RFC relevance of following

As per Relevance of the word following, we have this rfc below:

Network Working Group E.
Request for Comments: 1844 SURFnet
Obsoletes: 1820 August 1995
Category:

Multimedia E-mail (MIME) User Agent

Status of this

This memo provides information for the Internet community. This
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution
this memo is unlimited

This document presents a checklist to facilitate evaluation of
capable User Agents. Access to a MIME test-responder, that
test-messages is described

This document presents a checklist that facilitates evaluation
MIME capable E-mail User Agents. It is by no means a conformance
interoperability (both strictly defined and measurable quantities
checklist, but rather an interworking (practical perspective
checklist that is aimed at the users and system managers

Usage and

If you use this checklist against a specific product (regardless
whether you're a vendor, implementor or user) you can submit
result to mime-check@nic.surfnet.nl, make sure that the
reflects the name and version of the product. This is an
mailhandler, so PLEASE only submit filled-in checklists (in content
type text/plain or text/html) to this address. This information
be made available (at no cost) for other people to browse through
URL: http://www.nic.surfnet.nl/surfnet/projects/surf-ace/mime

Although SURFnet will attempt to verify the correctness of
submission, all submitted information is made available as is,
no guarantees (SURFnet does not take any responsibility for errors
the data that is made available, or for any damages resulting
usage of that data). Users who want to procure a UA are advised
use the data as an orientation, and to perform their own
tests (possibly using the checklist below as a guideline). Also it
noted that vendors and implementors are encouraged to use the
from the checklist to improve their products

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RFC 1844 MIME User Agent Checklist August 1995

Getting test

For several tests in the checklist a test message is required.
messages can be requested in the following way: Send mail to test@relay.surfnet.nl> with a subject field containing ONE of
following

text/
text/
image/
image/
audio/
video/
application/octet-
application/
message/rfc822
message/
message/
multipart/
multipart/
multipart/
multipart/
multipart/
application/wordperfect5.1
application/
application/
X-local nested contains nested multipart contents
iso-8859-1

A message containing the requested content-type will be returned
the address contained in the from field

The reader is encouraged to also check out the following references

The MIME standards

- Borenstein N. and N. Freed, "MIME (Multipurpose
Mail Extensions) Part One: Mechanisms for specifying
describing the format of Internet message bodies", RFC 1521,
Bellcore, Innosoft, September 1993.

- Moore K., "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
Two: Message header extensions for non-Ascii text", RFC 1522,
University of Tennessee, September 1993.

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RFC 1844 MIME User Agent Checklist August 1995

The registration procedure for content types

- Postel J., "Media type registration procedure", RFC 1590,
USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1994.

Some related informational documents

- Borenstein N., "The text/enriched MIME content-type",
RFC 1563, Bellcore, October 1994.

- Borenstein N., "A user agent configuration mechanism
multimedia mail format information", RFC 1524, Bellcore
September 1993.

Registered MIME content-types can be found at the following URL
ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/media-types/media-

The SUNet MIME project: http://www.nada.kth.se/sunet-mime/
offers evaluation tests reports of MIME products, as well as
and test-criteria for MIME implementors

From Stockholm University a list of user-interface requirments for
mail/news reader is available under: gopher://mars.dsv.su.se/11/dsv
reports/research-reports/messaging-

Checklist for Mime

(note that for items with multiple choice options, it is
that more than one option is applicable

1. General information
1.1 The name and version of the
1.2 The name and addressing information of the
1.3 What are the platforms that are supported (Operating system
GUI and hardware requirements, if applicable: what APIs
supported (like MAPI etc.))? [Note: Please use
checklist forms for different platforms!!]
1.4 What is the platform that was used for this
(Operating system, GUI and hardware)? [Note: Only
platform per checklist!!]
1.5 Is the software available in source format or in
format or both
1.6 Pricing information. Is the software available
- In the Public Domain, free of
- As shareware (what is the price?)
- PD for non-profit use, but not for commercial
-

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RFC 1844 MIME User Agent Checklist August 1995

2. System installation, configuration and
2.1 How complex/easy is installation and configuration?
there any pitfalls that need attention? Can you
per set of users (i.e systemwide or LAN wide
configuration) and/or per user
2.2 Are there facilities for logging and/or accounting
2.3 Does the UA generate correct RFC-822 headers for
messages
From:, (and if necessary) Sender
Date
Message-id
2.4 Is it possible for a non-priviledged user to change
"from" and/or "sender" field
2.5 Does the UA have any size restrictions (default or
by system manager) for
- Message
- Number of
- Number of
- Number of messages per
2.6 How secure is the users mailbox when using this UA?
other non-privileged usets access the mailbox
2.7 What is the performance of the UA on this platform? (As
is difficult to measure, give your subjective impression
slow, reasonable or fast) E.g for
- Displaying a text
- Displaying a MIME message that contains an
- Complex actions like sorting etc

3. General UA
3.1 Does the UA have a graphical or a character based
or both
3.2 Does the UA support native RFC-822/MIME or does it require
gateway
3.3 Which protocols are supported for message delivery
a. SMTP (MX records or static routing to Mailhost
b.
c. POP (which version
d.
e. Co-location with specific MTA (which MTA
f. Other ...............
3.4 Which protocols are supported for message submission
a.
b.
c. Co-location with specific MTA (which MTA
d. Other ...............
3.5 Does the UA support the following basic functionalities
- List
- Read

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RFC 1844 MIME User Agent Checklist August 1995

- Delete
- Compose new
- Reply to messages (Inclusion of original message-text
reply, reply to originator or to any or all
etc.)
- Forward
o using
o using RFC-934 encapsulation; i.e. message
encapsulated in between
------- Forwarded Message
------- End of Forwarded
o Other .......
- Distribute message (the from field does not change
3.6 Does the UA support the following header fields and can
be supplied by the user
Generated correctly Can be supplied by
- To
- Cc
- Bcc
- From
- Reply-to
- Subject
- Comments
3.7 Does the UA support filing mail into folders? Are there
restrictions
3.8 Does the UA support a filtering mechanism that allows
user to configure automatic processing of incoming
(e.g. automatic filing into specific folders)? If so,
simple is the configuration of these filters
3.9 Does the UA support a sorting mechanism that allows the
to sort mail on date and/or subject and/or from field etc
If so describe the possibilities and restrictions
3.10 Does the UA support address lists and/or directory services
- Local (local address list, local aliases, local
lists etc.)
- Whois++
- Ph (to CCSO server
- LDAP or SOLO or other access protocols to a

- Other .....
3.11 What other non-multimedia facilities does the UA support
3.12 What secure mail protocols does the UA support (in-line):
- PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail
- PGP (Pretty Good Privacy
- Other.....

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RFC 1844 MIME User Agent Checklist August 1995

4. MIME
4.1 Does the UA support
- viewing a MIME content (either in-line or through
an external viewer)?
- saving a MIME content in a file
- saving one part of a multipart message in a file
- printing a MIME content
4.2 Does the UA support receipt of the following basic
content types? Does it display them in-line and does
support printing of such a content type? If an
viewer is needed, is a viewer pre-configured? Is the
included in the software distribution
In-line Printing External Preconfig
- text/
- text/
- image/
- image/
- audio/
- video/
- application/octet-
- application/
- message/rfc822
- message/
Does the UA support ftp and/or mail access for
- message/
Describe how the UA supports the basic multipart types
- multipart/
- multipart/
- multipart/
- multipart/
How does the UA handle
- X- - unknown/unconfigured content-
4.3 Does the UA allow configuration for receipt of
content-types? If so describe the configuration
and possibilities. (Is it complex/easy, give
configuration, can you add external viewers etc.). E.g
- application/wordperfect5.1
- application/
- multipart/appledouble (Macintosh systems only
4.4 Does the UA support composition of the following basic
content types? Describe how easy/complex composition of
message with a MIME content-type is
- text/
- text/
- image/
- image/
- audio/

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RFC 1844 MIME User Agent Checklist August 1995

- video/
- application/octet-
- application/
- message/rfc822
- message/
- message/
- multipart/
- multipart/
- multipart/
- multipart/
Does the UA generate X- content-
(when and why
4.5 Does the UA support compostion of additional content-types
If so describe how to do this (configuration and/
compostion), e.g.:
- application/wordperfect5.1
- application/
- multipart/appledouble (Macintosh systems only
4.6 What content-encodings does the UA support
- 7
- quoted
- base64
-
- 8
- X- (when and why
4.7 What encoding is used for the following content-types
7bit QP B64 Binary 8-bit
- text/
- text/
- image/
- image/
- audio/
- video/
- application/octet-
- application/
- message/rfc822
- message/
- message/
- multipart/
- multipart/
- multipart/
- multipart/
4.8 Does the UA generate the correct Mime version header
Mime-Version: 1.0
4.9 In multipart messages, give an example of the sort
boundary string generated
4.10 Does the UA support the use of non-ascii characters in
headers (in subject, free form part of address etc.)?

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RFC 1844 MIME User Agent Checklist August 1995

4.11 With the content type text/plain it is possible to have
charset parameter, indicating that a specific character set
used in the content type text plain. What character sets (
iso-8859-1) does the UA support (standard or configurable)?

Security

Testing a MIME UA against this checklist involves the security
that are described in the MIME specification (RFC 1521). Most
the automatic execution of general-purpose PostScript
entails serious security risks. The reader is encouraged to read
1521 for more detail on these security risks

Author's

Erik
SURFnet
P.O. Box 19035
3501 DA
The

Phone: +31 30 305305
Fax: +31 30 305329
EMail: Erik.Huizer@SURFnet.

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if you see any problems within the linking, don't worry be happy,
this is version 0.1 of the Relevance System and you gotta expect some crappy subroutines sometimes,
just be content we did not write this in Java, which would have made this "bigger and better" HAHAHHA.

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