rfc5322 Internet Message Format : Body

rfc5322 : Internet Message Format : Body

The body of a message is simply lines of US-ASCII characters. The only two limitations on the body are as follows:

CR and LF MUST only occur together as CRLF; they MUST NOT appear independently in the body.

Lines of characters in the body MUST be limited to 998 characters, and SHOULD be limited to 78 characters, excluding the CRLF.

Note: As was stated earlier, there are other documents, specifically the MIME documents ([RFC2045], [RFC2046], [RFC2049], [RFC4288], [RFC4289]), that extend (and limit) this specification to allow for different sorts of message bodies. Again, these mechanisms are beyond the scope of this document.