Managing mail with MMDF

Mail headers

For a mail header to be correct, it must include these three lines in this format:

   From: sender
   To: recipient
   Date: Weekday DD Mon YY hh:mm:ss

Here is an example:

   From: fred@your_company.COM (Fred Astaire)
   To: ginger
   Date: Wed 03 Apr 91 12:21:23 PST

In addition, most MUAs and mail submission programs such as mail(C) and scomail(XC) add extra header lines. For example, the MUA might add the ``Message-Id'' header. If the MUA does not add this header, MMDF adds it, as well as any ``Received'' headers. The user can also add other headers. For example, if the user specifies a carbon-copy recipient, the message header includes a ``Cc:'' line. MMDF allows these additional header lines, but does not use them; the recipient mail server and MUA handle these header lines.

In the example above, note the format of the address in the ``From:'' line. This is an example of a DOMAIN NAME. MMDF uses the domain name to determine how to route the message.