rfc2822 April 2001

3.6.3. Destination address fields

   The destination fields of a message consist of three possible fields,
   each of the same form: The field name, which is either "To", "Cc", or
   "Bcc", followed by a comma-separated list of one or more addresses
   (either mailbox or group syntax).

to              =       "To:" address-list CRLF

cc              =       "Cc:" address-list CRLF

bcc             =       "Bcc:" (address-list / [CFWS]) CRLF

   The destination fields specify the recipients of the message.  Each
   destination field may have one or more addresses, and each of the
   addresses indicate the intended recipients of the message.  The only
   difference between the three fields is how each is used.

   The "To:" field contains the address(es) of the primary recipient(s)
   of the message.

   The "Cc:" field (where the "Cc" means "Carbon Copy" in the sense of
   making a copy on a typewriter using carbon paper) contains the
   addresses of others who are to receive the message, though the
   content of the message may not be directed at them.

   The "Bcc:" field (where the "Bcc" means "Blind Carbon Copy") contains
   addresses of recipients of the message whose addresses are not to be
   revealed to other recipients of the message.  There are three ways in
   which the "Bcc:" field is used.  In the first case, when a message
   containing a "Bcc:" field is prepared to be sent, the "Bcc:" line is
   removed even though all of the recipients (including those specified
   in the "Bcc:" field) are sent a copy of the message.  In the second
   case, recipients specified in the "To:" and "Cc:" lines each are sent
   a copy of the message with the "Bcc:" line removed as above, but the
   recipients on the "Bcc:" line get a separate copy of the message
   containing a "Bcc:" line.  (When there are multiple recipient
   addresses in the "Bcc:" field, some implementations actually send a
   separate copy of the message to each recipient with a "Bcc:"
   containing only the address of that particular recipient.) Finally,
   since a "Bcc:" field may contain no addresses, a "Bcc:" field can be
   sent without any addresses indicating to the recipients that blind
   copies were sent to someone.  Which method to use with "Bcc:" fields
   is implementation dependent, but refer to the "Security
   Considerations" section of this document for a discussion of each.
   When a message is a reply to another message, the mailboxes of the
   authors of the original message (the mailboxes in the "From:" field)
   or mailboxes specified in the "Reply-To:" field (if it exists) MAY
   appear in the "To:" field of the reply since these would normally be
   the primary recipients of the reply.  If a reply is sent to a message
   that has destination fields, it is often desirable to send a copy of
   the reply to all of the recipients of the message, in addition to the
   author.  When such a reply is formed, addresses in the "To:" and
   "Cc:" fields of the original message MAY appear in the "Cc:" field of
   the reply, since these are normally secondary recipients of the
   reply.  If a "Bcc:" field is present in the original message,
   addresses in that field MAY appear in the "Bcc:" field of the reply,
   but SHOULD NOT appear in the "To:" or "Cc:" fields.

   Note: Some mail applications have automatic reply commands that
   include the destination addresses of the original message in the
   destination addresses of the reply.  How those reply commands behave
   is implementation dependent and is beyond the scope of this document.
   In particular, whether or not to include the original destination
   addresses when the original message had a "Reply-To:" field is not
   addressed here.