UTF-8 encoding in from and subject lines in internet standard email

[Rob Nicholson]

I wasn't sure where to post this as there doesn't seem to be an obvious
group to discuss this. I'm writing my own internet email parser mainly
because a) I'm mad and b) I need to understand internet email standards in
more detail so it's a good way to learn.

One of the emails sent from my mobile telephone has encoded the "from" and
"subject" lines in UTF-8 format. I've got no problem with the UTF-8 format
itself (as that's documented as a draft standard) but it's the "?utp-8
prefix in front as shown in this example:

From: =?utf-8?B?Um9iIE5pY2hvbHNvbg==?= <[email protected]>
Subject: =?utf-8?B?U2NvcmVz?=

Does anyone know which standard covers this?

Thanks, Rob.

 

[Rob Nicholson]

Subject: =?utf-8?B?U2NvcmVz?=

Does anyone know which standard covers this?

Later... it's a MIME extension standard discussed here:

 

[Rob Nicholson]

Subject: =?utf-8?B?U2NvcmVz?=

Does anyone know which standard covers this?

Later... it's a MIME extension standard discussed here:

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2047.txt

Complicated all this isn't it!!

Cheers, Rob.

 

[Mihai N.]

One of the emails sent from my mobile telephone has encoded the "from" and

"subject" lines in UTF-8 format. I've got no problem with the UTF-8 format
itself (as that's documented as a draft standard) but it's the "?utp-8
prefix in front as shown in this example:

From: =?utf-8?B?Um9iIE5pY2hvbHNvbg==?= <[email protected]>
Subject: =?utf-8?B?U2NvcmVz?=

Does anyone know which standard covers this?

Start with RFC 2047.
=? utf-8 ? B ? U2NvcmVz ?=
=? charset ? encoding ? Text ?=

See here for the difference between charset and encoding:
http://www.mihai-nita.net/20060806a.shtml