Received: from localhost by CS.UTK.EDU with SMTP (cf v2.9s-UTK) id GAA11845; Fri, 29 Dec 1995 06:30:35 -0500 Received: by CS.UTK.EDU (bulk_mailer v1.3); Fri, 29 Dec 1995 06:29:16 -0500 Received: from ester.dsv.su.se by CS.UTK.EDU with ESMTP (cf v2.9s-UTK) id GAA11714; Fri, 29 Dec 1995 06:29:14 -0500 Received: (from jpalme@localhost) by ester.dsv.su.se (8.7.1/8.7.1) id MAA05677; Fri, 29 Dec 1995 12:29:11 +0100 (MET) Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 12:29:11 +0100 (MET) From: Jacob Palme To: ietf-drums Subject: Drums proposal: Syntax of In-Reply-To and References headers Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII RFC 822 defines the following syntax for "In-Reply-To" and "References": / "In-Reply-To" ":" *(phrase / msg-id) / "References" ":" *(phrase / msg-id) RFC 1036 defines the following syntax for References: 2.2.5. References This field lists the Message-ID's of any messages prompting the submission of this message. I suggest that drums adds the following sentence to the description of the "In-Reply-To" and "References" headers: The syntax for In-Reply-To and "References" allows the items listed to either have the form "phrase" or "msg-id". This syntax is kept for compatibility with older mail systems. However, the use of the "msg-id" format is recommended and the use of the "phrase" format is deprecated. Rationale: There is a large advantage in using "msg-id" since this makes it much easier for the receiving mail agents to find in a data base of saved messages, the message to which the new message is a reply, and to establish sequences of messages which are replies to each other. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacob Palme (Stockholm University and KTH) for more info see URL: http://www.dsv.su.se/~jpalme