In <379A254FE1C43CBB377A1D2D@[10.56.209.155]> John C Klensin <john-ietf@xxxxxxx> writes: > --On Tuesday, June 21, 2005 15:58 +0200 Age Bosma <agebosma@xxxxxxx> wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> Can you tell me, or point me to a resource, what the official >> specs are for an e-mail address? I would like to know what the >> official limitations are if it comes to allowed characters and >> maximum address lenght. > > If you are trying to use the addresses to send mail over the public > Internet, RFC2821 contains the authoritative definition. Age: I'll just add a few comments to what John said. RFC2822 also contains a definition of email addresses (mailbox). The two RFCs differ slightly because the involve different parts of the email system. RFC2822 includes things like comments which you can put on the To: line, but which are stripped off by the time the email gets to the RFC2821 part. But, of course, the real world requirements of email addresses don't match the RFC because too many systems out there are broken. If you are trying to create a well behaved system, then following the RFC is a very good idea. If you are trying to create a system that has to deal with the uglier details of the net, you will just have to do a lot of experimentation. "Be conservative with what you generate, be liberal with what you accept." -wayne _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf