Read the Sieve notification update
06RFC 5436 updates the Auto-Submitted extension mechanism and defines a distinct Sieve mailto notification profile.
A later system sees auto-notified and follows the SHOULD NOT recommendation. Retained old Received fields stay below the marker; a submitted notification is not resubmitted.
Source for this drawing: RFC 3834 · Read RFC source: RFC 5436 § 2.7 — Sieve notification update ↗
New to this? Start hereA quick picture + helpful background
A message needs an address.
Think of a packet as a small addressed envelope. Devices pass it onward; transport protocols decide what delivery promises an application gets.
Helpful first, if these ideas are unfamiliar
These pictures are analogies to help you learn. The linked RFC explains the actual rules.
Terms in this drawing
Related RFCs and changes
“Updates” changes part of an earlier RFC. “Obsoletes” replaces it. This list shows selected related documents.
Adds the Auto-Submitted keyword registry with Specification Required policy and auto-notified. Sieve mailto notification composition and empty-sender handling have their own requirements.
Read the updated RFC section ↗RFC 5436 sections 6.2–6.3 create the keyword registry using Specification Required and register auto-notified. This does not replace RFC 3834 or change every vacation reply into a Sieve notification.
- RFC 5436 sections 6.2–6.3 create the keyword registry using Specification Required and register auto-notified. This does not replace RFC 3834 or change every vacation reply into a Sieve notification.
- For this Sieve mailto profile, Auto-Submitted: auto-notified MUST be included with owner-email, owner-token, or both. owner-email is a quoted address; owner-token is an opaque token. If old Received fields are retained, Auto-Submitted MUST appear above them as a trace boundary.
- Unlike replying to the incoming sender, the notification goes to a configured mailto destination. Messages with empty envelope senders MUST be allowed to trigger notifications; in that case the new notification envelope sender MUST also be empty. The destination is still a real configured address, not <>.
- The profile SHOULD NOT trigger another notification for non-no Auto-Submitted values. Implementations MUST prevent loops and MUST NOT resubmit a notification once submitted. This chapter illustrates these specific rules, not the complete Sieve language or all mailto processing.
Fictional example.org addresses. Independent examples are labelled; this is guidance for responders, not a full mail parser or an authentication mechanism.
Read the RFC section ↗