--On 15 February 2008 17:18:26 +0000 Phil Chambers
<P.A.Chambers@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> This is valid: To: undisclosed recipients :;
>> This is not: To: <undisclosed recipients>
>>
>
> I would say that the former is not actually valid, though the syntax
> looks correct. RFC2822 section 3.6.3 says that To:, Cc: and Bcc: must
> contain at least one address.
Formally, it says:
to = "To:" address-list CRLF
And, section 3.4 says:
address = mailbox / group
and
group = display-name ":" [mailbox-list / CFWS] ";"
So, "To: undisclosed recipients :;" does match the formal specification.
There's also an example of such a Cc: header in A.1.3
> The above does not contain an address.
It does, in the sense that an "address" is defined in section 3.4. It's not
required, but it is useful for the recipient to get a clue that the other
recipients are explicitly undisclosed. It's also useful to include a more
descriptive display-name in some cases: for example, if a university sends
a message to all students, it might want to use the headers "To: all
students:;" in an effort to avoid a flurry of redundant forwarding
activity.
> None of the three is required, so if there is to be no recipient address
> in the header, the To: and Cc: lines should be absent. (If I remember
> correctly, RFC822 did require either To: or Cc: to be present.)
>
> Phil.
> ---------------------------------------
> Phil Chambers (postmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
> University of Exeter
>
--
Ian Eiloart
IT Services, University of Sussex
x3148
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