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IETF RFC 5229
Sieve Email Filtering: Variables Extension
Last modified on Monday, January 14th, 2008
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Network Working Group K. Homme
Request for Comments: 5229 University of Oslo
Updates: 5228 January 2008
Category: Standards Track
Sieve Email Filtering: Variables Extension
 Status of This Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
In advanced mail filtering rule sets, it is useful to keep state or
configuration details across rules. This document updates the Sieve
filtering language (RFC 5228) with an extension to support variables.
The extension changes the interpretation of strings, adds an action
to store data in variables, and supplies a new test so that the value
of a string can be examined.
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RFC 5229 Sieve: Variables Extension January 2008
1. Introduction
This is an extension to the Sieve language defined by [SIEVE]. It
adds support for storing and referencing named data. The mechanisms
detailed in this document will only apply to Sieve scripts that
include a require clause for the "variables" extension. The require
clauses themselves are not affected by this extension.
Conventions for notations are as in [SIEVE] section 1.1, including
use of [KEYWORDS] and [ABNF]. The grammar builds on the grammar of
[SIEVE]. In this document, "character" means a character from the
ISO 10646 coded character set [ISO10646], which may consist of
multiple octets coded in [UTF-8], and "variable" is a named reference
to data stored or read back using the mechanisms of this extension.
2. Capability Identifier
The capability string associated with the extension defined in this
document is "variables".
3. Interpretation of Strings
This extension changes the semantics of quoted-string, multi-line-
literal and multi-line-dotstuff found in [SIEVE] to enable the
inclusion of the value of variables.
When a string is evaluated, substrings matching variable-ref SHALL be
replaced by the value of variable-name. Only one pass through the
string SHALL be done. Variable names are case insensitive, so "foo"
and "FOO" refer to the same variable. Unknown variables are replaced
by the empty string.
variable-ref = "${" [namespace] variable-name "}"
namespace = identifier "." *sub-namespace
sub-namespace = variable-name "."
variable-name = num-variable / identifier
num-variable = 1*DIGIT
Examples:
"&%${}!" => unchanged, as the empty string is an illegal
identifier
"${doh!}" => unchanged, as "!" is illegal in identifiers
The variable "company" holds the value "ACME". No other variables
are set.
"${full}" => the empty string
"${company}" => "ACME"
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RFC 5229 Sieve: Variables Extension January 2008
"${BAD${Company}" => "${BADACME"
"${President, ${Company} Inc.}"
=> "${President, ACME Inc.}"
The expanded string MUST use the variable values that are current
when control reaches the statement the string is part of.
Strings where no variable substitutions take place are referred to as
constant strings. Future extensions may specify that passing non-
constant strings as arguments to its actions or tests is an error.
Namespaces are meant for future extensions that make internal state
available through variables. These variables SHOULD be put in a
namespace whose first component is the same as its capability string.
Such extensions SHOULD state which, if any, of the variables in its
namespace are modifiable with the "set" action.
References to namespaces without a prior require statement for the
relevant extension MUST cause an error.
Tests or actions in future extensions may need to access the
unexpanded version of the string argument and, e.g., do the expansion
after setting variables in its namespace. The design of the
implementation should allow this.
3.1. Quoting and Encoded Characters
The semantics of quoting using backslash are not changed: backslash
quoting is resolved before doing variable substitution. Similarly,
encoded character processing (see Section 2.4.2.4 of [SIEVE]) is
performed before doing variable substitution, but after quoting.
Examples:
"${fo\o}" => ${foo} => the expansion of variable foo.
"${fo\\o}" => ${fo\o} => illegal identifier => left verbatim.
"\${foo}" => ${foo} => the expansion of variable foo.
"\\${foo}" => \${foo} => a backslash character followed by the
expansion of variable foo.
If it is required to include a character sequence such as
"${beep}" verbatim in a text literal, the user can define a
variable to circumvent expansion to the empty string.
Example:
set "dollar" "$";
set "text" "regarding ${dollar}{beep}";
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RFC 5229 Sieve: Variables Extension January 2008
Example:
require ["encoded-character", "variables"];
set "name" "Ethelbert"
if header :contains "Subject" "dear${hex:20 24 7b 4e}ame}" {
# the test string is "dear Ethelbert"
}
3.2. Match Variables
A "match variable" has a name consisting only of decimal digits and
has no namespace component.
The decimal value of the match variable name will index the list of
matching strings from the most recently evaluated successful match of
type ":matches". The list is empty if no match has been successful.
Note: Extra leading zeroes are allowed and ignored.
The list will contain one string for each wildcard ("?" and "*") in
the match pattern. Each string holds the substring from the source
value that the corresponding wildcard expands to, possibly the empty
string. The wildcards match as little as possible (non-greedy
matching).
The first string in the list has index 1. If the index is out of
range, the empty string will be substituted. Index 0 contains the
matched part of the source value.
The interpreter MUST short-circuit tests, i.e., not perform more
tests than necessary to find the result. Evaluation order MUST be
left to right. If a test has two or more list arguments, the
implementation is free to choose which to iterate over first.
An extension describing a new match type (e.g., [REGEX]) MAY specify
that match variables are set as a side effect when the match type is
used in a script that has enabled the "variables" extension.
Example:
require ["fileinto", "variables"];
if header :matches "List-ID" "*<*@*" {
fileinto "INBOX.lists.${2}"; stop;
}
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RFC 5229 Sieve: Variables Extension January 2008
# Imagine the header
# Subject: [acme-users] [fwd] version 1.0 is out
if header :matches "Subject" "[*] *" {
# ${1} will hold "acme-users",
# ${2} will hold "[fwd] version 1.0 is out"
fileinfo "INBOX.lists.${1}"; stop;
}
# Imagine the header
# To: coyote@ACME.Example.COM
if address :matches ["To", "Cc"] ["coyote@**.com",
"wile@**.com"] {
# ${0} is the matching address
# ${1} is always the empty string
# ${2} is part of the domain name ("ACME.Example")
fileinto "INBOX.business.${2}"; stop;
} else {
# Control wouldn't reach this block if any match was
# successful, so no match variables are set at this
# point.
}
if anyof (true, address :domain :matches "To" "*.com") {
# The second test is never evaluated, so there are
# still no match variables set.
stop;
}
4. Action set
Usage: set [MODIFIER] <name: string> <value: string>
The "set" action stores the specified value in the variable
identified by name. The name MUST be a constant string and conform
to the syntax of variable-name. Match variables cannot be set. A
namespace cannot be used unless an extension explicitly allows its
use in "set". An invalid name MUST be detected as a syntax error.
Modifiers are applied on a value before it is stored in the variable.
See the next section for details.
Variables are only visible to the currently running script. Note:
Future extensions may provide different scoping rules for variables.
Variable names are case insensitive.
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Example:
set "honorific" "Mr";
set "first_name" "Wile";
set "last_name" "Coyote";
set "vacation" text:
Dear ${HONORIFIC} ${last_name},
I'm out, please leave a message after the meep.
.
;
"set" does not affect the implicit keep. It is compatible with all
actions defined in [SIEVE].
4.1. Modifiers
Usage: ":lower" / ":upper" / ":lowerfirst" / ":upperfirst" /
":quotewildcard" / ":length"
Modifier names are case insensitive. Unknown modifiers MUST yield a
syntax error. More than one modifier can be specified, in which case
they are applied according to this precedence list, largest value
first:
+--------------------------------+
| Precedence Modifier |
+--------------------------------+
| 40 :lower |
| :upper |
+--------------------------------+
| 30 :lowerfirst |
| :upperfirst |
+--------------------------------+
| 20 :quotewildcard |
+--------------------------------+
| 10 :length |
+--------------------------------+
It is an error to use two or more modifiers of the same precedence in
a single "set" action.
Examples:
# The value assigned to the variable is printed after the arrow
set "a" "juMBlEd lETteRS"; => "juMBlEd lETteRS"
set :length "b" "${a}"; => "15"
set :lower "b" "${a}"; => "jumbled letters"
set :upperfirst "b" "${a}"; => "JuMBlEd lETteRS"
set :upperfirst :lower "b" "${a}"; => "Jumbled letters"
set :quotewildcard "b" "Rock*"; => "Rock\*"
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4.1.1. Modifier ":length"
The value is the decimal number of characters in the expansion,
converted to a string.
4.1.2. Modifier ":quotewildcard"
This modifier adds the necessary quoting to ensure that the expanded
text will only match a literal occurrence if used as a parameter to
:matches. Every character with special meaning ("*", "?", and "\")
is prefixed with "\" in the expansion.
4.1.3. Case Modifiers
These modifiers change the letters of the text from upper to lower
case or vice versa. Characters other than "A"-"Z" and "a"-"z" from
US-ASCII are left unchanged.
4.1.3.1. Modifier ":upper"
All lower case letters are converted to their upper case
counterparts.
4.1.3.2. Modifier ":lower"
All upper case letters are converted to their lower case
counterparts.
4.1.3.3. Modifier ":upperfirst"
The first character of the string is converted to upper case if it is
a letter and set in lower case. The rest of the string is left
unchanged.
4.1.3.4. Modifier ":lowerfirst"
The first character of the string is converted to lower case if it is
a letter and set in upper case. The rest of the string is left
unchanged.
5. Test string
Usage: string [MATCH-TYPE] [COMPARATOR]
<source: string-list> <key-list: string-list>
The "string" test evaluates to true if any of the source strings
matches any key. The type of match defaults to ":is".
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In the "string" test, both source and key-list are taken from the
script, not the message, and whitespace stripping MUST NOT be done
unless the script explicitly requests this through some future
mechanism.
Example:
set "state" "${state} pending";
if string :matches " ${state} " "* pending *" {
# the above test always succeeds
}
The "relational" extension [RELATIONAL] adds a match type called
":count". The count of a single string is 0 if it is the empty
string, or 1 otherwise. The count of a string list is the sum of the
counts of the member strings.
6. Implementation Limits
An implementation of this document MUST support at least 128 distinct
variables. The supported length of variable names MUST be at least
32 characters. Each variable MUST be able to hold at least 4000
characters. Attempts to set the variable to a value larger than what
the implementation supports SHOULD be reported as an error at
compile-time if possible. If the attempt is discovered during run-
time, the value SHOULD be truncated, and it MUST NOT be treated as an
error.
Match variables ${1} through ${9} MUST be supported. References to
higher indices than those the implementation supports MUST be treated
as a syntax error, which SHOULD be discovered at compile-time.
7. Security Considerations
When match variables are used, and the author of the script isn't
careful, strings can contain arbitrary values controlled by the
sender of the mail.
Since values stored by "set" that exceed implementation limits are
silently truncated, it's not appropriate to store large structures
with security implications in variables.
The introduction of variables makes advanced decision making easier
to write, but since no looping construct is provided, all Sieve
scripts will terminate in an orderly manner.
Sieve filtering should not be relied on as a security measure against
hostile mail messages. Sieve is designed to do simple, mostly static
tests, and is not suitable for use as a spam or virus checker, where
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RFC 5229 Sieve: Variables Extension January 2008
the perpetrator has a motivation to vary the format of the mail in
order to avoid filtering rules. See also [SPAMTEST].
8. IANA Considerations
The following template specifies the IANA registration of the
variables Sieve extension specified in this document:
To: iana@iana.org
Subject: Registration of new Sieve extension
Capability name: variables
Description: Adds support for variables to the Sieve filtering
language.
RFC number: RFC 5229
Contact address: The Sieve discussion list <ietf-mta-filters@imc.org>
9. Acknowledgments
Thanks to Cyrus Daboo, Jutta Degener, Ned Freed, Lawrence Greenfield,
Jeffrey Hutzelman, Mark E. Mallett, Alexey Melnikov, Peder Stray, and
Nigel Swinson for valuable feedback.
10. References
10.1. Normative References
[ABNF] Crocker, D., Ed., and Overell, P., "Augmented BNF for
Syntax Specifications: ABNF", RFC 4234, October 2005.
[KEYWORDS] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RELATIONAL] Segmuller, W. and B. Leiba, "Sieve Email Filtering:
Relational Extension", RFC 5231, January 2008.
[SIEVE] Guenther, P., Ed., and T. Showalter, Ed., "Sieve: An
Email Filtering Language", RFC 5228, January 2008.
[UTF-8] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of Unicode
and ISO 10646", RFC 3629, November 2003.
10.2. Informative References
[ISO10646] ISO/IEC, "Information Technology - Universal Multiple-
Octet Coded Character Set (UCS) - Part 1: Architecture
and Basic Multilingual Plane", May 1993, with
amendments.
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RFC 5229 Sieve: Variables Extension January 2008
[REGEX] Murchison, K., "Sieve Email Filtering -- Regular
Expression Extension", Work in Progress, February 2006.
[SPAMTEST] Daboo, C., "Sieve Email Filtering: Spamtest and
Virustest Extensions", RFC 5235, January 2008.
Author's Address
Kjetil T. Homme
University of Oslo
PO Box 1080
0316 Oslo, Norway
Phone: +47 9366 0091
EMail: kjetilho@ifi.uio.no
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RFC 5229 Sieve: Variables Extension January 2008
Full Copyright Statement
Copyright © The IETF Trust (2008).
This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
retain all their rights.
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Sieve Email Filtering: Variables Extension
RFC TOTAL SIZE: 20023 bytes
PUBLICATION DATE: Monday, January 14th, 2008
LEGAL RIGHTS: The IETF Trust (see BCP 78)
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