Protocol Action: SMTP Service Extension Documents to Draft Standard

[IESG Secretary <[e-mail]>]

The IESG has approved the following three Internet-Drafts:

  o "SMTP Service Extensions"
    <draft-ietf-smtpext-extensions-01.txt>
  o "SMTP Service Extension for 8bit-MIMEtransport"
    <draft-ietf-smtpex-8bitmime-01.txt>
  o "SMTP Service Extension for Message Size Declaration"
    <draft-ietf-smtpext-size-01.txt>
 
as Draft Standards. These documents are the product of the Internet
Mail Extensions Working Group.  The IESG contact person is Erik
Huizer.


Technical Summary

  This series of documents define a framework for extending the SMTP
  service and an initial set of optional services including 8bit
  transport for MIME messages and message size declaration.
 
  The extensions mechanism defines a means whereby a server SMTP can
  inform a client SMTP as to the service extensions it supports.  With
  the knowledge of the servers capabilities a client can, without
  negotiation, use enhanced services.
 
  The 8bit extensions document defines an extension to the SMTP service
  whereby content bodies consisting of a MIME message containing arbitrary
  octet-aligned material may be exchanged.  Note that this extension does
  *not* eliminate the possibility of an SMTP server limiting line length;
  servers are free to implement this extension, but nevertheless set a
  line length limit no lower than 1000 octets.
 
  The message size document defines a SMTP service whereby a client may
  declare the size of a particular message to a server, and a server may
  declare the maximum message size it is willing to accept from a client.
  This extension is intended to avoid sending a large message which will
  later be rejected due to excessive size.


Working Group Summary

  The documents have been updated to reflect implementation experience
  during the period when they were at Proposed Standard level.


Protocol Quality

  The initial proposal submitted to the IESG was implemented, and these
  documents reflect incremental changes to that initial proposal.  The
  documents have received a high level of review and are understood to be
  complete.