[Mailman-Users] RFC or algorithm for creation of Message-ID

[Christopher P. Lindsey]

> Does anyone on the list know of an RFC or, better yet, an "official" 
> algorithm to use for the creation of a message's Message-ID: header value? 
> I'm gating web forums to Mailman lists and need to generate Message-IDs for 
> messages created via the web interface. I need to insert the ID in a forum 
> DB field and deposit it into the outgoing message.

Hi Kevin,

   Take a look at RFC 822 -- it describes the Message-ID: header.

   If I remember correctly, it's in the form of 

      <atom>@<atom>

   and should be unique.

   Most sites choose to do

      <unique identifier>@example.com

   (replacing example.com with their domain name).  The unique identifier
   is usually generated based on the current time and process id, i.e.

      time() . $$

   in perl.  It can be left as base 10, converted to base 16, run through
   md5sum to create a 32-bit number, etc...

Chris