XFOR: SMTP Header Discarded with No Message Content
Article ID: 175841
Article Last Modified on 10/28/2006
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0 Standard Edition
This article was previously published under Q175841
SUMMARY
When the Microsoft Exchange Server Internet Mail Service receives an
inbound Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) message, the message is
formatted according to the header information defined in the Data section
of the message (that is, Subject:, To:, From:).
If the last header line is not followed by a null line, plus a carriage
return/line feed (CR/LF), the last header field will not be displayed to
the recipient of the message.
Some SMTP hosts may send out mail in this format when there is no message
content, and therefore, the above behavior is expected.
The following excerpt from RFC 822 explains the proper header formatting,
so that the message content is separated from the header content
consistently.
3.1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION
A message consists of header fields and, optionally, a body. The body is
simply a sequence of lines containing ASCII characters. It is separated
from the headers by a null line (i.e., a line with nothing preceding the
CRLF).
Keywords: kbinfo KB175841