Re: [exim] Rewriting address phrases

On 17 Aug 2011, at 13:12, Ian Cameron wrote:

>>
>> Oh, but which of these forms is Exchange using? They're both valid, though =
>> the quotes are redundant.
>
> Well (and to answer Roger Burton West here too), I looked at RFC 2822 last
> week and have just checked again. Unless I'm reading it incorrectly, phrases
> containing dots should be quoted.

Hmm, well:

A display-name is a phrase (section 3.4)

A phrase is 1*word / obs-phrase

word is atom or quoted string, and an atom may not contain a dot. A dot-atom may, but that's not included here.

However, obs-phrase = word *(word / "." / CFWS) and I think that means that a phrase may not begin with a dot, but may contain one.

Section 4.1 says that the dot wasn't permitted before rfc2322, but "It appears here because the period character is currently used in many messages in the display-name portion of addresses, especially for initials in names, and therefore must be interpreted properly. In the future, period may appear in the regular syntax of phrase."

That's largely unchanged in RFC 5322, except for the removal of the last sentence quoted above.

AFAICS, obs-phrase wasn't offered as an option in rfc822, but it seems to me that the dot has been legal in unquoted display names since 2001.

--
Ian Eiloart
Postmaster, University of Sussex
+44 (0) 1273 87-3148