Error with underscore in InternetAddress parse with strict = false

Question

Hi all,
I run the following code (using javamail version 1.4.3):
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Throwable  {
        InternetAddress.parse("ab@c_d.pt", false);
    }And I got the following exception:
Exception in thread "main" javax.mail.internet.AddressException: Domain contains illegal character in string ``ab@c_d.pt''
     at javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress.checkAddress(InternetAddress.java:1211)
     at javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress.parse(InternetAddress.java:1044)
     at javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress.parse(InternetAddress.java:575)Now I understand that if I were to use strict = true this would be the correct result, as the given domain is wrong according to RFC1034. But since I used strict = false, shouldn't this work? The docs only refer checking according to RFC1034 when using strict = true, and the address is valid as RFC822, I think...
Why is this error happening? Is there a way to signal javamail to allow the underscore in the domain part of the address?
Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

strict=false doesn't mean you can do whatever you want. It just causes fewer of the syntax checks to be done.
If you want to allow pretty much any of the garbage you'll see in a real header (e.g., in a spam message),
use the parseHeader method with strict=false.