SMTP: When the SMTP Gateway Uses Quotation Marks (98208)

MORE INFORMATION

Double Quotation Marks

Double quotation marks are for when certain special characters are used within the header fields of the message. The special characters are listed in RFC 822, section 3.3, titled "Lexical Tokens." The special characters are:

  (    Left parenthesis
  )    Right parenthesis
  <    Less-than sign
  >    Greater-than sign
  @    At sign
  ,    Comma
  ;    Semicolon
  :    Colon
  \    Backslash
  "    Double quotation marks
  .    Period
  [    Left square bracket
  ]    Right square bracket
				

If the gateway sees any of these characters within the header fields, it uses double quotation marks around the information.

Note: If a SMTP host wants to enclose something in double quotation marks, the text enclosed can be any ASCII character, or white space, EXCEPT:

  "       Double quotation marks
  \       Backslash
  CR      Carriage return
				

Single Quotation Marks

RFC 822 does not include any discussion on single quotation marks.