E-Mail Header: MIME-Version: 1.0 - When should this be used?

email mime email-headers
Jim G. picture Jim G. · Aug 25, 2010 · Viewed 24.8k times · Source

This could be rightfully construed as a beginner's question.

Consider the following e-mail header:

MIME-Version: 1.0

My Questions:

  • When should you stamp an e-mail with this header?
  • When should you omit this e-mail header?

EDIT: Is it true that whenever you specify a 'Content Type' header, no matter what that content type happens to be, that you should also specify 'MIME-Version'? [This link tipped me off to the possibility.]

Answer

Jim G. picture Jim G. · Aug 25, 2010

According to Wikipedia, you should use the 'MIME-Version: 1.0' heading when you're sending an e-mail that contains one of the following:

  • Text in character sets other than ASCII
  • Non-text attachments
  • Message bodies with multiple parts
  • Header information in non-ASCII character sets

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