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Melnikov 3 Internet-Draft Isode Ltd 4 Intended status: Informational October 21, 2013 5 Expires: April 24, 2014 7 User-Agent and X-Mailer Header Field registration for Email 8 draft-melnikov-email-user-agent-00 10 Abstract 12 This memo registers User-Agent and X-Mailer header fields in the 13 Permanent Message Header Field Names IANA registry. 15 Status of This Memo 17 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 18 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 20 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 21 Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute 22 working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- 23 Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. 25 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 26 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 27 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 28 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 30 This Internet-Draft will expire on April 24, 2014. 32 Copyright Notice 34 Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 35 document authors. All rights reserved. 37 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 38 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents 39 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of 40 publication of this document. Please review these documents 41 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect 42 to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must 43 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of 44 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as 45 described in the Simplified BSD License. 47 Table of Contents 49 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 50 2. Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 51 3. User-Agent header field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 52 4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 53 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 54 6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 55 6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 56 6.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 57 Appendix A. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 58 Appendix B. Use of User-Agent and X-Mailer by existing email 59 agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 61 1. Introduction 63 User-Agent and X-Mailer are common Email header fields for 64 identifying any software (and its components) that generates email 65 messages. They are used for helping in debugging email generation 66 and processing errors, for tracking use of different email clients. 67 The User-Agent header field is already registered for use in HTTP 68 [RFC2616] and NetNews [RFC5536]. This document registers it for use 69 in email. 71 2. Conventions Used in This Document 73 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 74 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 75 document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119] when they 76 appear in ALL CAPS. These words also appear in this document in 77 lower case as plain English words, absent their normative meanings. 79 The formal syntax use the Augmented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF) [RFC5234] 80 notation including the core rules defined in Appendix B of RFC 5234 81 [RFC5234]. 83 3. User-Agent header field 85 The User-Agent header field contains information about the user agent 86 (typically a Mail User Agent) generating the email message, for 87 statistical purposes and tracing of standards violations to specific 88 software in need of correction. 90 ABNF for this header field is defined as follows: 92 user-agent = "User-Agent:" 1*product [CFWS] CRLF 94 product = [CFWS] token [ [CFWS] "/" product-version ] 95 product-version = [CFWS] token 97 CFWS = 99 token = 101 This header field MAY contain multiple tokens identifying 102 the user agent and any subproducts that form a significant part of 103 it, listed in order of their significance for identifying the 104 application. 106 NOTE: Many popular email clients and agents are using X-Mailer header 107 field instead of the User-Agent header field. 109 NOTE: [RFC2616] describes a similar facility for the HTTP protocol. 110 The Email format differs in that "{" and "}" are allowed in tokens 111 ( and ) and comments are permitted wherever 112 white space is allowed. 114 4. IANA Considerations 116 IANA is requested to add the following list of header field names to 117 the "Permanent Message Header Field Names" registry (in http:// 118 www.iana.org/assignments/message-headers/perm-headers.html): 120 Header field: User-Agent 121 Applicable protocol: mail 122 Status: standard 123 Author/change controller: IESG (iesg@ietf.org) on behalf of the IETF 124 Specification document(s): [[this document]] 125 Related information: [RFC2616] (Section 14.43) 127 Header field: X-Mailer 128 Applicable protocol: mail 129 Status: standard 130 Author/change controller: IESG (iesg@ietf.org) on behalf of the IETF 131 Specification document(s): [[this document]] 132 Related information: [RFC2616] (Section 14.43) 134 5. Security Considerations 136 TBD 138 6. References 139 6.1. Normative References 141 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 142 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 144 [RFC2045] Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail 145 Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message 146 Bodies", RFC 2045, November 1996. 148 [RFC5322] Resnick, P., Ed., "Internet Message Format", RFC 5322, 149 October 2008. 151 [RFC5234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax 152 Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, January 2008. 154 6.2. Informative References 156 [RFC5536] Murchison, K., Lindsey, C., and D. Kohn, "Netnews Article 157 Format", RFC 5536, November 2009. 159 [RFC2616] Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H., 160 Masinter, L., Leach, P., and T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext 161 Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616, June 1999. 163 Appendix A. Acknowledgements 165 This document copies lots of text from [RFC5536], so the author of 166 this document would like to acknowledge contributions made by the 167 authors of that RFC. 169 Appendix B. Use of User-Agent and X-Mailer by existing email agents 171 +-----------------------------+-------------------------------------+ 172 | Name of an Email Agent | Header Field used for | 173 | | identification | 174 +-----------------------------+-------------------------------------+ 175 | Thunderbird | User-Agent | 176 | | | 177 | Trojita | User-Agent | 178 | | | 179 | Mutt | User-Agent | 180 | | | 181 | Facebook | X-Mailer | 182 | | | 183 | Yahoo! Mail | X-Mailer | 184 | | | 185 | Inky | X-Mailer | 186 | | | 187 | Apple iPad Mail | X-Mailer | 188 | | | 189 | git | X-Mailer | 190 | | | 191 | Microsoft Outlook | X-Mailer | 192 | | | 193 | Microsoft Windows Live Mail | X-Mailer | 194 +-----------------------------+-------------------------------------+ 196 Author's Address 198 Alexey Melnikov 199 Isode Ltd 200 5 Castle Business Village 201 36 Station Road 202 Hampton, Middlesex TW12 2BX 203 UK 205 EMail: Alexey.Melnikov@isode.com