RFC 1312 (rfc1312) - Page 1 of 8
Message Send Protocol 2
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group R. Nelson Request for Comments: 1312 Crynwr Software Obsoletes: RFC 1159 G. Arnold Sun Microsystems, Inc. April 1992 Message Send Protocol 2 Status of this Memo This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community. Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested. Please refer to the current edition of the "IAB Official Protocol Standards" for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Discussion The Message Send Protocol is used to send a short message to a given user on a given terminal on a given host. Unix's write command offers a limited form of this service through its host-local write command. This service is also known on some hosts as "SEND". As the Internet grows, more and more people are using hosts that do not run Internet protocols at all times. These hosts may be able to use a simple protocol that can be implemented using UDP and IP. The Message Send Protocol is one such protocol. Note that a message sending protocol is already defined using TCP. The SMTP protocol includes a "SEND" command that will direct mail to a user's terminal. SMTP's SEND is not useful in this instance because SMTP's SEND is not implemented by the majority of vendors at this time, and is difficult to use by unskilled users. For the purposes of standardization, we will include a TCP based Message Send Service. Message Syntax The message consists of several parts, all of which must be present The first part is a single octet indicating the protocol revision, currently decimal 66, 'B'. The remaining parts are null-terminated sequences of eight-bit characters in the ISO 8859/1 alphabet. Some parts may be empty. All comparisons of parts (e.g., recipient, Nelson & Arnold
