Network Working Group Jacob Palme Internet Draft Stockholm University/KTH Sweden Category-to-be: Proposed standard May 1997 Expires October 1997 The auto-submitted e-mail header fields Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet- Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as ``work in progress.'' To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check the ``1id-abstracts.txt'' listing contained in the Internet- Drafts Shadow Directories on ftp.is.co.za (Africa), nic.nordu.net (Europe), munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim), ds.internic.net (US East Coast), or ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast). This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any kind, since this document is mainly a compilation of information taken from other RFC- s.. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Abstract This memo introduces one new e-mail (RFC 822) header field with the name Auto-Submitted. Changes from the previous version of this IETF draft The "auto-forwarded" value has been removed, the inter-application value has been added, the loop count has been changed from decreasing (where loop control is expected to be done by the sender) to increasing (where loop control is expected to be done by the recipient). 1. Introduction This memo introduces a new header field for Internet e-mail (RFC 822) with the name "Auto-Submitted". 2. Auto-Submitted Syntax: auto-submitted-field = "Auto-Submitted ":" auto-submitted auto-submitted = "auto-generated" / "auto-replied" ("inter-application" 1*DIGIT ) This field indicates whether the message was sent with or without explicit human control. "inter-application" is used when generating automatic responses to messages which already have an "Auto-Submitted" header or when both sender and recipient are automatic processes. An automatic application which responds to a message which already has an auto-submitted header MUST give the response an "Auto- Submitted: inter-application" header. The number (1*DIGIT) is intended for loop control, but should not replace other loop control mechanisms. It starts with 0 for messages which are not automatic responses to automatically generated messages, and MUST be increased by 1 for every automatic response to an auto-submitted message. If no such number is given, it is assumed to be 0 and an automatic response should thus then get the value 1. Note 1: A similar header field is defined in X.420 [4]. 3. Relation to NOTIFY ESTMP command Any request in an ESTMP NOTIFY command overrides the auto-submitted heading field in controlling the production of notifications. If, however, no ESTMP NOTIFY command is given for a specific recipient, then the auto-submitted heading can control whether notifications are to be produced. 4. Examples 4.1 No Auto-Submitted header In the following cases no Auto-Submitted header shall be generated, but an existing Auto-submitted header on a forwarded message SHOULD be kept as it is. > Ordinary e-mail messages written by a person. > A person interacts with a mail-generating client, e.g. instructs it to join a mailing list, and the client generates a message to a listserver with commands for subscribing to the list. > A person interacts with a World Wide Web form, such that the filled-in form is automatically sent to an e-mail address specified in the WWW form document. > A moderator accepts messages to a moderated group, and forwards the accepted messages to the group members, possibly merged into a digest by software for producing digests. > Automatic forwarding by mailing list expanders or to a new e-mail address for the recipient. 4.2 Auto-Submitted: auto-generated > An automatically generated weather-report is sent once every three hours to subscribing customers. > An automatic computer process sends failure reports. > An automatic vote counter counts incoming votes and reports on the outcome of the vote. > A subscription service sends copies of a file every time the file is updated to people subscribing to such updates. If the subscription server wants notifications when the recipient address is faulty, it can use the NOTIFY ESMTP command. 4.3 Auto-Submitted: auto-replied > A mail server responds to an incoming request message. > A special kind of notification, such as a a notification asking you to confirm your subscription to a mailing list, is sent to you automatically by the mailing-list-server every six month. > A vacation server sends a vacation message in response to an incoming message for the person who is on vacation. > A non-standard type of notification is produced automatically, e.g. a notification that a message has been purged from the recipient mailbox. 4.4 Auto-Submitted: inter-application > An automatic weather-station sends automatic messages with temperature, wind velocity, etc. to a weather data base server. > Any automatic response to a message with an Auto-Submitted header. > Messages where it is known that both sender and recipient are automatic applications where no human makes an individual decision for each message if it is to be sent or not. 5. Security considerations "Auto-submitted:" raises no new security concerns, instead, it reduces the risk to security of certain kinds of loops. 6. Acknowledgements Keith Moore and Uzi Paz have influenced this document with valuable suggestions. 6. References [1] D. Crocker: "Standard for the format of ARPA Internet text messages." STD 11, RFC 822, August 1982. [2] S. Hardcastle-Kille: "Mapping between X.400(1988) / ISO 10021 and RFC 822", RFC 1327 May 1992. [3] ISO/ITU: "Message Handling Systems", ISO international standard 10021, ITU recommendation X.400. [4] ISO/ITU: "Message Handling Systems, Part 7: Interpersonal Messaging System, ISO international standard 10021-7, ITU recommendation X.420. [5] N. Borenstein, N. Freed: "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)", RFC 1521, September 1993. 7. Author's address Jacob Palme Phone: +46-8-16 16 67 Stockholm University/KTH Fax: +46-8-783 08 29 Electrum 230 E-mail: jpalme@dsv.su.se S-164 40 Kista, Sweden