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From: Keith Moore <moore@CS.UTK.EDU>
To: Eric Thomas <ERIC@SEARN.SUNET.SE>
cc: drums@CS.UTK.EDU, moore@CS.UTK.EDU
Subject: Re: address syntax 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 05 Jun 1995 16:23:50 +0200."
             <199506051431.KAA03763@CS.UTK.EDU> 
Date: Mon, 05 Jun 1995 17:22:28 -0400
Sender: moore@CS.UTK.EDU

> 
> 
> >Could you give a more specific example of one or more SMTP servers
> >which handle \-quoting in a dot-string but not a quoted-string?
> 
> Oh, I meant in the local part. RFC821 gives you a choice between:
> 
> "XYZ::BLAH::XX%\"whatever\""
> 
> and
> 
> XYZ\:\:BLAH\:\:XX%\"whatever\"
> 
> I've found SMTP programs, including IBM's, that don't handle the first
> form well because they don't expect the \ inside a quoted string.

Part of the problem may be section 3.4.4 of RFC 822, which specifies
(in part) that

        Quotation marks that delimit a quoted string  and  backslashes
        that  quote  the  following character should NOT accompany the
        quoted-string when the string is passed to processes  that  do
        not interpret data according to this specification (e.g., mail
        protocol servers).

So while <"XYZ::BLAH::XX%\"whatever\""@domain> is legal in RFC 822,
RFC 822 itself specifies that the "\"s should be removed, producing
<"XYZ::BLAH:XX%"whatever""@domain>.  (Arguably, even SMTP does not
interpret data according to the RFC 822 specification.)

Keith