Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.3 Administration Guide

12.8.4 Imposing Message Line Length Restrictions

Keywords: linelength

The SMTP specification allows for lines of text containing up to 1000 bytes. However, some transfers may impose more severe restrictions on line length. The linelength keyword provides a mechanism for limiting the maximum permissible message line length on a channel-by-channel basis. Messages queued to a given channel with lines longer than the limit specified for that channel are automatically encoded.

The various encodings available in the MTA always result in a reduction of line length to fewer than 80 characters. The original message may be recovered after such encoding is done by applying an appropriating decoding filter.


Note –

Encoding can only reduce line lengths to fewer than 80 characters. Specification of line length values less than 80 may not actually produce lines with lengths that comply with the stated restriction.


The linelength keyword causes encoding of data to perform “soft” line wrapping for transport purposes. The encoding is normally decoded at the receiving side so that the original “long” lines are recovered. For “hard” line wrapping, see the “Record, text” in Table 13–7.