rfc5322: what are the line limits?

Question

I'm trying to make sense of rfc5322 Line Length Limits . Is the line limit 78 chars or 998 chars? Is one for the body and the other for the headers? I can't find anything to specify that.

Each line of characters MUST be no more than 998 characters, and SHOULD be no more than 78 characters, excluding the CRLF.

Answer 1

It's saying that preferably, lines should ideally be no longer than 78 characters but lines must never be longer than 998 characters.

In other words, 998 is a hard limit while 78 is a soft limit.