Are two periods allowed in the local-part of an email address?

Posted by Mike B on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Mike B
Published on 2012-06-05T15:23:33Z Indexed on 2012/06/05 16:42 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 183

Filed under:

email

|

smtp

|

rfc

A third-party email gateway relay is refusing to process a message for an email address we're sending to. The address is in the format of [email protected] (note the two periods). Is this allowed by RFC guidelines?

RFC 2822 seems to object to this in section 3.4.1:

The locally interpreted string is either a quoted-string or a dot-atom. If the string can be represented as a dot-atom (that is, it contains no characters other than atext characters or "." surrounded by atext characters), then the dot-atom form SHOULD be used and the quoted-string form SHOULD NOT be used. Comments and folding white space SHOULD NOT be used around the "@" in the addr-spec.

Furthermore, in that same section, it references this:

addr-spec = local-part "@" domain

local-part = dot-atom / quoted-string / obs-local-part

I interpret this to mean that the localpart can have content separated by dots but there cannot be two successive dots, and it cannot start or end with a dot. That being said, I'm not familiar with dot-atom syntax so maybe I'm mistaken here.

Can someone please confirm and explain?

© Server Fault or respective owner

Related posts about email

CRM 2011 - Workflows Vs JavaScripts

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
In the Contact entity, I have the following attributes Preferred email - A read only field of type Email Personal email 1 - An email field Personal email 2 - An email field Work email 1 - An email field Work email 2 - An email field School email - An email field Other email - An email field Preferred… >>> More
Sending Email in Android using JavaMail API without using the default android app(Builtin Email app

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi Folks, I am trying to create a mail sending application in android, If I use `Intent emailIntent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND`); This will launch the builtin application of android, I'm trying to send the mail on button click directly without using this app, Please any suggestions… >>> More
Processing Email in Outlook

as seen on Daniel Moth - Search for 'Daniel Moth'
A. Why Goal 1 = Help others: Have at most a 24-hour response turnaround to internal (from colleague) emails, typically achieving same day response. Goal 2 = Help projects: Not to implicitly pass/miss an opportunity to have impact on electronic discussions around any project on the radar. Not achieving… >>> More
Processing Email in Outlook

as seen on Daniel Moth - Search for 'Daniel Moth'
A. Why Goal 1 = Help others: Have at most a 24-hour response turnaround to internal (from colleague) emails, typically achieving same day response. Goal 2 = Help projects: Not to implicitly pass/miss an opportunity to have impact on electronic discussions around any project on the radar. Not achieving… >>> More
email is moved to junk-email folder even though sender is listed as safe

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Using Outlook-2007 : Added a sender as safe sender, but still the email from that id goes to junk-email folder. Tried resetting all settings and restarted outlook . any ideas ? Thanks! >>> More

Related posts about smtp

JavaMail not sending Subject or From under jetty:run-war

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Has anyone seen JavaMail not sending proper MimeMessages to an SMTP server, depending on how the JVM in started? At the end of the day, I can't send JavaMail SMTP messages with Subject: or From: fields, and it appears other headers are missing, only when running the app as a war. The web project… >>> More
Gmail smtp, Blackberry, BB, socketConnection, send email via gmail smtp programmatically

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello! Somebody can help me how can i use the gmail smtp server programmatically via socketConnection. My question is how i can write write a TSL/SSL authentication because i can`t communicate with the server?? Somebody did it from java on blackberry ? Thank You Alex >>> More
How to resovle javax.mail.AuthenticationFailedException issue?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I am doing a sendMail Servlet with JavaMail. I have javax.mail.AuthenticationFailedException on my output. Can anyone please help me out? Thanks. sendMailServlet code: try { String host = "smtp.gmail.com"; String from = "[email protected]"; String pass = "pass"; Properties… >>> More
Debugging Messaging Exception

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
We have a batch program that incorporates JavaMail 1.2 that sends emails. In our development environment, we haven't got the chance to encounter the above mentioned exception. But in the client's environment, they had experienced this a lot of times with the following error trace: javax.mail.MessagingException:… >>> More
Postfix Submission port issue

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have setup postfix+mailman on my debian server and i have an issue with postfix submission port. My ISP blocks SMTP on port 25 to prevent *spams and i must to use submission port (587). I have uncomment the following line from master.cf (/etc/postfix/) but nothing happens. submission inet… >>> More