Definition[]
The Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) is a protocol that makes use of the headers in an IETF RFC 2822 message to describe the structure of rich message content.
“ | It defines the standard ways of packaging one or more separate objects into a message so that any compliant mail system can use it. It specifies how to encode and encapsulate non-text attachments, such as voice and animation, to e-mail.[1] | ” |
Overview[]
Internet email was originally sent as plain text ASCII messages [RFC 2822]. The Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) [RFC 2045] [RFC 2046] [RFC 2047] allows email to contain non-ASCII character sets as well as other non-text message components and attachments. Essentially MIME allows for an email message to be broken into parts, with each part identified by a content type. Typical content types include text/plain (for ASCII text), image/jpeg, text/html, etc. A mail message may contain multiple parts, which themselves may contain multiple parts, allowing MIME-formatted messages to be included as attachments in other MIME-formatted messages.
References[]
Source[]
- "Overview" section: NIST Special Publication 800-177, at 9.
See also[]
External resources[]
- N. Freed & N. Borenstein, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies (Internet Engineering Task Force) (RFC 2045) (Nov. 1996) (full-text).
- N. Freed & N. Borenstein, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types (Internet Engineering Task Force (RFC 2046) (Nov. 1996) (full-text).
- N. Freed & N. Borenstein, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Three: Message Headers for Non-ASCII Text (Internet Engineering Task Force (RFC 2047) (Nov. 1996) (full-text)