http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/the-limitations-of-lotus-notes-mail-subject-length/ Fri, 24 May 2013 10:59:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/the-limitations-of-lotus-notes-mail-subject-length/#comment-112721 TomLiotta Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:39:18 +0000 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/the-limitations-of-lotus-notes-mail-subject-length/#comment-112721 Since you’ve asked the question twice with quite a few days between, it probably isn’t some kind of obscure interview question.
 
There are at least two, and possibly three, limits involved. I don’t know the Lotus limit, though I’d expect it to be perhaps either approx 255 characters or one of the other two limits.
 
The SMTP RFC 2822 section 2.1.1 gives two limits. It says that e-mail systems SHOULD limit subject length to 78 chars and MUST limit length to 998 chars. (In both cases, the ending CR/LF is not counted.)
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if Lotus adheres to the 78 char limit. But it should be easy to test just by trying to send with a longer subject.
 
Be aware that some e-mail systems simply won’t/can’t display beyond 78 chars. Longer subjects can lose information.
 
Tom

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