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[Text version]
This RFC is obsoleted by: RFC 3501
Network Working Group
Request for Comments: 2060
Obsoletes: 1730
Category: Standards TrackM. Crispin
University of Washington
December 1996
- Status of this Memo
- This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
- Abstract
- The Internet Message Access Protocol, Version 4rev1 (IMAP4rev1) allows a client to access and manipulate electronic mail messages on a server. IMAP4rev1 permits manipulation of remote message folders, called "mailboxes", in a way that is functionally equivalent to local mailboxes. IMAP4rev1 also provides the capability for an offline client to resynchronize with the server (see also [IMAP-DISC]).
IMAP4rev1 includes operations for creating, deleting, and renaming mailboxes; checking for new messages; permanently removing messages; setting and clearing flags; [RFC-822] and [MIME-IMB] parsing; searching; and selective fetching of message attributes, texts, and portions thereof. Messages in IMAP4rev1 are accessed by the use of numbers. These numbers are either message sequence numbers or unique identifiers.
IMAP4rev1 supports a single server. A mechanism for accessing configuration information to support multiple IMAP4rev1 servers is discussed in [ACAP].
IMAP4rev1 does not specify a means of posting mail; this function is handled by a mail transfer protocol such as [SMTP].
IMAP4rev1 is designed to be upwards compatible from the [IMAP2] and unpublished IMAP2bis protocols. In the course of the evolution of IMAP4rev1, some aspects in the earlier protocol have become obsolete. Obsolete commands, responses, and data formats which an IMAP4rev1 implementation may encounter when used with an earlier implementation are described in [IMAP-OBSOLETE]. Other compatibility issues with IMAP2bis, the most common variant of the earlier protocol, are discussed in [IMAP-COMPAT]. A full discussion of compatibility issues with rare (and presumed extinct) variants of [IMAP2] is in [IMAP-HISTORICAL]; this document is primarily of historical interest.
- Table of Contents
- IMAP4rev1 Protocol Specification
This document is written from the point of view of the implementor of an IMAP4rev1 client or server. Beyond the protocol overview in section 2, it is not optimized for someone trying to understand the operation of the protocol. The material in sections 3 through 5 provides the general context and definitions with which IMAP4rev1 operates.
Sections 6, 7, and 9 describe the IMAP commands, responses, and syntax, respectively. The relationships among these are such that it is almost impossible to understand any of them separately. In particular, do not attempt to deduce command syntax from the command section alone; instead refer to the Formal Syntax section.
In examples, "C:" and "S:" indicate lines sent by the client and server respectively.
The following terms are used in this document to signify the requirements of this specification.
1) MUST, or the adjective REQUIRED, means that the definition is an absolute requirement of the specification.2) MUST NOT that the definition is an absolute prohibition of the specification.3) SHOULD means that there may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore a particular item, but the full implications MUST be understood and carefully weighed before choosing a different course.4) SHOULD NOT means that there may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances when the particular behavior is acceptable or even useful, but the full implications SHOULD be understood and the case carefully weighed before implementing any behavior described with this label.5) MAY, or the adjective OPTIONAL, means that an item is truly optional. One vendor may choose to include the item because a particular marketplace requires it or because the vendor feels that it enhances the product while another vendor may omit the same item. An implementation which does not include a particular option MUST be prepared to interoperate with another implementation which does include the option."Can" is used instead of "may" when referring to a possible circumstance or situation, as opposed to an optional facility of the protocol."User" is used to refer to a human user, whereas "client" refers to the software being run by the user."Connection" refers to the entire sequence of client/server interaction from the initial establishment of the network connection until its termination. "Session" refers to the sequence of client/server interaction from the time that a mailbox is selected (SELECT or EXAMINE command) until the time that selection ends (SELECT or EXAMINE of another mailbox, CLOSE command, or connection termination).Characters are 7-bit US-ASCII unless otherwise specified. Other character sets are indicated using a "CHARSET", as described in [MIME-IMT] and defined in [CHARSET]. CHARSETs have important additional semantics in addition to defining character set; refer to these documents for more detail.The IMAP4rev1 protocol assumes a reliable data stream such as provided by TCP. When TCP is used, an IMAP4rev1 server listens on port 143.
An IMAP4rev1 connection consists of the establishment of a client/server network connection, an initial greeting from the server, and client/server interactions. These client/server interactions consist of a client command, server data, and a server completion result response.
All interactions transmitted by client and server are in the form of lines; that is, strings that end with a CRLF. The protocol receiver of an IMAP4rev1 client or server is either reading a line, or is reading a sequence of octets with a known count followed by a line.
- 2.2.1. Client Protocol Sender and Server Protocol Receiver
- The client command begins an operation. Each client command is prefixed with an identifier (typically a short alphanumeric string, e.g. A0001, A0002, etc.) called a "tag". A different tag is generated by the client for each command.
There are two cases in which a line from the client does not represent a complete command. In one case, a command argument is quoted with an octet count (see the description of literal in String under Data Formats); in the other case, the command arguments require server feedback (see the AUTHENTICATE command). In either case, the server sends a command continuation request response if it is ready for the octets (if appropriate) and the remainder of the command. This response is prefixed with the token "+".
Note: If, instead, the server detected an error in the command, it sends a BAD completion response with tag matching the command (as described below) to reject the command and prevent the client from sending any more of the command.It is also possible for the server to send a completion response for some other command (if multiple commands are in progress), or untagged data. In either case, the command continuation request is still pending; the client takes the appropriate action for the response, and reads another response from the server. In all cases, the client MUST send a complete command (including receiving all command continuation request responses and command continuations for the command) before initiating a new command.The protocol receiver of an IMAP4rev1 server reads a command line from the client, parses the command and its arguments, and transmits server data and a server command completion result response.
- 2.2.2. Server Protocol Sender and Client Protocol Receiver
- Data transmitted by the server to the client and status responses that do not indicate command completion are prefixed with the token "*", and are called untagged responses.
Server data MAY be sent as a result of a client command, or MAY be sent unilaterally by the server. There is no syntactic difference between server data that resulted from a specific command and server data that were sent unilaterally.
The server completion result response indicates the success or failure of the operation. It is tagged with the same tag as the client command which began the operation. Thus, if more than one command is in progress, the tag in a server completion response identifies the command to which the response applies. There are three possible server completion responses: OK (indicating success), NO (indicating failure), or BAD (indicating protocol error such as unrecognized command or command syntax error).
The protocol receiver of an IMAP4rev1 client reads a response line from the server. It then takes action on the response based upon the first token of the response, which can be a tag, a "*", or a "+".
A client MUST be prepared to accept any server response at all times. This includes server data that was not requested. Server data SHOULD be recorded, so that the client can reference its recorded copy rather than sending a command to the server to request the data. In the case of certain server data, the data MUST be recorded.
This topic is discussed in greater detail in the Server Responses section.
In addition to message text, each message has several attributes associated with it. These attributes may be retrieved individually or in conjunction with other attributes or message texts.
- 2.3.1. Message Numbers
- Messages in IMAP4rev1 are accessed by one of two numbers; the unique identifier and the message sequence number.
A 32-bit value assigned to each message, which when used with the unique identifier validity value (see below) forms a 64-bit value that is permanently guaranteed not to refer to any other message in the mailbox. Unique identifiers are assigned in a strictly ascending fashion in the mailbox; as each message is added to the mailbox it is assigned a higher UID than the message(s) which were added previously.
Unlike message sequence numbers, unique identifiers are not necessarily contiguous. Unique identifiers also persist across sessions. This permits a client to resynchronize its state from a previous session with the server (e.g. disconnected or offline access clients); this is discussed further in [IMAP-DISC].
Associated with every mailbox is a unique identifier validity value, which is sent in an UIDVALIDITY response code in an OK untagged response at mailbox selection time. If unique identifiers from an earlier session fail to persist to this session, the unique identifier validity value MUST be greater than the one used in the earlier session.
Note: Unique identifiers MUST be strictly ascending in the mailbox at all times. If the physical message store is re-ordered by a non-IMAP agent, this requires that the unique identifiers in the mailbox be regenerated, since the former unique identifers are no longer strictly ascending as a result of the re-ordering. Another instance in which unique identifiers are regenerated is if the message store has no mechanism to store unique identifiers. Although this specification recognizes that this may be unavoidable in certain server environments, it STRONGLY ENCOURAGES message store implementation techniques that avoid this problem.Another cause of non-persistance is if the mailbox is deleted and a new mailbox with the same name is created at a later date, Since the name is the same, a client may not know that this is a new mailbox unless the unique identifier validity is different. A good value to use for the unique identifier validity value is a 32-bit representation of the creation date/time of the mailbox. It is alright to use a constant such as 1, but only if it guaranteed that unique identifiers will never be reused, even in the case of a mailbox being deleted (or renamed) and a new mailbox by the same name created at some future time.The unique identifier of a message MUST NOT change during the session, and SHOULD NOT change between sessions. However, if it is not possible to preserve the unique identifier of a message in a subsequent session, each subsequent session MUST have a new unique identifier validity value that is larger than any that was used previously.
A relative position from 1 to the number of messages in the mailbox. This position MUST be ordered by ascending unique identifier. As each new message is added, it is assigned a message sequence number that is 1 higher than the number of messages in the mailbox before that new message was added.
Message sequence numbers can be reassigned during the session. For example, when a message is permanently removed (expunged) from the mailbox, the message sequence number for all subsequent messages is decremented. Similarly, a new message can be assigned a message sequence number that was once held by some other message prior to an expunge.
In addition to accessing messages by relative position in the mailbox, message sequence numbers can be used in mathematical calculations. For example, if an untagged "EXISTS 11" is received, and previously an untagged "8 EXISTS" was received, three new messages have arrived with message sequence numbers of 9, 10, and 11. Another example; if message 287 in a 523 message mailbox has UID 12345, there are exactly 286 messages which have lesser UIDs and 236 messages which have greater UIDs.
- 2.3.2. Flags Message Attribute
- A list of zero or more named tokens associated with the message. A flag is set by its addition to this list, and is cleared by its removal. There are two types of flags in IMAP4rev1. A flag of either type may be permanent or session-only.
A system flag is a flag name that is pre-defined in this specification. All system flags begin with "\". Certain system flags (\Deleted and \Seen) have special semantics described elsewhere. The currently-defined system flags are:
\Draft Message has not completed composition (marked as a draft).\Recent Message is "recently" arrived in this mailbox. This session is the first session to have been notified about this message; subsequent sessions will not see \Recent set for this message. This flag can not be altered by the client.If it is not possible to determine whether or not this session is the first session to be notified about a message, then that message SHOULD be considered recent.If multiple connections have the same mailbox selected simultaneously, it is undefined which of these connections will see newly-arrives messages with \Recent set and which will see it without \Recent set.A keyword is defined by the server implementation. Keywords do not begin with "\". Servers MAY permit the client to define new keywords in the mailbox (see the description of the PERMANENTFLAGS response code for more information).A flag may be permanent or session-only on a per-flag basis. Permanent flags are those which the client can add or remove from the message flags permanently; that is, subsequent sessions will see any change in permanent flags. Changes to session flags are valid only in that session.Note: The \Recent system flag is a special case of a session flag. \Recent can not be used as an argument in a STORE command, and thus can not be changed at all.- 2.3.3. Internal Date Message Attribute
- The internal date and time of the message on the server. This is not the date and time in the [RFC-822] header, but rather a date and time which reflects when the message was received. In the case of messages delivered via [SMTP], this SHOULD be the date and time of final delivery of the message as defined by [SMTP]. In the case of messages delivered by the IMAP4rev1 COPY command, this SHOULD be the internal date and time of the source message. In the case of messages delivered by the IMAP4rev1 APPEND command, this SHOULD be the date and time as specified in the APPEND command description. All other cases are implementation defined.
- 2.3.4. [RFC-822] Size Message Attribute
- The number of octets in the message, as expressed in [RFC-822] format.
- 2.3.5. Envelope Structure Message Attribute
- A parsed representation of the [RFC-822] envelope information (not to be confused with an [SMTP] envelope) of the message.
- 2.3.6. Body Structure Message Attribute
- A parsed representation of the [MIME-IMB] body structure information of the message.
In addition to being able to fetch the full [RFC-822] text of a message, IMAP4rev1 permits the fetching of portions of the full message text. Specifically, it is possible to fetch the [RFC-822] message header, [RFC-822] message body, a [MIME-IMB] body part, or a [MIME-IMB] header.
An IMAP4rev1 server is in one of four states. Most commands are valid in only certain states. It is a protocol error for the client to attempt a command while the command is in an inappropriate state. In this case, a server will respond with a BAD or NO (depending upon server implementation) command completion result.
In non-authenticated state, the client MUST supply authentication credentials before most commands will be permitted. This state is entered when a connection starts unless the connection has been pre- authenticated.
In authenticated state, the client is authenticated and MUST select a mailbox to access before commands that affect messages will be permitted. This state is entered when a pre-authenticated connection starts, when acceptable authentication credentials have been provided, or after an error in selecting a mailbox.
In selected state, a mailbox has been selected to access. This state is entered when a mailbox has been successfully selected.
In logout state, the connection is being terminated, and the server will close the connection. This state can be entered as a result of a client request or by unilateral server decision.
+--------------------------------------+ |initial connection and server greeting| +--------------------------------------+ || (1) || (2) || (3) VV || || +-----------------+ || || |non-authenticated| || || +-----------------+ || || || (7) || (4) || || || VV VV || || +----------------+ || || | authenticated |<=++ || || +----------------+ || || || || (7) || (5) || (6) || || || VV || || || || +--------+ || || || || |selected|==++ || || || +--------+ || || || || (7) || VV VV VV VV +--------------------------------------+ | logout and close connection | +--------------------------------------+(1) connection without pre-authentication (OK greeting) (2) pre-authenticated connection (PREAUTH greeting) (3) rejected connection (BYE greeting) (4) successful LOGIN or AUTHENTICATE command (5) successful SELECT or EXAMINE command (6) CLOSE command, or failed SELECT or EXAMINE command (7) LOGOUT command, server shutdown, or connection closedIMAP4rev1 uses textual commands and responses. Data in IMAP4rev1 can be in one of several forms: atom, number, string, parenthesized list, or NIL.
An atom consists of one or more non-special characters.
A number consists of one or more digit characters, and represents a numeric value.
A string is in one of two forms: literal and quoted string. The literal form is the general form of string. The quoted string form is an alternative that avoids the overhead of processing a literal at the cost of limitations of characters that can be used in a quoted string.
A literal is a sequence of zero or more octets (including CR and LF), prefix-quoted with an octet count in the form of an open brace ("{"), the number of octets, close brace ("}"), and CRLF. In the case of literals transmitted from server to client, the CRLF is immediately followed by the octet data. In the case of literals transmitted from client to server, the client MUST wait to receive a command continuation request (described later in this document) before sending the octet data (and the remainder of the command).
A quoted string is a sequence of zero or more 7-bit characters, excluding CR and LF, with double quote (<">) characters at each end.
The empty string is represented as either "" (a quoted string with zero characters between double quotes) or as {0} followed by CRLF (a literal with an octet count of 0).
Note: Even if the octet count is 0, a client transmitting a literal MUST wait to receive a command continuation request.- 4.3.1. 8-bit and Binary Strings
- 8-bit textual and binary mail is supported through the use of a [MIME-IMB] content transfer encoding. IMAP4rev1 implementations MAY transmit 8-bit or multi-octet characters in literals, but SHOULD do so only when the [CHARSET] is identified.
Although a BINARY body encoding is defined, unencoded binary strings are not permitted. A "binary string" is any string with NUL characters. Implementations MUST encode binary data into a textual form such as BASE64 before transmitting the data. A string with an excessive amount of CTL characters MAY also be considered to be binary.Data structures are represented as a "parenthesized list"; a sequence of data items, delimited by space, and bounded at each end by parentheses. A parenthesized list can contain other parenthesized lists, using multiple levels of parentheses to indicate nesting.
The empty list is represented as () -- a parenthesized list with no members.
The special atom "NIL" represents the non-existence of a particular data item that is represented as a string or parenthesized list, as distinct from the empty string "" or the empty parenthesized list ().
The interpretation of mailbox names is implementation-dependent. However, the case-insensitive mailbox name INBOX is a special name reserved to mean "the primary mailbox for this user on this server".
- 5.1.1. Mailbox Hierarchy Naming
- If it is desired to export hierarchical mailbox names, mailbox names MUST be left-to-right hierarchical using a single character to separate levels of hierarchy. The same hierarchy separator character is used for all levels of hierarchy within a single name.
- 5.1.2. Mailbox Namespace Naming Convention
- By convention, the first hierarchical element of any mailbox name which begins with "#" identifies the "namespace" of the remainder of the name. This makes it possible to disambiguate between different types of mailbox stores, each of which have their own namespaces.
For example, implementations which offer access to USENET newsgroups MAY use the "#news" namespace to partition the USENET newsgroup namespace from that of other mailboxes. Thus, the comp.mail.misc newsgroup would have an mailbox name of "#news.comp.mail.misc", and the name "comp.mail.misc" could refer to a different object (e.g. a user's private mailbox).- 5.1.3. Mailbox International Naming Convention
- By convention, international mailbox names are specified using a modified version of the UTF-7 encoding described in [UTF-7]. The purpose of these modifications is to correct the following problems with UTF-7:
1) UTF-7 uses the "+" character for shifting; this conflicts with the common use of "+" in mailbox names, in particular USENET newsgroup names.2) UTF-7's encoding is BASE64 which uses the "/" character; this conflicts with the use of "/" as a popular hierarchy delimiter.3) UTF-7 prohibits the unencoded usage of "\"; this conflicts with the use of "\" as a popular hierarchy delimiter.4) UTF-7 prohibits the unencoded usage of "~"; this conflicts with the use of "~" in some servers as a home directory indicator.5) UTF-7 permits multiple alternate forms to represent the same string; in particular, printable US-ASCII chararacters can be represented in encoded form.In modified UTF-7, printable US-ASCII characters except for "&" represent themselves; that is, characters with octet values 0x20-0x25 and 0x27-0x7e. The character "&" (0x26) is represented by the two- octet sequence "&-".
All other characters (octet values 0x00-0x1f, 0x7f-0xff, and all Unicode 16-bit octets) are represented in modified BASE64, with a further modification from [UTF-7] that "," is used instead of "/". Modified BASE64 MUST NOT be used to represent any printing US-ASCII character which can represent itself.
"&" is used to shift to modified BASE64 and "-" to shift back to US- ASCII. All names start in US-ASCII, and MUST end in US-ASCII (that is, a name that ends with a Unicode 16-bit octet MUST end with a "- ").
For example, here is a mailbox name which mixes English, Japanese, and Chinese text: ~peter/mail/&ZeVnLIqe-/&U,BTFw-At any time, a server can send data that the client did not request. Sometimes, such behavior is REQUIRED. For example, agents other than the server MAY add messages to the mailbox (e.g. new mail delivery), change the flags of message in the mailbox (e.g. simultaneous access to the same mailbox by multiple agents), or even remove messages from the mailbox. A server MUST send mailbox size updates automatically if a mailbox size change is observed during the processing of a command. A server SHOULD send message flag updates automatically, without requiring the client to request such updates explicitly. Special rules exist for server notification of a client about the removal of messages to prevent synchronization errors; see the description of the EXPUNGE response for more detail.
Regardless of what implementation decisions a client makes on remembering data from the server, a client implementation MUST record mailbox size updates. It MUST NOT assume that any command after initial mailbox selection will return the size of the mailbox.
Server implementations are permitted to send an untagged response (except for EXPUNGE) while there is no command in progress. Server implementations that send such responses MUST deal with flow control considerations. Specifically, they MUST either (1) verify that the size of the data does not exceed the underlying transport's available window size, or (2) use non-blocking writes.
If a server has an inactivity autologout timer, that timer MUST be of at least 30 minutes' duration. The receipt of ANY command from the client during that interval SHOULD suffice to reset the autologout timer.
The client MAY send another command without waiting for the completion result response of a command, subject to ambiguity rules (see below) and flow control constraints on the underlying data stream. Similarly, a server MAY begin processing another command before processing the current command to completion, subject to ambiguity rules. However, any command continuation request responses and command continuations MUST be negotiated before any subsequent command is initiated.
The exception is if an ambiguity would result because of a command that would affect the results of other commands. Clients MUST NOT send multiple commands without waiting if an ambiguity would result. If the server detects a possible ambiguity, it MUST execute commands to completion in the order given by the client.
The most obvious example of ambiguity is when a command would affect the results of another command; for example, a FETCH of a message's flags and a STORE of that same message's flags.
A non-obvious ambiguity occurs with commands that permit an untagged EXPUNGE response (commands other than FETCH, STORE, and SEARCH), since an untagged EXPUNGE response can invalidate sequence numbers in a subsequent command. This is not a problem for FETCH, STORE, or SEARCH commands because servers are prohibited from sending EXPUNGE responses while any of those commands are in progress. Therefore, if the client sends any command other than FETCH, STORE, or SEARCH, it MUST wait for a response before sending a command with message sequence numbers.
For example, the following non-waiting command sequences are invalid:
FETCH + NOOP + STORE STORE + COPY + FETCH COPY + COPY CHECK + FETCHThe following are examples of valid non-waiting command sequences:
FETCH + STORE + SEARCH + CHECK STORE + COPY + EXPUNGEIMAP4rev1 commands are described in this section. Commands are organized by the state in which the command is permitted. Commands which are permitted in multiple states are listed in the minimum permitted state (for example, commands valid in authenticated and selected state are listed in the authenticated state commands).
Command arguments, identified by "Arguments:" in the command descriptions below, are described by function, not by syntax. The precise syntax of command arguments is described in the Formal Syntax section.
Some commands cause specific server responses to be returned; these are identified by "Responses:" in the command descriptions below. See the response descriptions in the Responses section for information on these responses, and the Formal Syntax section for the precise syntax of these responses. It is possible for server data to be transmitted as a result of any command; thus, commands that do not specifically require server data specify "no specific responses for this command" instead of "none".
The "Result:" in the command description refers to the possible tagged status responses to a command, and any special interpretation of these status responses.
The following commands are valid in any state: CAPABILITY, NOOP, and LOGOUT.
- 6.1.1. CAPABILITY Command
Result: OK - capability completed BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe CAPABILITY command requests a listing of capabilities that the server supports. The server MUST send a single untagged CAPABILITY response with "IMAP4rev1" as one of the listed capabilities before the (tagged) OK response. This listing of capabilities is not dependent upon connection state or user. It is therefore not necessary to issue a CAPABILITY command more than once in a connection.A capability name which begins with "AUTH=" indicates that the server supports that particular authentication mechanism. All such names are, by definition, part of this specification. For example, the authorization capability for an experimental "blurdybloop" authenticator would be "AUTH=XBLURDYBLOOP" and not "XAUTH=BLURDYBLOOP" or "XAUTH=XBLURDYBLOOP".Other capability names refer to extensions, revisions, or amendments to this specification. See the documentation of the CAPABILITY response for additional information. No capabilities, beyond the base IMAP4rev1 set defined in this specification, are enabled without explicit client action to invoke the capability.See the section entitled "Client Commands - Experimental/Expansion" for information about the form of site or implementation-specific capabilities.Example: C: abcd CAPABILITY S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 AUTH=KERBEROS_V4 S: abcd OK CAPABILITY completed- 6.1.2. NOOP Command
Responses: no specific responses for this command (but see below)
Result: OK - noop completed BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidSince any command can return a status update as untagged data, the NOOP command can be used as a periodic poll for new messages or message status updates during a period of inactivity. The NOOP command can also be used to reset any inactivity autologout timer on the server.Example: C: a002 NOOP S: a002 OK NOOP completed . . . C: a047 NOOP S: * 22 EXPUNGE S: * 23 EXISTS S: * 3 RECENT S: * 14 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen \Deleted)) S: a047 OK NOOP completed- 6.1.3. LOGOUT Command
Result: OK - logout completed BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe LOGOUT command informs the server that the client is done with the connection. The server MUST send a BYE untagged response before the (tagged) OK response, and then close the network connection.Example: C: A023 LOGOUT S: * BYE IMAP4rev1 Server logging out S: A023 OK LOGOUT completed (Server and client then close the connection)In non-authenticated state, the AUTHENTICATE or LOGIN command establishes authentication and enter authenticated state. The AUTHENTICATE command provides a general mechanism for a variety of authentication techniques, whereas the LOGIN command uses the traditional user name and plaintext password pair.
Server implementations MAY allow non-authenticated access to certain mailboxes. The convention is to use a LOGIN command with the userid "anonymous". A password is REQUIRED. It is implementation-dependent what requirements, if any, are placed on the password and what access restrictions are placed on anonymous users.
Once authenticated (including as anonymous), it is not possible to re-enter non-authenticated state.
In addition to the universal commands (CAPABILITY, NOOP, and LOGOUT), the following commands are valid in non-authenticated state: AUTHENTICATE and LOGIN.
- 6.2.1. AUTHENTICATE Command
Result: OK - authenticate completed, now in authenticated state NO - authenticate failure: unsupported authentication mechanism, credentials rejected BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid, authentication exchange cancelledThe AUTHENTICATE command indicates an authentication mechanism, such as described in [IMAP-AUTH], to the server. If the server supports the requested authentication mechanism, it performs an authentication protocol exchange to authenticate and identify the client. It MAY also negotiate an OPTIONAL protection mechanism for subsequent protocol interactions. If the requested authentication mechanism is not supported, the server SHOULD reject the AUTHENTICATE command by sending a tagged NO response.The authentication protocol exchange consists of a series of server challenges and client answers that are specific to the authentication mechanism. A server challenge consists of a command continuation request response with the "+" token followed by a BASE64 encoded string. The client answer consists of a line consisting of a BASE64 encoded string. If the client wishes to cancel an authentication exchange, it issues a line with a single "*". If the server receives such an answer, it MUST reject the AUTHENTICATE command by sending a tagged BAD response.A protection mechanism provides integrity and privacy protection to the connection. If a protection mechanism is negotiated, it is applied to all subsequent data sent over the connection. The protection mechanism takes effect immediately following the CRLF that concludes the authentication exchange for the client, and the CRLF of the tagged OK response for the server. Once the protection mechanism is in effect, the stream of command and response octets is processed into buffers of ciphertext. Each buffer is transferred over the connection as a stream of octets prepended with a four octet field in network byte order that represents the length of the following data. The maximum ciphertext buffer length is defined by the protection mechanism.Authentication mechanisms are OPTIONAL. Protection mechanisms are also OPTIONAL; an authentication mechanism MAY be implemented without any protection mechanism. If an AUTHENTICATE command fails with a NO response, the client MAY try anotherauthentication mechanism by issuing another AUTHENTICATE command, or MAY attempt to authenticate by using the LOGIN command. In other words, the client MAY request authentication types in decreasing order of preference, with the LOGIN command as a last resort.Example: S: * OK KerberosV4 IMAP4rev1 Server C: A001 AUTHENTICATE KERBEROS_V4 S: + AmFYig== C: BAcAQU5EUkVXLkNNVS5FRFUAOCAsho84kLN3/IJmrMG+25a4DT +nZImJjnTNHJUtxAA+o0KPKfHEcAFs9a3CL5Oebe/ydHJUwYFd WwuQ1MWiy6IesKvjL5rL9WjXUb9MwT9bpObYLGOKi1Qh S: + or//EoAADZI= C: DiAF5A4gA+oOIALuBkAAmw== S: A001 OK Kerberos V4 authentication successfulNote: the line breaks in the first client answer are for editorial clarity and are not in real authenticators.- 6.2.2. LOGIN Command
Arguments: user name passwordResult: OK - login completed, now in authenticated state NO - login failure: user name or password rejected BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe LOGIN command identifies the client to the server and carries the plaintext password authenticating this user.Example: C: a001 LOGIN SMITH SESAME S: a001 OK LOGIN completedIn authenticated state, commands that manipulate mailboxes as atomic entities are permitted. Of these commands, the SELECT and EXAMINE commands will select a mailbox for access and enter selected state.
In addition to the universal commands (CAPABILITY, NOOP, and LOGOUT), the following commands are valid in authenticated state: SELECT, EXAMINE, CREATE, DELETE, RENAME, SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, LIST, LSUB, STATUS, and APPEND.
- 6.3.1. SELECT Command
Responses: REQUIRED untagged responses: FLAGS, EXISTS, RECENT OPTIONAL OK untagged responses: UNSEEN, PERMANENTFLAGSResult: OK - select completed, now in selected state NO - select failure, now in authenticated state: no such mailbox, can't access mailbox BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe SELECT command selects a mailbox so that messages in the mailbox can be accessed. Before returning an OK to the client, the server MUST send the following untagged data to the client:
FLAGS Defined flags in the mailbox. See the description of the FLAGS response for more detail.<n> EXISTS The number of messages in the mailbox. See the description of the EXISTS response for more detail.<n> RECENT The number of messages with the \Recent flag set. See the description of the RECENT response for more detail.OK [UIDVALIDITY <n>] The unique identifier validity value. See the description of the UID command for more detail.to define the initial state of the mailbox at the client.
The server SHOULD also send an UNSEEN response code in an OK untagged response, indicating the message sequence number of the first unseen message in the mailbox.
If the client can not change the permanent state of one or more of the flags listed in the FLAGS untagged response, the server SHOULD send a PERMANENTFLAGS response code in an OK untagged response, listing the flags that the client can change permanently.
Only one mailbox can be selected at a time in a connection; simultaneous access to multiple mailboxes requires multiple connections. The SELECT command automatically deselects any currently selected mailbox before attempting the new selection. Consequently, if a mailbox is selected and a SELECT command that fails is attempted, no mailbox is selected.
If the client is permitted to modify the mailbox, the server SHOULD prefix the text of the tagged OK response with the "[READ-WRITE]" response code.If the client is not permitted to modify the mailbox but is permitted read access, the mailbox is selected as read-only, and the server MUST prefix the text of the tagged OK response to SELECT with the "[READ-ONLY]" response code. Read-only access through SELECT differs from the EXAMINE command in that certain read-only mailboxes MAY permit the change of permanent state on a per-user (as opposed to global) basis. Netnews messages marked in a server-based .newsrc file are an example of such per-user permanent state that can be modified with read-only mailboxes.Example: C: A142 SELECT INBOX S: * 172 EXISTS S: * 1 RECENT S: * OK [UNSEEN 12] Message 12 is first unseen S: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 3857529045] UIDs valid S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft) S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Deleted \Seen \*)] Limited S: A142 OK [READ-WRITE] SELECT completed- 6.3.2. EXAMINE Command
Responses: REQUIRED untagged responses: FLAGS, EXISTS, RECENT OPTIONAL OK untagged responses: UNSEEN, PERMANENTFLAGSResult: OK - examine completed, now in selected state NO - examine failure, now in authenticated state: no such mailbox, can't access mailbox BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe EXAMINE command is identical to SELECT and returns the same output; however, the selected mailbox is identified as read-only. No changes to the permanent state of the mailbox, including per-user state, are permitted.The text of the tagged OK response to the EXAMINE command MUST begin with the "[READ-ONLY]" response code.Example: C: A932 EXAMINE blurdybloop S: * 17 EXISTS S: * 2 RECENT S: * OK [UNSEEN 8] Message 8 is first unseen S: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 3857529045] UIDs valid S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft) S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS ()] No permanent flags permitted S: A932 OK [READ-ONLY] EXAMINE completed- 6.3.3. CREATE Command
Result: OK - create completed NO - create failure: can't create mailbox with that name BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe CREATE command creates a mailbox with the given name. An OK response is returned only if a new mailbox with that name has been created. It is an error to attempt to create INBOX or a mailbox with a name that refers to an extant mailbox. Any error in creation will return a tagged NO response.If the mailbox name is suffixed with the server's hierarchy separator character (as returned from the server by a LIST command), this is a declaration that the client intends to create mailbox names under this name in the hierarchy. Server implementations that do not require this declaration MUST ignore it.If the server's hierarchy separator character appears elsewhere in the name, the server SHOULD create any superior hierarchical names that are needed for the CREATE command to complete successfully. In other words, an attempt to create "foo/bar/zap" on a server in which "/" is the hierarchy separator character SHOULD create foo/ and foo/bar/ if they do not already exist.If a new mailbox is created with the same name as a mailbox which was deleted, its unique identifiers MUST be greater than any unique identifiers used in the previous incarnation of the mailbox UNLESS the new incarnation has a different unique identifier validity value. See the description of the UID command for more detail.Example: C: A003 CREATE owatagusiam/ S: A003 OK CREATE completed C: A004 CREATE owatagusiam/blurdybloop S: A004 OK CREATE completedNote: the interpretation of this example depends on whether "/" was returned as the hierarchy separator from LIST. If "/" is the hierarchy separator, a new level of hierarchy named "owatagusiam" with a member called "blurdybloop" is created. Otherwise, two mailboxes at the same hierarchy level are created.- 6.3.4. DELETE Command
Result: OK - delete completed NO - delete failure: can't delete mailbox with that name BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe DELETE command permanently removes the mailbox with the given name. A tagged OK response is returned only if the mailbox has been deleted. It is an error to attempt to delete INBOX or a mailbox name that does not exist.The DELETE command MUST NOT remove inferior hierarchical names. For example, if a mailbox "foo" has an inferior "foo.bar" (assuming "." is the hierarchy delimiter character), removing "foo" MUST NOT remove "foo.bar". It is an error to attempt to delete a name that has inferior hierarchical names and also has the \Noselect mailbox name attribute (see the description of the LIST response for more details).It is permitted to delete a name that has inferior hierarchical names and does not have the \Noselect mailbox name attribute. In this case, all messages in that mailbox are removed, and the name will acquire the \Noselect mailbox name attribute.The value of the highest-used unique identifier of the deleted mailbox MUST be preserved so that a new mailbox created with the same name will not reuse the identifiers of the former incarnation, UNLESS the new incarnation has a different unique identifier validity value. See the description of the UID command for more detail.Examples: C: A682 LIST "" * S: * LIST () "/" blurdybloop S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" foo S: * LIST () "/" foo/bar S: A682 OK LIST completed C: A683 DELETE blurdybloop S: A683 OK DELETE completed C: A684 DELETE foo S: A684 NO Name "foo" has inferior hierarchical names C: A685 DELETE foo/bar S: A685 OK DELETE Completed C: A686 LIST "" * S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" foo S: A686 OK LIST completed C: A687 DELETE foo S: A687 OK DELETE CompletedC: A82 LIST "" * S: * LIST () "." blurdybloop S: * LIST () "." foo S: * LIST () "." foo.bar S: A82 OK LIST completed C: A83 DELETE blurdybloop S: A83 OK DELETE completed C: A84 DELETE foo S: A84 OK DELETE Completed C: A85 LIST "" * S: * LIST () "." foo.bar S: A85 OK LIST completed C: A86 LIST "" % S: * LIST (\Noselect) "." foo S: A86 OK LIST completed- 6.3.5. RENAME Command
Arguments: existing mailbox name new mailbox nameResult: OK - rename completed NO - rename failure: can't rename mailbox with that name, can't rename to mailbox with that name BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe RENAME command changes the name of a mailbox. A tagged OK response is returned only if the mailbox has been renamed. It isan error to attempt to rename from a mailbox name that does not exist or to a mailbox name that already exists. Any error in renaming will return a tagged NO response.If the name has inferior hierarchical names, then the inferior hierarchical names MUST also be renamed. For example, a rename of "foo" to "zap" will rename "foo/bar" (assuming "/" is the hierarchy delimiter character) to "zap/bar".The value of the highest-used unique identifier of the old mailbox name MUST be preserved so that a new mailbox created with the same name will not reuse the identifiers of the former incarnation, UNLESS the new incarnation has a different unique identifier validity value. See the description of the UID command for more detail.Renaming INBOX is permitted, and has special behavior. It moves all messages in INBOX to a new mailbox with the given name, leaving INBOX empty. If the server implementation supports inferior hierarchical names of INBOX, these are unaffected by a rename of INBOX.Examples: C: A682 LIST "" * S: * LIST () "/" blurdybloop S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" foo S: * LIST () "/" foo/bar S: A682 OK LIST completed C: A683 RENAME blurdybloop sarasoop S: A683 OK RENAME completed C: A684 RENAME foo zowie S: A684 OK RENAME Completed C: A685 LIST "" * S: * LIST () "/" sarasoop S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" zowie S: * LIST () "/" zowie/bar S: A685 OK LIST completedC: Z432 LIST "" * S: * LIST () "." INBOX S: * LIST () "." INBOX.bar S: Z432 OK LIST completed C: Z433 RENAME INBOX old-mail S: Z433 OK RENAME completed C: Z434 LIST "" * S: * LIST () "." INBOX S: * LIST () "." INBOX.bar S: * LIST () "." old-mail S: Z434 OK LIST completed- 6.3.6. SUBSCRIBE Command
Result: OK - subscribe completed NO - subscribe failure: can't subscribe to that name BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe SUBSCRIBE command adds the specified mailbox name to the server's set of "active" or "subscribed" mailboxes as returned by the LSUB command. This command returns a tagged OK response only if the subscription is successful.A server MAY validate the mailbox argument to SUBSCRIBE to verify that it exists. However, it MUST NOT unilaterally remove an existing mailbox name from the subscription list even if a mailbox by that name no longer exists.Note: this requirement is because some server sites may routinely remove a mailbox with a well-known name (e.g. "system-alerts") after its contents expire, with the intention of recreating it when new contents are appropriate.Example: C: A002 SUBSCRIBE #news.comp.mail.mime S: A002 OK SUBSCRIBE completed- 6.3.7. UNSUBSCRIBE Command
Result: OK - unsubscribe completed NO - unsubscribe failure: can't unsubscribe that name BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe UNSUBSCRIBE command removes the specified mailbox name from the server's set of "active" or "subscribed" mailboxes as returned by the LSUB command. This command returns a tagged OK response only if the unsubscription is successful.Example: C: A002 UNSUBSCRIBE #news.comp.mail.mime S: A002 OK UNSUBSCRIBE completed- 6.3..8. LIST Command
Arguments: reference name mailbox name with possible wildcardsResult: OK - list completed NO - list failure: can't list that reference or name BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe LIST command returns a subset of names from the complete set of all names available to the client. Zero or more untagged LIST replies are returned, containing the name attributes, hierarchy delimiter, and name; see the description of the LIST reply for more detail.The LIST command SHOULD return its data quickly, without undue delay. For example, it SHOULD NOT go to excess trouble to calculate \Marked or \Unmarked status or perform other processing; if each name requires 1 second of processing, then a list of 1200 names would take 20 minutes!An empty ("" string) reference name argument indicates that the mailbox name is interpreted as by SELECT. The returned mailbox names MUST match the supplied mailbox name pattern. A non-empty reference name argument is the name of a mailbox or a level of mailbox hierarchy, and indicates a context in which the mailbox name is interpreted in an implementation-defined manner.An empty ("" string) mailbox name argument is a special request to return the hierarchy delimiter and the root name of the name given in the reference. The value returned as the root MAY be null if the reference is non-rooted or is null. In all cases, the hierarchy delimiter is returned. This permits a client to get the hierarchy delimiter even when no mailboxes by that name currently exist.The reference and mailbox name arguments are interpreted, in an implementation-dependent fashion, into a canonical form that represents an unambiguous left-to-right hierarchy. The returned mailbox names will be in the interpreted form.Any part of the reference argument that is included in the interpreted form SHOULD prefix the interpreted form. It SHOULD also be in the same form as the reference name argument. This rule permits the client to determine if the returned mailbox name is in the context of the reference argument, or if something about the mailbox argument overrode the reference argument. Without this rule, the client would have to have knowledge of the server's naming semantics including what characters are "breakouts" that override a naming context.For example, here are some examples of how references and mailbox names might be interpreted on a UNIX-based server:Reference Mailbox Name Interpretation ------------ ------------ -------------- ~smith/Mail/ foo.* ~smith/Mail/foo.* archive/ % archive/% #news. comp.mail.* #news.comp.mail.* ~smith/Mail/ /usr/doc/foo /usr/doc/foo archive/ ~fred/Mail/* ~fred/Mail/*The first three examples demonstrate interpretations in the context of the reference argument. Note that "~smith/Mail" SHOULD NOT be transformed into something like "/u2/users/smith/Mail", or it would be impossible for the client to determine that the interpretation was in the context of the reference.The character "*" is a wildcard, and matches zero or more characters at this position. The character "%" is similar to "*", but it does not match a hierarchy delimiter. If the "%" wildcard is the last character of a mailbox name argument, matching levels of hierarchy are also returned. If these levels of hierarchy are not also selectable mailboxes, they are returned with the \Noselect mailbox name attribute (see the description of the LIST response for more details).Server implementations are permitted to "hide" otherwise accessible mailboxes from the wildcard characters, by preventing certain characters or names from matching a wildcard in certain situations. For example, a UNIX-based server might restrict the interpretation of "*" so that an initial "/" character does not match.The special name INBOX is included in the output from LIST, if INBOX is supported by this server for this user and if the uppercase string "INBOX" matches the interpreted reference and mailbox name arguments with wildcards as described above. The criteria for omitting INBOX is whether SELECT INBOX will return failure; it is not relevant whether the user's real INBOX resides on this or some other server.Example: C: A101 LIST "" "" S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" "" S: A101 OK LIST Completed C: A102 LIST #news.comp.mail.misc "" S: * LIST (\Noselect) "." #news. S: A102 OK LIST Completed C: A103 LIST /usr/staff/jones "" S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" / S: A103 OK LIST Completed C: A202 LIST ~/Mail/ % S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" ~/Mail/foo S: * LIST () "/" ~/Mail/meetings S: A202 OK LIST completed- 6.3.9. LSUB Command
Arguments: reference name mailbox name with possible wildcardsResult: OK - lsub completed NO - lsub failure: can't list that reference or name BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe LSUB command returns a subset of names from the set of names that the user has declared as being "active" or "subscribed". Zero or more untagged LSUB replies are returned. The arguments to LSUB are in the same form as those for LIST.A server MAY validate the subscribed names to see if they still exist. If a name does not exist, it SHOULD be flagged with the \Noselect attribute in the LSUB response. The server MUST NOTunilaterally remove an existing mailbox name from the subscription list even if a mailbox by that name no longer exists.Example: C: A002 LSUB "#news." "comp.mail.*" S: * LSUB () "." #news.comp.mail.mime S: * LSUB () "." #news.comp.mail.misc S: A002 OK LSUB completed- 6.3.10. STATUS Command
Arguments: mailbox name status data item namesResult: OK - status completed NO - status failure: no status for that name BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe STATUS command requests the status of the indicated mailbox. It does not change the currently selected mailbox, nor does it affect the state of any messages in the queried mailbox (in particular, STATUS MUST NOT cause messages to lose the \Recent flag).The STATUS command provides an alternative to opening a second IMAP4rev1 connection and doing an EXAMINE command on a mailbox to query that mailbox's status without deselecting the current mailbox in the first IMAP4rev1 connection.Unlike the LIST command, the STATUS command is not guaranteed to be fast in its response. In some implementations, the server is obliged to open the mailbox read-only internally to obtain certain status information. Also unlike the LIST command, the STATUS command does not accept wildcards.UIDNEXT The next UID value that will be assigned to a new message in the mailbox. It is guaranteed that this value will not change unless new messages are added to the mailbox; and that it will change when new messages are added even if those new messages are subsequently expunged.UIDVALIDITY The unique identifier validity value of the mailbox.UNSEEN The number of messages which do not have the \Seen flag set.Example: C: A042 STATUS blurdybloop (UIDNEXT MESSAGES) S: * STATUS blurdybloop (MESSAGES 231 UIDNEXT 44292) S: A042 OK STATUS completed- 6.3.11. APPEND Command
Arguments: mailbox name OPTIONAL flag parenthesized list OPTIONAL date/time string message literalResult: OK - append completed NO - append error: can't append to that mailbox, error in flags or date/time or message text BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe APPEND command appends the literal argument as a new message to the end of the specified destination mailbox. This argument SHOULD be in the format of an [RFC-822] message. 8-bit characters are permitted in the message. A server implementation that is unable to preserve 8-bit data properly MUST be able to reversibly convert 8-bit APPEND data to 7-bit using a [MIME-IMB] content transfer encoding.Note: There MAY be exceptions, e.g. draft messages, in which required [RFC-822] header lines are omitted in the message literal argument to APPEND. The full implications of doing so MUST be understood and carefully weighed.If a flag parenthesized list is specified, the flags SHOULD be set in the resulting message; otherwise, the flag list of the resulting message is set empty by default.
If a date_time is specified, the internal date SHOULD be set in the resulting message; otherwise, the internal date of the resulting message is set to the current date and time by default. If the append is unsuccessful for any reason, the mailbox MUST be restored to its state before the APPEND attempt; no partial appending is permitted.
If the destination mailbox does not exist, a server MUST return an error, and MUST NOT automatically create the mailbox. Unless it is certain that the destination mailbox can not be created, the server MUST send the response code "[TRYCREATE]" as the prefix of the text of the tagged NO response. This gives a hint to the client that it can attempt a CREATE command and retry the APPEND if the CREATE is successful.
If the mailbox is currently selected, the normal new mail actions SHOULD occur. Specifically, the server SHOULD notify the client immediately via an untagged EXISTS response. If the server does not do so, the client MAY issue a NOOP command (or failing that, a CHECK command) after one or more APPEND commands.
Example: C: A003 APPEND saved-messages (\Seen) {310} C: Date: Mon, 7 Feb 1994 21:52:25 -0800 (PST) C: From: Fred Foobar <foobar@Blurdybloop.COM> C: Subject: afternoon meeting C: To: mooch@owatagu.siam.edu C: Message-Id: <B27397-0100000@Blurdybloop.COM> C: MIME-Version: 1.0 C: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII C: C: Hello Joe, do you think we can meet at 3:30 tomorrow? C: S: A003 OK APPEND completedNote: the APPEND command is not used for message delivery, because it does not provide a mechanism to transfer [SMTP] envelope information.In selected state, commands that manipulate messages in a mailbox are permitted.
In addition to the universal commands (CAPABILITY, NOOP, and LOGOUT), and the authenticated state commands (SELECT, EXAMINE, CREATE, DELETE, RENAME, SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, LIST, LSUB, STATUS, and APPEND), the following commands are valid in the selected state: CHECK, CLOSE, EXPUNGE, SEARCH, FETCH, STORE, COPY, and UID.
- 6.4.1. CHECK Command
Result: OK - check completed BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe CHECK command requests a checkpoint of the currently selected mailbox. A checkpoint refers to any implementation-dependent housekeeping associated with the mailbox (e.g. resolving the server's in-memory state of the mailbox with the state on its disk) that is not normally executed as part of each command. A checkpoint MAY take a non-instantaneous amount of real time to complete. If a server implementation has no such housekeeping considerations, CHECK is equivalent to NOOP.There is no guarantee that an EXISTS untagged response will happen as a result of CHECK. NOOP, not CHECK, SHOULD be used for new mail polling.Example: C: FXXZ CHECK S: FXXZ OK CHECK Completed- 6.4.2. CLOSE Command
Result: OK - close completed, now in authenticated state NO - close failure: no mailbox selected BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe CLOSE command permanently removes from the currently selected mailbox all messages that have the \Deleted flag set, and returns to authenticated state from selected state. No untagged EXPUNGE responses are sent.No messages are removed, and no error is given, if the mailbox is selected by an EXAMINE command or is otherwise selected read-only.Even if a mailbox is selected, a SELECT, EXAMINE, or LOGOUT command MAY be issued without previously issuing a CLOSE command. The SELECT, EXAMINE, and LOGOUT commands implicitly close the currently selected mailbox without doing an expunge. However, when many messages are deleted, a CLOSE-LOGOUT or CLOSE-SELECTsequence is considerably faster than an EXPUNGE-LOGOUT or EXPUNGE-SELECT because no untagged EXPUNGE responses (which the client would probably ignore) are sent.Example: C: A341 CLOSE S: A341 OK CLOSE completed- 6.4.3. EXPUNGE Command
Result: OK - expunge completed NO - expunge failure: can't expunge (e.g. permission denied) BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe EXPUNGE command permanently removes from the currently selected mailbox all messages that have the \Deleted flag set. Before returning an OK to the client, an untagged EXPUNGE response is sent for each message that is removed.Example: C: A202 EXPUNGE S: * 3 EXPUNGE S: * 3 EXPUNGE S: * 5 EXPUNGE S: * 8 EXPUNGE S: A202 OK EXPUNGE completedNote: in this example, messages 3, 4, 7, and 11 had the \Deleted flag set. See the description of the EXPUNGE response for further explanation.- 6.4.4. SEARCH Command
Arguments: OPTIONAL [CHARSET] specification searching criteria (one or more)Result: OK - search completed NO - search error: can't search that [CHARSET] or criteria BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe SEARCH command searches the mailbox for messages that match the given searching criteria. Searching criteria consist of one or more search keys. The untagged SEARCH response from the server contains a listing of message sequence numbers corresponding to those messages that match the searching criteria.When multiple keys are specified, the result is the intersection (AND function) of all the messages that match those keys. For example, the criteria DELETED FROM "SMITH" SINCE 1-Feb-1994 refers to all deleted messages from Smith that were placed in the mailbox since February 1, 1994. A search key can also be a parenthesized list of one or more search keys (e.g. for use with the OR and NOT keys).Server implementations MAY exclude [MIME-IMB] body parts with terminal content media types other than TEXT and MESSAGE from consideration in SEARCH matching.The OPTIONAL [CHARSET] specification consists of the word "CHARSET" followed by a registered [CHARSET]. It indicates the [CHARSET] of the strings that appear in the search criteria. [MIME-IMB] content transfer encodings, and [MIME-HDRS] strings in [RFC-822]/[MIME-IMB] headers, MUST be decoded before comparing text in a [CHARSET] other than US-ASCII. US-ASCII MUST be supported; other [CHARSET]s MAY be supported. If the server does not support the specified [CHARSET], it MUST return a tagged NO response (not a BAD).In all search keys that use strings, a message matches the key if the string is a substring of the field. The matching is case- insensitive.The defined search keys are as follows. Refer to the Formal Syntax section for the precise syntactic definitions of the arguments.<message set> Messages with message sequence numbers corresponding to the specified message sequence number setALL All messages in the mailbox; the default initial key for ANDing.BCC <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure's BCC field.BEFORE <date> Messages whose internal date is earlier than the specified date.BODY <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the body of the message.CC <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure's CC field.FROM <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure's FROM field.HEADER <field-name> <string> Messages that have a header with the specified field-name (as defined in [RFC-822]) and that contains the specified string in the [RFC-822] field-body.LARGER <n> Messages with an [RFC-822] size larger than the specified number of octets.NEW Messages that have the \Recent flag set but not the \Seen flag. This is functionally equivalent to "(RECENT UNSEEN)".NOT <search-key> Messages that do not match the specified search key.OLD Messages that do not have the \Recent flag set. This is functionally equivalent to "NOT RECENT" (as opposed to "NOT NEW").ON <date> Messages whose internal date is within the specified date.OR <search-key1> <search-key2> Messages that match either search key.SENTBEFORE <date> Messages whose [RFC-822] Date: header is earlier than the specified date.SENTON <date> Messages whose [RFC-822] Date: header is within the specified date.SENTSINCE <date> Messages whose [RFC-822] Date: header is within or later than the specified date.SINCE <date> Messages whose internal date is within or later than the specified date.SMALLER <n> Messages with an [RFC-822] size smaller than the specified number of octets.SUBJECT <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure's SUBJECT field.TEXT <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the header or body of the message.TO <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure's TO field.UID <message set> Messages with unique identifiers corresponding to the specified unique identifier set.UNKEYWORD <flag> Messages that do not have the specified keyword set.Example: C: A282 SEARCH FLAGGED SINCE 1-Feb-1994 NOT FROM "Smith" S: * SEARCH 2 84 882 S: A282 OK SEARCH completed- 6.4.5. FETCH Command
Arguments: message set message data item namesResult: OK - fetch completed NO - fetch error: can't fetch that data BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe FETCH command retrieves data associated with a message in the mailbox. The data items to be fetched can be either a single atom or a parenthesized list.ALL Macro equivalent to: (FLAGS INTERNALDATE RFC822.SIZE ENVELOPE)BODY[<section>]<<partial>> The text of a particular body section. The section specification is a set of zero or more part specifiers delimited by periods. A part specifier is either a part number or one of the following: HEADER, HEADER.FIELDS, HEADER.FIELDS.NOT, MIME, and TEXT. An empty section specification refers to the entire message, including the header.Every message has at least one part number. Non-[MIME-IMB] messages, and non-multipart [MIME-IMB] messages with no encapsulated message, only have a part 1.Multipart messages are assigned consecutive part numbers, as they occur in the message. If a particular part is of type message or multipart, its parts MUST be indicated by a period followed by the part number within that nested multipart part.A part of type MESSAGE/RFC822 also has nested part numbers, referring to parts of the MESSAGE part's body.The HEADER, HEADER.FIELDS, HEADER.FIELDS.NOT, and TEXT part specifiers can be the sole part specifier or can be prefixed by one or more numeric part specifiers, provided that the numeric part specifier refers to a part of type MESSAGE/RFC822. The MIME part specifier MUST be prefixed by one or more numeric part specifiers.The HEADER, HEADER.FIELDS, and HEADER.FIELDS.NOT part specifiers refer to the [RFC-822] header of the message or of an encapsulated [MIME-IMT] MESSAGE/RFC822 message. HEADER.FIELDS and HEADER.FIELDS.NOT are followed by a list of field-name (as defined in [RFC-822]) names, and return a subset of the header. The subset returned by HEADER.FIELDS contains only those header fields with a field-name that matches one of the names in the list; similarly, the subset returned by HEADER.FIELDS.NOT contains only the header fields with a non-matching field-name. The field-matching is case-insensitive but otherwise exact. In all cases, the delimiting blank line between the header and the body is always included.The MIME part specifier refers to the [MIME-IMB] header for this part.The TEXT part specifier refers to the text body of the message, omitting the [RFC-822] header.Here is an example of a complex message with some of its part specifiers:HEADER ([RFC-822] header of the message) TEXT MULTIPART/MIXED 1 TEXT/PLAIN 2 APPLICATION/OCTET-STREAM 3 MESSAGE/RFC822 3.HEADER ([RFC-822] header of the message) 3.TEXT ([RFC-822] text body of the message) 3.1 TEXT/PLAIN 3.2 APPLICATION/OCTET-STREAM 4 MULTIPART/MIXED 4.1 IMAGE/GIF 4.1.MIME ([MIME-IMB] header for the IMAGE/GIF) 4.2 MESSAGE/RFC822 4.2.HEADER ([RFC-822] header of the message) 4.2.TEXT ([RFC-822] text body of the message) 4.2.1 TEXT/PLAIN 4.2.2 MULTIPART/ALTERNATIVE 4.2.2.1 TEXT/PLAIN 4.2.2.2 TEXT/RICHTEXTIt is possible to fetch a substring of the designated text. This is done by appending an open angle bracket ("<"), the octet position of the first desired octet, a period, the maximum number of octets desired, and a close angle bracket (">") to the part specifier. If the starting octet is beyond the end of the text, an empty string is returned.Any partial fetch that attempts to read beyond the end of the text is truncated as appropriate. A partial fetch that starts at octet 0 is returned as a partial fetch, even if this truncation happened.Note: this means that BODY[]<0.2048> of a 1500-octet message will return BODY[]<0> with a literal of size 1500, not BODY[].Note: a substring fetch of a HEADER.FIELDS or HEADER.FIELDS.NOT part specifier is calculated after subsetting the header.The \Seen flag is implicitly set; if this causes the flags to change they SHOULD be included as part of the FETCH responses.BODY.PEEK[<section>]<<partial>> An alternate form of BODY[<section>] that does not implicitly set the \Seen flag.BODYSTRUCTURE The [MIME-IMB] body structure of the message. This is computed by the server by parsing the [MIME-IMB] header fields in the [RFC-822] header and [MIME-IMB] headers.ENVELOPE The envelope structure of the message. This is computed by the server by parsing the [RFC-822] header into the component parts, defaulting various fields as necessary.FAST Macro equivalent to: (FLAGS INTERNALDATE RFC822.SIZE)FULL Macro equivalent to: (FLAGS INTERNALDATE RFC822.SIZE ENVELOPE BODY)RFC822 Functionally equivalent to BODY[], differing in the syntax of the resulting untagged FETCH data (RFC822 is returned).RFC822.HEADER Functionally equivalent to BODY.PEEK[HEADER], differing in the syntax of the resulting untagged FETCH data (RFC822.HEADER is returned).RFC822.TEXT Functionally equivalent to BODY[TEXT], differing in the syntax of the resulting untagged FETCH data (RFC822.TEXT is returned).Example: C: A654 FETCH 2:4 (FLAGS BODY[HEADER.FIELDS (DATE FROM)]) S: * 2 FETCH .... S: * 3 FETCH .... S: * 4 FETCH .... S: A654 OK FETCH completed- 6.4.6. STORE Command
Arguments: message set message data item name value for message data itemResult: OK - store completed NO - store error: can't store that data BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe STORE command alters data associated with a message in the mailbox. Normally, STORE will return the updated value of the data with an untagged FETCH response. A suffix of ".SILENT" in the data item name prevents the untagged FETCH, and the server SHOULD assume that the client has determined the updated value itself or does not care about the updated value.Note: regardless of whether or not the ".SILENT" suffix was used, the server SHOULD send an untagged FETCH response if a change to a message's flags from an external source is observed. The intent is that the status of the flags is determinate without a race condition.FLAGS <flag list> Replace the flags for the message with the argument. The new value of the flags are returned as if a FETCH of those flags was done.FLAGS.SILENT <flag list> Equivalent to FLAGS, but without returning a new value.+FLAGS <flag list> Add the argument to the flags for the message. The new value of the flags are returned as if a FETCH of those flags was done.+FLAGS.SILENT <flag list> Equivalent to +FLAGS, but without returning a new value.-FLAGS <flag list> Remove the argument from the flags for the message. The new value of the flags are returned as if a FETCH of those flags was done.-FLAGS.SILENT <flag list> Equivalent to -FLAGS, but without returning a new value.Example: C: A003 STORE 2:4 +FLAGS (\Deleted) S: * 2 FETCH FLAGS (\Deleted \Seen) S: * 3 FETCH FLAGS (\Deleted) S: * 4 FETCH FLAGS (\Deleted \Flagged \Seen) S: A003 OK STORE completed- 6.4.7. COPY Command
Arguments: message set mailbox nameResult: OK - copy completed NO - copy error: can't copy those messages or to that name BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe COPY command copies the specified message(s) to the end of the specified destination mailbox. The flags and internal date of the message(s) SHOULD be preserved in the copy.If the destination mailbox does not exist, a server SHOULD return an error. It SHOULD NOT automatically create the mailbox. Unless it is certain that the destination mailbox can not be created, the server MUST send the response code "[TRYCREATE]" as the prefix of the text of the tagged NO response. This gives a hint to the client that it can attempt a CREATE command and retry the COPY if the CREATE is successful.If the COPY command is unsuccessful for any reason, server implementations MUST restore the destination mailbox to its state before the COPY attempt.Example: C: A003 COPY 2:4 MEETING S: A003 OK COPY completed- 6.4.8. UID Command
Arguments: command name command argumentsResult: OK - UID command completed NO - UID command error BAD - command unknown or arguments invalidThe UID command has two forms. In the first form, it takes as its arguments a COPY, FETCH, or STORE command with arguments appropriate for the associated command. However, the numbers in the message set argument are unique identifiers instead of message sequence numbers.In the second form, the UID command takes a SEARCH command with SEARCH command arguments. The interpretation of the arguments is the same as with SEARCH; however, the numbers returned in