command: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2180 IMAP4 Multi-Accessed Mailbox Practice: Status: INFORMATIONAL
RFC-2192 IMAP URL Scheme: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2193 IMAP4 Mailbox Referrals: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2195 IMAP/POP AUTHorize Extension for Simple Challenge/Response: Obsoletes: RFC-2095
Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2221 IMAP4 Login Referrals: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2342 IMAP4 Namespace: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD
RFC-2359 IMAP4 UIDPLUS Extension: Status: PROPOSED STANDARD

RFC-1339 Remote Mail Checking Protocol: Status: EXPERIMENTAL

Mailing Lists

RFC-1211 Problems with the Maintenance of Large Mailing Lists: Status: INFORMATIONAL

UUCP

RFC-976 UUCP Mail Interchange Format Standard: Updated by: RFC-1137
Status: UNKNOWN
RFC-1137 Mapping between Full RFC-822 and RFC-822 with Restricted Encoding: Updates: RFC-976
Status: HISTORIC

Unclassified

0706 On the junk mail problem. J. Postel. Nov-08-1975. (Not online)
     (Status: UNKNOWN)

0984 PCMAIL: A distributed mail system for personal computers. D.D.
     Clark, M.L. Lambert. May-01-1986. (Format: TXT=69333 bytes)
     (Obsoleted by RFC0993) (Status: UNKNOWN)

0993 PCMAIL: A distributed mail system for personal computers. D.D.
     Clark, M.L. Lambert. Dec-01-1986. (Format: TXT=71725 bytes)
     (Obsoletes RFC0984) (Obsoleted by RFC1056) (Status: UNKNOWN)

1056 PCMAIL: A distributed mail system for personal computers. M.L.
     Lambert. Jun-01-1988. (Format: TXT=85368 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC0993)
     (Status: INFORMATIONAL)

1428 Transition of Internet Mail from Just-Send-8 to 8bit-SMTP/MIME.
     G. Vaudreuil. February 1993. (Format: TXT=12064 bytes) (Status:
     INFORMATIONAL)

1566 Mail Monitoring MIB. S. Kille & N. Freed. January 1994. (Format:
     TXT=33136 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC2249) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

1642 UTF-7 - A Mail-Safe Transformation Format of Unicode. D.
     Goldsmith & M. Davis. July 1994. (Format: TXT=27770, PS=50907 bytes)
     (Obsoleted by RFC2152) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)

1664 Using the Internet DNS to Distribute RFC1327 Mail Address Mapping
     Tables. C. Allocchio, A. Bonito, B. Cole, S. Giordano & R. Hagens.
     August 1994. (Format: TXT=50783 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC2163)
     (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)

1711 Classifications in E-mail Routing. J. Houttuin. October 1994.
     (Format: TXT=47584 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)

1806 Communicating Presentation Information in Internet Messages: The
     Content-Disposition Header. R. Troost, S. Dorner. June 1995. (Format:
     TXT=15548 bytes) (Updated by RFC2183) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)

1872 The MIME Multipart/Related Content-type. E. Levinson. December
     1995. (Format: TXT=15565 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC2112) (Status:
     EXPERIMENTAL)

1873 Message/External-Body Content-ID Access Type. E. Levinson.
     December 1995. (Format: TXT=5878 bytes) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)

1892 The Multipart/Report Content Type for the Reporting of Mail
     System Administrative Messages. G. Vaudreuil. January 1996. (Format:
     TXT=7800 bytes) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

1911 Voice Profile for Internet Mail. G. Vaudreuil. February 1996.
     (Format: TXT=50242 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC2421, RFC2422, RFC2423)
     (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)

2077 The Model Primary Content Type for Multipurpose Internet Mail
     Extensions. S. Nelson, C. Parks, Mitra. January 1997. (Format:
     TXT=30158 bytes) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

2110 MIME E-mail Encapsulation of Aggregate Documents, such as HTML
     (MHTML). J. Palme, A. Hopmann. March 1997. (Format: TXT=41961 bytes)
     (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

2111 Content-ID and Message-ID Uniform Resource Locators. E. Levinson.
     February 1997. (Format: TXT=9099 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC2392)
     (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

2152 UTF-7 A Mail-Safe Transformation Format of Unicode. D. Goldsmith,
     M. Davis. May 1997. (Format: TXT=28065 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1642)
     (Status: INFORMATIONAL)

2183 Communicating Presentation Information in Internet Messages: The
     Content-Disposition Header Field. R. Troost, S. Dorner, K. Moore.
     August 1997. (Format: TXT=23150 bytes) (Updates RFC1806) (Updated by
     RFC2184, RFC2231) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

2249 Mail Monitoring MIB. N. Freed, S. Kille. January 1998. (Format:
     TXT=52334 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1566) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

2298 An Extensible Message Format for Message Disposition
     Notifications. R. Fajman. March 1998. (Format: TXT=62059 bytes)
     (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

2305 A Simple Mode of Facsimile Using Internet Mail. K. Toyoda, H.
     Ohno, J. Murai, D. Wing. March 1998. (Format: TXT=24624 bytes)
     (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

2368 The mailto URL scheme. P. Hoffman, L. Masinter, J. Zawinski. July
     1998. (Format: TXT=16502 bytes) (Updates RFC1738, RFC1808) (Status:
     PROPOSED STANDARD)

2369 The Use of URLs as Meta-Syntax for Core Mail List Commands and
     their Transport through Message Header Fields. G. Neufeld, J. Baer.
     July 1998. (Format: TXT=30853 bytes) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

2392 Content-ID and Message-ID Uniform Resource Locators. E. Levinson.
     August 1998. (Format: TXT=11141 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC2111) (Status:
     PROPOSED STANDARD)

2422 Toll Quality Voice - 32 kbit/s ADPCM MIME Sub-type Registration.
     G. Vaudreuil, G. Parsons. September 1998. (Format: TXT=10157 bytes)
     (Obsoletes RFC1911) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

2421 Voice Profile for Internet Mail - version 2. G. Vaudreuil, G.
     Parsons. September 1998. (Format: TXT=123663 bytes) (Obsoletes
     RFC1911) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

2423 VPIM Voice Message MIME Sub-type Registration. G. Vaudreuil, G.
     Parsons. September 1998. (Format: TXT=10729 bytes) (Obsoletes
     RFC1911) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

2442 The Batch SMTP Media Type. N. Freed, D. Newman, J. Belissen, M.
     Hoy. November 1998. (Format: TXT=18384 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)

Old Entries

RFC 1225  Post Office Protocol: Version 3
RFC 1082  Post Office Protocol: Version 3: Extended service offerings

RFC  977  Network News Transfer Protocol

Kimmo Suominen (1998-02-02)

The original version of this file was created 1994-03-02. It was based on the contents of the Internet Technology Handbook by SRI.