Message-ID

Message-ID is a unique identifier for a digital message, most commonly a globally unique identifier used in email and Usenet newsgroups.[1]

Message-IDs are required to have a specific format which is a subset of an email address[2] and be globally unique. No two different messages must ever have the same Message-ID. If two messages have the same Message-ID, they are assumed to be the same and one version is discarded. This can cause issues if tools mangle the IDs created by other tools. Such a problem has been reported with Google MTAs mangling Message-IDs created by Outlook, making it difficult to reference other messages and breaking threading.

Message-IDs, if present, are generated by the client program sending the email[3] or by the first mail server.[4] A common of method of generating such ID is by combining the time and domain name, for example: 950124.162336@example.com.[5]

Mails to public mailing-lists and news groups can be found via their Message-ID by using links from various services:

http://mid.gmane.org/alpine.BSF.2.00.1004291655110.61392@x.fncre.vasb
http://news.gmane.org/find-root.php?message_id=alpine.BSF.2.00.1004291655110.61392@x.fncre.vasb
https://marc.info/?i=Prayer.1.0.18.0811191202370.4107@sabinus.cs.umn.edu
http://mid.mail-archive.com/9dc4201d0807272359r1f0ad9d6ta44f31f439de58b7@mail.gmail.com
https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?db=mid&id=199802242058.MAA24843@monk.via.net
https://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/20050606213954.GC884@finlandia.infodrom.north.de
https://lists.debconf.org/cgi-lurker/keyword.cgi?doc-url=/lurker&format=en.html&query=id:87vey4ogcj.fsf@vorlon.ganneff.de
https://www.w3.org/mid/alpine.BSF.2.00.1004291655110.61392@x.fncre.vasb
https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/20060419051850.96025.qmail@web31802.mail.mud.yahoo.com
https://public-inbox.org/git/Pine.LNX.4.58.0504150753440.7211@ppc970.osdl.org
https://article.olduse.net/40478@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
http://al.howardknight.net/msgid.cgi?STYPE=msgid&A=0&MSGI=<usenet-hier-faq-1516003264%246620%40hope.eyrie.org>
https://lwn.net/ml/linux-kernel/20181020134908.GA32218@kroah.com/
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20181020134908.GA32218@kroah.com/
https://public-inbox.org/git/1486427537.16949.42.camel@bonedaddy.net/
https://www.43-1.org/app/nntp/mid/20050606213954.GC884@finlandia.infodrom.north.de

See also

References
  1. Eoghan Casey (2004). Digital evidence and computer crime: forensic science, computers and the Internet. Academic Press. p. 506. ISBN 0-12-163104-4.
  2. RFC5322 – Internet Message Format
  3. RFC5322 – Internet Message Format
  4. RFC5321 – Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
  5. RFC2392 – Content-ID and Message-ID Uniform Resource Locators
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