From: John W Noerenberg <jwn2@qualcomm.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 09:08:22 PST
To: yanek@novavax.nova.edu (Yanek Martinson)
Subject: Re: Signing ascii text
Message-ID: <9212231707.AA03963@harvey>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 11:31 PM 12/22/92 -0400, Yanek Martinson wrote:
>> (e.g., email messages, etc). Is there a convention for the end of line
>> sequence that is to be used for the copy of the file that is run through
>> the hash function? If there isn't, then the file hash will depend on the
>
>Canonical Text has a CR and LF at the end of each line.  This is 
>documented in some RFC.  All (most?) protocols used on internet such
>as smtp, finger, etc, use this format.  The possible justification
>is that an extra linefeed or a carriage return is not as bad as a missing
>one.  

Which RFC are you referring to?  While it is true that 821, 822 (and other
RFC's which are concerned with email messages) define the end of line as a
CRLF, I'm not aware of an RFC which defines canonical text.  The style of
late has been to define a line "as described in rfc822" or some such.  But
I don't recall any rfc which defines canonical text spanning session-layer
(or higher) protocols.  Is there one?

john noerenberg
jwn2@qualcomm.com
noerenberg.j (Applelink)
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