Network Working Group M. Crispin
Request for Comments: 2060 University of Washington
Obsoletes: 1730 December 1996
Category: Standards Track
INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4rev1
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unpublished IMAP2bis protocols.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].
Crispin Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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 .................................. 4
1. How to Read This Document ................................. 4
1.1. Organization of This Document ............................. 4
1.2. Conventions Used in This Document ......................... 4
2. Protocol Overview ......................................... 5
2.1. Link Level ................................................ 5
2.2. Commands and Responses .................................... 6
2.2.1. Client Protocol Sender and Server Protocol Receiver ....... 6
2.2.2. Server Protocol Sender and Client Protocol Receiver ....... 7
2.3. Message Attributes ........................................ 7
2.3.1. Message Numbers ........................................... 7
2.3.1.1. Unique Identifier (UID) Message Attribute ......... 7
2.3.1.2. Message Sequence Number Message Attribute ......... 9
2.3.2. Flags Message Attribute .................................... 9
2.3.3. Internal Date Message Attribute ........................... 10
2.3.4. [RFC-822] Size Message Attribute .......................... 11
2.3.5. Envelope Structure Message Attribute ...................... 11
2.3.6. Body Structure Message Attribute .......................... 11
2.4. Message Texts ............................................. 11
3. State and Flow Diagram .................................... 11
3.1. Non-Authenticated State ................................... 11
3.2. Authenticated State ....................................... 11
3.3. Selected State ............................................ 12
3.4. Logout State .............................................. 12
4. Data Formats .............................................. 12
4.1. Atom ...................................................... 13
4.2. Number .................................................... 13
4.3. String ..................................................... 13
4.3.1. 8-bit and Binary Strings .................................. 13
4.4. Parenthesized List ........................................ 14
4.5. NIL ....................................................... 14
5. Operational Considerations ................................ 14
5.1. Mailbox Naming ............................................ 14
5.1.1. Mailbox Hierarchy Naming .................................. 14
5.1.2. Mailbox Namespace Naming Convention ....................... 14
5.1.3. Mailbox International Naming Convention ................... 15
5.2. Mailbox Size and Message Status Updates ................... 16
5.3. Response when no Command in Progress ...................... 16
5.4. Autologout Timer .......................................... 16
5.5. Multiple Commands in Progress ............................. 17
Crispin Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
6. Client Commands ........................................... 17
6.1. Client Commands - Any State ............................... 18
6.1.1. CAPABILITY Command ........................................ 18
6.1.2. NOOP Command .............................................. 19
6.1.3. LOGOUT Command ............................................ 20
6.2. Client Commands - Non-Authenticated State ................. 20
6.2.1. AUTHENTICATE Command ...................................... 21
6.2.2. LOGIN Command ............................................. 22
6.3. Client Commands - Authenticated State ..................... 22
6.3.1. SELECT Command ............................................ 23
6.3.2. EXAMINE Command ........................................... 24
6.3.3. CREATE Command ............................................ 25
6.3.4. DELETE Command ............................................ 26
6.3.5. RENAME Command ............................................ 27
6.3.6. SUBSCRIBE Command ......................................... 29
6.3.7. UNSUBSCRIBE Command ....................................... 30
6.3.8. LIST Command .............................................. 30
6.3.9. LSUB Command .............................................. 32
6.3.10. STATUS Command ............................................ 33
6.3.11. APPEND Command ............................................ 34
6.4. Client Commands - Selected State .......................... 35
6.4.1. CHECK Command ............................................. 36
6.4.2. CLOSE Command ............................................. 36
6.4.3. EXPUNGE Command ........................................... 37
6.4.4. SEARCH Command ............................................ 37
6.4.5. FETCH Command ............................................. 41
6.4.6. STORE Command ............................................. 45
6.4.7. COPY Command .............................................. 46
6.4.8. UID Command ............................................... 47
6.5. Client Commands - Experimental/Expansion .................. 48
6.5.1. X<atom> Command ........................................... 48
7. Server Responses .......................................... 48
7.1. Server Responses - Status Responses ....................... 49
7.1.1. OK Response ............................................... 51
7.1.2. NO Response ............................................... 51
7.1.3. BAD Response .............................................. 52
7.1.4. PREAUTH Response .......................................... 52
7.1.5. BYE Response .............................................. 52
7.2. Server Responses - Server and Mailbox Status .............. 53
7.2.1. CAPABILITY Response ....................................... 53
7.2.2. LIST Response .............................................. 54
7.2.3. LSUB Response ............................................. 55
7.2.4 STATUS Response ........................................... 55
7.2.5. SEARCH Response ........................................... 55
7.2.6. FLAGS Response ............................................ 56
7.3. Server Responses - Mailbox Size ........................... 56
7.3.1. EXISTS Response ........................................... 56
7.3.2. RECENT Response ........................................... 57
Crispin Standards Track [Page 3]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
7.4. Server Responses - Message Status ......................... 57
7.4.1. EXPUNGE Response .......................................... 57
7.4.2. FETCH Response ............................................ 58
7.5. Server Responses - Command Continuation Request ........... 63
8. Sample IMAP4rev1 connection ............................... 63
9. Formal Syntax ............................................. 64
10. Author's Note ............................................. 74
11. Security Considerations ................................... 74
12. Author's Address .......................................... 75
Appendices ........................................................ 76
A. References ................................................ 76
B. Changes from RFC 1730 ..................................... 77
C. Key Word Index ............................................ 79
IMAP4rev1 Protocol Specification
1. How to Read This Document
1.1. Organization of This Document
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.
1.2. Conventions Used in This Document
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 4]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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.
2. Protocol Overview
2.1. Link Level
The IMAP4rev1 protocol assumes a reliable data stream such as
provided by TCP. When TCP is used, an IMAP4rev1 server listens on
port 143.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 5]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
2.2. Commands and Responses
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 6]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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.
2.3. Message Attributes
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.
2.3.1.1. Unique Identifier (UID) Message Attribute
A 32-bit value assigned to each message, which when used with the
unique identifier validity value (see below) forms a 64-bit value
Crispin Standards Track [Page 7]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 8]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
2.3.1.2. Message Sequence Number Message Attribute
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:
\Seen Message has been read
\Answered Message has been answered
\Flagged Message is "flagged" for urgent/special attention
\Deleted Message is "deleted" for removal by later EXPUNGE
\Draft Message has not completed composition (marked as a
draft).
Crispin Standards Track [Page 9]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
\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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 10]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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.
2.4. Message Texts
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.
3. State and Flow Diagram
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.
3.1. Non-Authenticated State
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.
3.2. Authenticated State
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 11]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
3.3. Selected State
In selected state, a mailbox has been selected to access. This state
is entered when a mailbox has been successfully selected.
3.4. Logout State
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 closed
4. Data Formats
IMAP4rev1 uses textual commands and responses. Data in IMAP4rev1 can
be in one of several forms: atom, number, string, parenthesized list,
or NIL.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 12]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
4.1. Atom
An atom consists of one or more non-special characters.
4.2. Number
A number consists of one or more digit characters, and represents a
numeric value.
4.3. String
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 13]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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.
4.4. Parenthesized List
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.
4.5. NIL
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 ().
5. Operational Considerations
5.1. Mailbox Naming
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 14]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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 "-
").
Crispin Standards Track [Page 15]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
For example, here is a mailbox name which mixes English, Japanese,
and Chinese text: ~peter/mail/&ZeVnLIqe-/&U,BTFw-
5.2. Mailbox Size and Message Status Updates
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.
5.3. Response when no Command in Progress
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.
5.4. Autologout Timer
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 16]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
5.5. Multiple Commands in Progress
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 + FETCH
The following are examples of valid non-waiting command sequences:
FETCH + STORE + SEARCH + CHECK
STORE + COPY + EXPUNGE
6. Client Commands
IMAP4rev1 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
Crispin Standards Track [Page 17]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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.
6.1. Client Commands - Any State
The following commands are valid in any state: CAPABILITY, NOOP, and
LOGOUT.
6.1.1. CAPABILITY Command
Arguments: none
Responses: REQUIRED untagged response: CAPABILITY
Result: OK - capability completed
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 18]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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
Arguments: none
Responses: no specific responses for this command (but see below)
Result: OK - noop completed
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The NOOP command always succeeds. It does nothing.
Since 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
Crispin Standards Track [Page 19]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
6.1.3. LOGOUT Command
Arguments: none
Responses: REQUIRED untagged response: BYE
Result: OK - logout completed
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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)
6.2. Client Commands - Non-Authenticated State
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 20]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
6.2.1. AUTHENTICATE Command
Arguments: authentication mechanism name
Responses: continuation data can be requested
Result: OK - authenticate completed, now in authenticated state
NO - authenticate failure: unsupported authentication
mechanism, credentials rejected
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid,
authentication exchange cancelled
The 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 another
Crispin Standards Track [Page 21]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
authentication 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 successful
Note: 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
password
Responses: no specific responses for this command
Result: OK - login completed, now in authenticated state
NO - login failure: user name or password rejected
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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 completed
6.3. Client Commands - Authenticated State
In 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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 22]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
6.3.1. SELECT Command
Arguments: mailbox name
Responses: REQUIRED untagged responses: FLAGS, EXISTS, RECENT
OPTIONAL OK untagged responses: UNSEEN, PERMANENTFLAGS
Result: 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 invalid
The 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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 23]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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
Arguments: mailbox name
Responses: REQUIRED untagged responses: FLAGS, EXISTS, RECENT
OPTIONAL OK untagged responses: UNSEEN, PERMANENTFLAGS
Result: 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 invalid
The 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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 24]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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
Arguments: mailbox name
Responses: no specific responses for this command
Result: OK - create completed
NO - create failure: can't create mailbox with that name
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 25]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
Example: C: A003 CREATE owatagusiam/
S: A003 OK CREATE completed
C: A004 CREATE owatagusiam/blurdybloop
S: A004 OK CREATE completed
Note: 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
Arguments: mailbox name
Responses: no specific responses for this command
Result: OK - delete completed
NO - delete failure: can't delete mailbox with that name
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 26]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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 Completed
C: 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 name
Responses: no specific responses for this command
Result: 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 invalid
The RENAME command changes the name of a mailbox. A tagged OK
response is returned only if the mailbox has been renamed. It is
Crispin Standards Track [Page 27]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
an 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 completed
Crispin Standards Track [Page 28]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
C: 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
Arguments: mailbox
Responses: no specific responses for this command
Result: OK - subscribe completed
NO - subscribe failure: can't subscribe to that name
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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
Crispin Standards Track [Page 29]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
6.3.7. UNSUBSCRIBE Command
Arguments: mailbox name
Responses: no specific responses for this command
Result: OK - unsubscribe completed
NO - unsubscribe failure: can't unsubscribe that name
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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 wildcards
Responses: untagged responses: LIST
Result: OK - list completed
NO - list failure: can't list that reference or name
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 30]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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).
Crispin Standards Track [Page 31]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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 wildcards
Responses: untagged responses: LSUB
Result: OK - lsub completed
NO - lsub failure: can't list that reference or name
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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 NOT
Crispin Standards Track [Page 32]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
unilaterally 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 names
Responses: untagged responses: STATUS
Result: OK - status completed
NO - status failure: no status for that name
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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.
The currently defined status data items that can be requested are:
MESSAGES The number of messages in the mailbox.
RECENT The number of messages with the \Recent flag set.
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 33]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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 literal
Responses: no specific responses for this command
Result: 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 invalid
The 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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 34]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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 completed
Note: the APPEND command is not used for message delivery, because
it does not provide a mechanism to transfer [SMTP] envelope
information.
6.4. Client Commands - Selected State
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 35]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
6.4.1. CHECK Command
Arguments: none
Responses: no specific responses for this command
Result: OK - check completed
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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
Arguments: none
Responses: no specific responses for this command
Result: OK - close completed, now in authenticated state
NO - close failure: no mailbox selected
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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-SELECT
Crispin Standards Track [Page 36]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
sequence 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
Arguments: none
Responses: untagged responses: EXPUNGE
Result: OK - expunge completed
NO - expunge failure: can't expunge (e.g. permission
denied)
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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 completed
Note: 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)
Responses: REQUIRED untagged response: SEARCH
Result: OK - search completed
NO - search error: can't search that [CHARSET] or
criteria
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
Crispin Standards Track [Page 37]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
The 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 set
ALL All messages in the mailbox; the default initial
key for ANDing.
ANSWERED Messages with the \Answered flag set.
BCC <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the
envelope structure's BCC field.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 38]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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.
DELETED Messages with the \Deleted flag set.
DRAFT Messages with the \Draft flag set.
FLAGGED Messages with the \Flagged flag set.
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.
KEYWORD <flag> Messages with the specified keyword set.
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.
RECENT Messages that have the \Recent flag set.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 39]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
SEEN Messages that have the \Seen flag set.
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.
UNANSWERED Messages that do not have the \Answered flag set.
UNDELETED Messages that do not have the \Deleted flag set.
UNDRAFT Messages that do not have the \Draft flag set.
UNFLAGGED Messages that do not have the \Flagged flag set.
UNKEYWORD <flag>
Messages that do not have the specified keyword
set.
UNSEEN Messages that do not have the \Seen flag set.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 40]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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 names
Responses: untagged responses: FETCH
Result: OK - fetch completed
NO - fetch error: can't fetch that data
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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.
The currently defined data items that can be fetched are:
ALL Macro equivalent to: (FLAGS INTERNALDATE
RFC822.SIZE ENVELOPE)
BODY Non-extensible form of BODYSTRUCTURE.
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 41]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 42]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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/RICHTEXT
It 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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 43]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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)
FLAGS The flags that are set for this message.
FULL Macro equivalent to: (FLAGS INTERNALDATE
RFC822.SIZE ENVELOPE BODY)
INTERNALDATE The internal date of the message.
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.SIZE The [RFC-822] size of the message.
RFC822.TEXT Functionally equivalent to BODY[TEXT], differing in
the syntax of the resulting untagged FETCH data
(RFC822.TEXT is returned).
UID The unique identifier for the message.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 44]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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 item
Responses: untagged responses: FETCH
Result: OK - store completed
NO - store error: can't store that data
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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.
The currently defined data items that can be stored are:
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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 45]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
+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 name
Responses: no specific responses for this command
Result: OK - copy completed
NO - copy error: can't copy those messages or to that
name
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 46]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
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 arguments
Responses: untagged responses: FETCH, SEARCH
Result: OK - UID command completed
NO - UID command error
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
The 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 a SEARCH
response for a UID SEARCH command are unique identifiers instead
of message sequence numbers. For example, the command UID SEARCH
1:100 UID 443:557 returns the unique identifiers corresponding to
the intersection of the message sequence number set 1:100 and the
UID set 443:557.
Message set ranges are permitted; however, there is no guarantee
that unique identifiers be contiguous. A non-existent unique
identifier within a message set range is ignored without any error
message generated.
The number after the "*" in an untagged FETCH response is always a
message sequence number, not a unique identifier, even for a UID
command response. However, server implementations MUST implicitly
include the UID message data item as part of any FETCH response
caused by a UID command, regardless of whether a UID was specified
as a message data item to the FETCH.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 47]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
Example: C: A999 UID FETCH 4827313:4828442 FLAGS
S: * 23 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen) UID 4827313)
S: * 24 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen) UID 4827943)
S: * 25 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen) UID 4828442)
S: A999 UID FETCH completed
6.5. Client Commands - Experimental/Expansion
6.5.1. X<atom> Command
Arguments: implementation defined
Responses: implementation defined
Result: OK - command completed
NO - failure
BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
Any command prefixed with an X is an experimental command.
Commands which are not part of this specification, a standard or
standards-track revision of this specification, or an IESG-
approved experimental protocol, MUST use the X prefix.
Any added untagged responses issued by an experimental command
MUST also be prefixed with an X. Server implementations MUST NOT
send any such untagged responses, unless the client requested it
by issuing the associated experimental command.
Example: C: a441 CAPABILITY
S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 AUTH=KERBEROS_V4 XPIG-LATIN
S: a441 OK CAPABILITY completed
C: A442 XPIG-LATIN
S: * XPIG-LATIN ow-nay eaking-spay ig-pay atin-lay
S: A442 OK XPIG-LATIN ompleted-cay
7. Server Responses
Server responses are in three forms: status responses, server data,
and command continuation request. The information contained in a
server response, identified by "Contents:" in the response
descriptions below, is described by function, not by syntax. The
precise syntax of server responses is described in the Formal Syntax
section.
The client MUST be prepared to accept any response at all times.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 48]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
Status responses can be tagged or untagged. Tagged status responses
indicate the completion result (OK, NO, or BAD status) of a client
command, and have a tag matching the command.
Some status responses, and all server data, are untagged. An
untagged response is indicated by the token "*" instead of a tag.
Untagged status responses indicate server greeting, or server status
that does not indicate the completion of a command (for example, an
impending system shutdown alert). For historical reasons, untagged
server data responses are also called "unsolicited data", although
strictly speaking only unilateral server data is truly "unsolicited".
Certain server data MUST be recorded by the client when it is
received; this is noted in the description of that data. Such data
conveys critical information which affects the interpretation of all
subsequent commands and responses (e.g. updates reflecting the
creation or destruction of messages).
Other server data SHOULD be recorded for later reference; if the
client does not need to record the data, or if recording the data has
no obvious purpose (e.g. a SEARCH response when no SEARCH command is
in progress), the data SHOULD be ignored.
An example of unilateral untagged server data occurs when the IMAP
connection is in selected state. In selected state, the server
checks the mailbox for new messages as part of command execution.
Normally, this is part of the execution of every command; hence, a
NOOP command suffices to check for new messages. If new messages are
found, the server sends untagged EXISTS and RECENT responses
reflecting the new size of the mailbox. Server implementations that
offer multiple simultaneous access to the same mailbox SHOULD also
send appropriate unilateral untagged FETCH and EXPUNGE responses if
another agent changes the state of any message flags or expunges any
messages.
Command continuation request responses use the token "+" instead of a
tag. These responses are sent by the server to indicate acceptance
of an incomplete client command and readiness for the remainder of
the command.
7.1. Server Responses - Status Responses
Status responses are OK, NO, BAD, PREAUTH and BYE. OK, NO, and BAD
may be tagged or untagged. PREAUTH and BYE are always untagged.
Status responses MAY include an OPTIONAL "response code". A response
code consists of data inside square brackets in the form of an atom,
possibly followed by a space and arguments. The response code
Crispin Standards Track [Page 49]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
contains additional information or status codes for client software
beyond the OK/NO/BAD condition, and are defined when there is a
specific action that a client can take based upon the additional
information.
The currently defined response codes are:
ALERT The human-readable text contains a special alert
that MUST be presented to the user in a fashion
that calls the user's attention to the message.
NEWNAME Followed by a mailbox name and a new mailbox name.
A SELECT or EXAMINE is failing because the target
mailbox name no longer exists because it was
renamed to the new mailbox name. This is a hint to
the client that the operation can succeed if the
SELECT or EXAMINE is reissued with the new mailbox
name.
PARSE The human-readable text represents an error in
parsing the [RFC-822] header or [MIME-IMB] headers
of a message in the mailbox.
PERMANENTFLAGS Followed by a parenthesized list of flags,
indicates which of the known flags that the client
can change permanently. Any flags that are in the
FLAGS untagged response, but not the PERMANENTFLAGS
list, can not be set permanently. If the client
attempts to STORE a flag that is not in the
PERMANENTFLAGS list, the server will either reject
it with a NO reply or store the state for the
remainder of the current session only. The
PERMANENTFLAGS list can also include the special
flag \*, which indicates that it is possible to
create new keywords by attempting to store those
flags in the mailbox.
READ-ONLY The mailbox is selected read-only, or its access
while selected has changed from read-write to
read-only.
READ-WRITE The mailbox is selected read-write, or its access
while selected has changed from read-only to
read-write.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 50]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
TRYCREATE An APPEND or COPY attempt is failing because the
target mailbox does not exist (as opposed to some
other reason). This is a hint to the client that
the operation can succeed if the mailbox is first
created by the CREATE command.
UIDVALIDITY Followed by a decimal number, indicates the unique
identifier validity value.
UNSEEN Followed by a decimal number, indicates the number
of the first message without the \Seen flag set.
Additional response codes defined by particular client or server
implementations SHOULD be prefixed with an "X" until they are
added to a revision of this protocol. Client implementations
SHOULD ignore response codes that they do not recognize.
7.1.1. OK Response
Contents: OPTIONAL response code
human-readable text
The OK response indicates an information message from the server.
When tagged, it indicates successful completion of the associated
command. The human-readable text MAY be presented to the user as
an information message. The untagged form indicates an
information-only message; the nature of the information MAY be
indicated by a response code.
The untagged form is also used as one of three possible greetings
at connection startup. It indicates that the connection is not
yet authenticated and that a LOGIN command is needed.
Example: S: * OK IMAP4rev1 server ready
C: A001 LOGIN fred blurdybloop
S: * OK [ALERT] System shutdown in 10 minutes
S: A001 OK LOGIN Completed
7.1.2. NO Response
Contents: OPTIONAL response code
human-readable text
The NO response indicates an operational error message from the
server. When tagged, it indicates unsuccessful completion of the
associated command. The untagged form indicates a warning; the
command can still complete successfully. The human-readable text
describes the condition.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 51]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
Example: C: A222 COPY 1:2 owatagusiam
S: * NO Disk is 98% full, please delete unnecessary data
S: A222 OK COPY completed
C: A223 COPY 3:200 blurdybloop
S: * NO Disk is 98% full, please delete unnecessary data
S: * NO Disk is 99% full, please delete unnecessary data
S: A223 NO COPY failed: disk is full
7.1.3. BAD Response
Contents: OPTIONAL response code
human-readable text
The BAD response indicates an error message from the server. When
tagged, it reports a protocol-level error in the client's command;
the tag indicates the command that caused the error. The untagged
form indicates a protocol-level error for which the associated
command can not be determined; it can also indicate an internal
server failure. The human-readable text describes the condition.
Example: C: ...very long command line...
S: * BAD Command line too long
C: ...empty line...
S: * BAD Empty command line
C: A443 EXPUNGE
S: * BAD Disk crash, attempting salvage to a new disk!
S: * OK Salvage successful, no data lost
S: A443 OK Expunge completed
7.1.4. PREAUTH Response
Contents: OPTIONAL response code
human-readable text
The PREAUTH response is always untagged, and is one of three
possible greetings at connection startup. It indicates that the
connection has already been authenticated by external means and
thus no LOGIN command is needed.
Example: S: * PREAUTH IMAP4rev1 server logged in as Smith
7.1.5. BYE Response
Contents: OPTIONAL response code
human-readable text
Crispin Standards Track [Page 52]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
The BYE response is always untagged, and indicates that the server
is about to close the connection. The human-readable text MAY be
displayed to the user in a status report by the client. The BYE
response is sent under one of four conditions:
1) as part of a normal logout sequence. The server will close
the connection after sending the tagged OK response to the
LOGOUT command.
2) as a panic shutdown announcement. The server closes the
connection immediately.
3) as an announcement of an inactivity autologout. The server
closes the connection immediately.
4) as one of three possible greetings at connection startup,
indicating that the server is not willing to accept a
connection from this client. The server closes the
connection immediately.
The difference between a BYE that occurs as part of a normal
LOGOUT sequence (the first case) and a BYE that occurs because of
a failure (the other three cases) is that the connection closes
immediately in the failure case.
Example: S: * BYE Autologout; idle for too long
7.2. Server Responses - Server and Mailbox Status
These responses are always untagged. This is how server and mailbox
status data are transmitted from the server to the client. Many of
these responses typically result from a command with the same name.
7.2.1. CAPABILITY Response
Contents: capability listing
The CAPABILITY response occurs as a result of a CAPABILITY
command. The capability listing contains a space-separated
listing of capability names that the server supports. The
capability listing MUST include the atom "IMAP4rev1".
A capability name which begins with "AUTH=" indicates that the
server supports that particular authentication mechanism.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 53]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
Other capability names indicate that the server supports an
extension, revision, or amendment to the IMAP4rev1 protocol.
Server responses MUST conform to this document until the client
issues a command that uses the associated capability.
Capability names MUST either begin with "X" or be standard or
standards-track IMAP4rev1 extensions, revisions, or amendments
registered with IANA. A server MUST NOT offer unregistered or
non-standard capability names, unless such names are prefixed with
an "X".
Client implementations SHOULD NOT require any capability name
other than "IMAP4rev1", and MUST ignore any unknown capability
names.
Example: S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 AUTH=KERBEROS_V4 XPIG-LATIN
7.2.2. LIST Response
Contents: name attributes
hierarchy delimiter
name
The LIST response occurs as a result of a LIST command. It
returns a single name that matches the LIST specification. There
can be multiple LIST responses for a single LIST command.
Four name attributes are defined:
\Noinferiors It is not possible for any child levels of
hierarchy to exist under this name; no child levels
exist now and none can be created in the future.
\Noselect It is not possible to use this name as a selectable
mailbox.
\Marked The mailbox has been marked "interesting" by the
server; the mailbox probably contains messages that
have been added since the last time the mailbox was
selected.
\Unmarked The mailbox does not contain any additional
messages since the last time the mailbox was
selected.
If it is not feasible for the server to determine whether the
mailbox is "interesting" or not, or if the name is a \Noselect
name, the server SHOULD NOT send either \Marked or \Unmarked.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 54]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
The hierarchy delimiter is a character used to delimit levels of
hierarchy in a mailbox name. A client can use it to create child
mailboxes, and to search higher or lower levels of naming
hierarchy. All children of a top-level hierarchy node MUST use
the same separator character. A NIL hierarchy delimiter means
that no hierarchy exists; the name is a "flat" name.
The name represents an unambiguous left-to-right hierarchy, and
MUST be valid for use as a reference in LIST and LSUB commands.
Unless \Noselect is indicated, the name MUST also be valid as an
argument for commands, such as SELECT, that accept mailbox
names.
Example: S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" ~/Mail/foo
7.2.3. LSUB Response
Contents: name attributes
hierarchy delimiter
name
The LSUB response occurs as a result of an LSUB command. It
returns a single name that matches the LSUB specification. There
can be multiple LSUB responses for a single LSUB command. The
data is identical in format to the LIST response.
Example: S: * LSUB () "." #news.comp.mail.misc
7.2.4 STATUS Response
Contents: name
status parenthesized list
The STATUS response occurs as a result of an STATUS command. It
returns the mailbox name that matches the STATUS specification and
the requested mailbox status information.
Example: S: * STATUS blurdybloop (MESSAGES 231 UIDNEXT 44292)
7.2.5. SEARCH Response
Contents: zero or more numbers
Crispin Standards Track [Page 55]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
The SEARCH response occurs as a result of a SEARCH or UID SEARCH
command. The number(s) refer to those messages that match the
search criteria. For SEARCH, these are message sequence numbers;
for UID SEARCH, these are unique identifiers. Each number is
delimited by a space.
Example: S: * SEARCH 2 3 6
7.2.6. FLAGS Response
Contents: flag parenthesized list
The FLAGS response occurs as a result of a SELECT or EXAMINE
command. The flag parenthesized list identifies the flags (at a
minimum, the system-defined flags) that are applicable for this
mailbox. Flags other than the system flags can also exist,
depending on server implementation.
The update from the FLAGS response MUST be recorded by the client.
Example: S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft)
7.3. Server Responses - Mailbox Size
These responses are always untagged. This is how changes in the size
of the mailbox are trasnmitted from the server to the client.
Immediately following the "*" token is a number that represents a
message count.
7.3.1. EXISTS Response
Contents: none
The EXISTS response reports the number of messages in the mailbox.
This response occurs as a result of a SELECT or EXAMINE command,
and if the size of the mailbox changes (e.g. new mail).
The update from the EXISTS response MUST be recorded by the
client.
Example: S: * 23 EXISTS
Crispin Standards Track [Page 56]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
7.3.2. RECENT Response
Contents: none
The RECENT response reports the number of messages with the
\Recent flag set. This response occurs as a result of a SELECT or
EXAMINE command, and if the size of the mailbox changes (e.g. new
mail).
Note: It is not guaranteed that the message sequence numbers of
recent messages will be a contiguous range of the highest n
messages in the mailbox (where n is the value reported by the
RECENT response). Examples of situations in which this is not
the case are: multiple clients having the same mailbox open
(the first session to be notified will see it as recent, others
will probably see it as non-recent), and when the mailbox is
re-ordered by a non-IMAP agent.
The only reliable way to identify recent messages is to look at
message flags to see which have the \Recent flag set, or to do
a SEARCH RECENT.
The update from the RECENT response MUST be recorded by the
client.
Example: S: * 5 RECENT
7.4. Server Responses - Message Status
These responses are always untagged. This is how message data are
transmitted from the server to the client, often as a result of a
command with the same name. Immediately following the "*" token is a
number that represents a message sequence number.
7.4.1. EXPUNGE Response
Contents: none
The EXPUNGE response reports that the specified message sequence
number has been permanently removed from the mailbox. The message
sequence number for each successive message in the mailbox is
immediately decremented by 1, and this decrement is reflected in
message sequence numbers in subsequent responses (including other
untagged EXPUNGE responses).
As a result of the immediate decrement rule, message sequence
numbers that appear in a set of successive EXPUNGE responses
depend upon whether the messages are removed starting from lower
Crispin Standards Track [Page 57]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
numbers to higher numbers, or from higher numbers to lower
numbers. For example, if the last 5 messages in a 9-message
mailbox are expunged; a "lower to higher" server will send five
untagged EXPUNGE responses for message sequence number 5, whereas
a "higher to lower server" will send successive untagged EXPUNGE
responses for message sequence numbers 9, 8, 7, 6, and 5.
An EXPUNGE response MUST NOT be sent when no command is in
progress; nor while responding to a FETCH, STORE, or SEARCH
command. This rule is necessary to prevent a loss of
synchronization of message sequence numbers between client and
server.
The update from the EXPUNGE response MUST be recorded by the
client.
Example: S: * 44 EXPUNGE
7.4.2. FETCH Response
Contents: message data
The FETCH response returns data about a message to the client.
The data are pairs of data item names and their values in
parentheses. This response occurs as the result of a FETCH or
STORE command, as well as by unilateral server decision (e.g. flag
updates).
The current data items are:
BODY A form of BODYSTRUCTURE without extension data.
BODY[<section>]<<origin_octet>>
A string expressing the body contents of the
specified section. The string SHOULD be
interpreted by the client according to the content
transfer encoding, body type, and subtype.
If the origin octet is specified, this string is a
substring of the entire body contents, starting at
that origin octet. This means that BODY[]<0> MAY
be truncated, but BODY[] is NEVER truncated.
8-bit textual data is permitted if a [CHARSET]
identifier is part of the body parameter
parenthesized list for this section. Note that
headers (part specifiers HEADER or MIME, or the
header portion of a MESSAGE/RFC822 part), MUST be
Crispin Standards Track [Page 58]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
7-bit; 8-bit characters are not permitted in
headers. Note also that the blank line at the end
of the header is always included in header data.
Non-textual data such as binary data MUST be
transfer encoded into a textual form such as BASE64
prior to being sent to the client. To derive the
original binary data, the client MUST decode the
transfer encoded string.
BODYSTRUCTURE A parenthesized list that describes the [MIME-IMB]
body structure of a message. This is computed by
the server by parsing the [MIME-IMB] header fields,
defaulting various fields as necessary.
For example, a simple text message of 48 lines and
2279 octets can have a body structure of: ("TEXT"
"PLAIN" ("CHARSET" "US-ASCII") NIL NIL "7BIT" 2279
48)
Multiple parts are indicated by parenthesis
nesting. Instead of a body type as the first
element of the parenthesized list there is a nested
body. The second element of the parenthesized list
is the multipart subtype (mixed, digest, parallel,
alternative, etc.).
For example, a two part message consisting of a
text and a BASE645-encoded text attachment can have
a body structure of: (("TEXT" "PLAIN" ("CHARSET"
"US-ASCII") NIL NIL "7BIT" 1152 23)("TEXT" "PLAIN"
("CHARSET" "US-ASCII" "NAME" "cc.diff")
"<960723163407.20117h@cac.washington.edu>"
"Compiler diff" "BASE64" 4554 73) "MIXED"))
Extension data follows the multipart subtype.
Extension data is never returned with the BODY
fetch, but can be returned with a BODYSTRUCTURE
fetch. Extension data, if present, MUST be in the
defined order.
The extension data of a multipart body part are in
the following order:
body parameter parenthesized list
A parenthesized list of attribute/value pairs
[e.g. ("foo" "bar" "baz" "rag") where "bar" is
the value of "foo" and "rag" is the value of
Crispin Standards Track [Page 59]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
"baz"] as defined in [MIME-IMB].
body disposition
A parenthesized list, consisting of a
disposition type string followed by a
parenthesized list of disposition
attribute/value pairs. The disposition type and
attribute names will be defined in a future
standards-track revision to [DISPOSITION].
body language
A string or parenthesized list giving the body
language value as defined in [LANGUAGE-TAGS].
Any following extension data are not yet defined in
this version of the protocol. Such extension data
can consist of zero or more NILs, strings, numbers,
or potentially nested parenthesized lists of such
data. Client implementations that do a
BODYSTRUCTURE fetch MUST be prepared to accept such
extension data. Server implementations MUST NOT
send such extension data until it has been defined
by a revision of this protocol.
The basic fields of a non-multipart body part are
in the following order:
body type
A string giving the content media type name as
defined in [MIME-IMB].
body subtype
A string giving the content subtype name as
defined in [MIME-IMB].
body parameter parenthesized list
A parenthesized list of attribute/value pairs
[e.g. ("foo" "bar" "baz" "rag") where "bar" is
the value of "foo" and "rag" is the value of
"baz"] as defined in [MIME-IMB].
body id
A string giving the content id as defined in
[MIME-IMB].
body description
A string giving the content description as
defined in [MIME-IMB].
Crispin Standards Track [Page 60]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
body encoding
A string giving the content transfer encoding as
defined in [MIME-IMB].
body size
A number giving the size of the body in octets.
Note that this size is the size in its transfer
encoding and not the resulting size after any
decoding.
A body type of type MESSAGE and subtype RFC822
contains, immediately after the basic fields, the
envelope structure, body structure, and size in
text lines of the encapsulated message.
A body type of type TEXT contains, immediately
after the basic fields, the size of the body in
text lines. Note that this size is the size in its
content transfer encoding and not the resulting
size after any decoding.
Extension data follows the basic fields and the
type-specific fields listed above. Extension data
is never returned with the BODY fetch, but can be
returned with a BODYSTRUCTURE fetch. Extension
data, if present, MUST be in the defined order.
The extension data of a non-multipart body part are
in the following order:
body MD5
A string giving the body MD5 value as defined in
[MD5].
body disposition
A parenthesized list with the same content and
function as the body disposition for a multipart
body part.
body language
A string or parenthesized list giving the body
language value as defined in [LANGUAGE-TAGS].
Any following extension data are not yet defined in
this version of the protocol, and would be as
described above under multipart extension data.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 61]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
ENVELOPE A parenthesized list that describes the envelope
structure of a message. This is computed by the
server by parsing the [RFC-822] header into the
component parts, defaulting various fields as
necessary.
The fields of the envelope structure are in the
following order: date, subject, from, sender,
reply-to, to, cc, bcc, in-reply-to, and message-id.
The date, subject, in-reply-to, and message-id
fields are strings. The from, sender, reply-to,
to, cc, and bcc fields are parenthesized lists of
address structures.
An address structure is a parenthesized list that
describes an electronic mail address. The fields
of an address structure are in the following order:
personal name, [SMTP] at-domain-list (source
route), mailbox name, and host name.
[RFC-822] group syntax is indicated by a special
form of address structure in which the host name
field is NIL. If the mailbox name field is also
NIL, this is an end of group marker (semi-colon in
RFC 822 syntax). If the mailbox name field is
non-NIL, this is a start of group marker, and the
mailbox name field holds the group name phrase.
Any field of an envelope or address structure that
is not applicable is presented as NIL. Note that
the server MUST default the reply-to and sender
fields from the from field; a client is not
expected to know to do this.
FLAGS A parenthesized list of flags that are set for this
message.
INTERNALDATE A string representing the internal date of the
message.
RFC822 Equivalent to BODY[].
RFC822.HEADER Equivalent to BODY.PEEK[HEADER].
RFC822.SIZE A number expressing the [RFC-822] size of the
message.
RFC822.TEXT Equivalent to BODY[TEXT].
Crispin Standards Track [Page 62]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
UID A number expressing the unique identifier of the
message.
Example: S: * 23 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen) RFC822.SIZE 44827)
7.5. Server Responses - Command Continuation Request
The command continuation request response is indicated by a "+" token
instead of a tag. This form of response indicates that the server is
ready to accept the continuation of a command from the client. The
remainder of this response is a line of text.
This response is used in the AUTHORIZATION command to transmit server
data to the client, and request additional client data. This
response is also used if an argument to any command is a literal.
The client is not permitted to send the octets of the literal unless
the server indicates that it expects it. This permits the server to
process commands and reject errors on a line-by-line basis. The
remainder of the command, including the CRLF that terminates a
command, follows the octets of the literal. If there are any
additional command arguments the literal octets are followed by a
space and those arguments.
Example: C: A001 LOGIN {11}
S: + Ready for additional command text
C: FRED FOOBAR {7}
S: + Ready for additional command text
C: fat man
S: A001 OK LOGIN completed
C: A044 BLURDYBLOOP {102856}
S: A044 BAD No such command as "BLURDYBLOOP"
8. Sample IMAP4rev1 connection
The following is a transcript of an IMAP4rev1 connection. A long
line in this sample is broken for editorial clarity.
S: * OK IMAP4rev1 Service Ready
C: a001 login mrc secret
S: a001 OK LOGIN completed
C: a002 select inbox
S: * 18 EXISTS
S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft)
S: * 2 RECENT
S: * OK [UNSEEN 17] Message 17 is the first unseen message
S: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 3857529045] UIDs valid
Crispin Standards Track [Page 63]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
S: a002 OK [READ-WRITE] SELECT completed
C: a003 fetch 12 full
S: * 12 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen) INTERNALDATE "17-Jul-1996 02:44:25 -0700"
RFC822.SIZE 4286 ENVELOPE ("Wed, 17 Jul 1996 02:23:25 -0700 (PDT)"
"IMAP4rev1 WG mtg summary and minutes"
(("Terry Gray" NIL "gray" "cac.washington.edu"))
(("Terry Gray" NIL "gray" "cac.washington.edu"))
(("Terry Gray" NIL "gray" "cac.washington.edu"))
((NIL NIL "imap" "cac.washington.edu"))
((NIL NIL "minutes" "CNRI.Reston.VA.US")
("John Klensin" NIL "KLENSIN" "INFOODS.MIT.EDU")) NIL NIL
"<B27397-0100000@cac.washington.edu>")
BODY ("TEXT" "PLAIN" ("CHARSET" "US-ASCII") NIL NIL "7BIT" 3028 92))
S: a003 OK FETCH completed
C: a004 fetch 12 body[header]
S: * 12 FETCH (BODY[HEADER] {350}
S: Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 02:23:25 -0700 (PDT)
S: From: Terry Gray <gray@cac.washington.edu>
S: Subject: IMAP4rev1 WG mtg summary and minutes
S: To: imap@cac.washington.edu
S: cc: minutes@CNRI.Reston.VA.US, John Klensin <KLENSIN@INFOODS.MIT.EDU>
S: Message-Id: <B27397-0100000@cac.washington.edu>
S: MIME-Version: 1.0
S: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
S:
S: )
S: a004 OK FETCH completed
C: a005 store 12 +flags \deleted
S: * 12 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen \Deleted))
S: a005 OK +FLAGS completed
C: a006 logout
S: * BYE IMAP4rev1 server terminating connection
S: a006 OK LOGOUT completed
9. Formal Syntax
The following syntax specification uses the augmented Backus-Naur
Form (BNF) notation as specified in [RFC-822] with one exception; the
delimiter used with the "#" construct is a single space (SPACE) and
not one or more commas.
In the case of alternative or optional rules in which a later rule
overlaps an earlier rule, the rule which is listed earlier MUST take
priority. For example, "\Seen" when parsed as a flag is the \Seen
flag name and not a flag_extension, even though "\Seen" could be
parsed as a flag_extension. Some, but not all, instances of this
rule are noted below.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 64]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
Except as noted otherwise, all alphabetic characters are case-
insensitive. The use of upper or lower case characters to define
token strings is for editorial clarity only. Implementations MUST
accept these strings in a case-insensitive fashion.
address ::= "(" addr_name SPACE addr_adl SPACE addr_mailbox
SPACE addr_host ")"
addr_adl ::= nstring
;; Holds route from [RFC-822] route-addr if
;; non-NIL
addr_host ::= nstring
;; NIL indicates [RFC-822] group syntax.
;; Otherwise, holds [RFC-822] domain name
addr_mailbox ::= nstring
;; NIL indicates end of [RFC-822] group; if
;; non-NIL and addr_host is NIL, holds
;; [RFC-822] group name.
;; Otherwise, holds [RFC-822] local-part
addr_name ::= nstring
;; Holds phrase from [RFC-822] mailbox if
;; non-NIL
alpha ::= "A" / "B" / "C" / "D" / "E" / "F" / "G" / "H" /
"I" / "J" / "K" / "L" / "M" / "N" / "O" / "P" /
"Q" / "R" / "S" / "T" / "U" / "V" / "W" / "X" /
"Y" / "Z" /
"a" / "b" / "c" / "d" / "e" / "f" / "g" / "h" /
"i" / "j" / "k" / "l" / "m" / "n" / "o" / "p" /
"q" / "r" / "s" / "t" / "u" / "v" / "w" / "x" /
"y" / "z"
;; Case-sensitive
append ::= "APPEND" SPACE mailbox [SPACE flag_list]
[SPACE date_time] SPACE literal
astring ::= atom / string
atom ::= 1*ATOM_CHAR
ATOM_CHAR ::= <any CHAR except atom_specials>
atom_specials ::= "(" / ")" / "{" / SPACE / CTL / list_wildcards /
quoted_specials
Crispin Standards Track [Page 65]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
authenticate ::= "AUTHENTICATE" SPACE auth_type *(CRLF base64)
auth_type ::= atom
;; Defined by [IMAP-AUTH]
base64 ::= *(4base64_char) [base64_terminal]
base64_char ::= alpha / digit / "+" / "/"
base64_terminal ::= (2base64_char "==") / (3base64_char "=")
body ::= "(" body_type_1part / body_type_mpart ")"
body_extension ::= nstring / number / "(" 1#body_extension ")"
;; Future expansion. Client implementations
;; MUST accept body_extension fields. Server
;; implementations MUST NOT generate
;; body_extension fields except as defined by
;; future standard or standards-track
;; revisions of this specification.
body_ext_1part ::= body_fld_md5 [SPACE body_fld_dsp
[SPACE body_fld_lang
[SPACE 1#body_extension]]]
;; MUST NOT be returned on non-extensible
;; "BODY" fetch
body_ext_mpart ::= body_fld_param
[SPACE body_fld_dsp SPACE body_fld_lang
[SPACE 1#body_extension]]
;; MUST NOT be returned on non-extensible
;; "BODY" fetch
body_fields ::= body_fld_param SPACE body_fld_id SPACE
body_fld_desc SPACE body_fld_enc SPACE
body_fld_octets
body_fld_desc ::= nstring
body_fld_dsp ::= "(" string SPACE body_fld_param ")" / nil
body_fld_enc ::= (<"> ("7BIT" / "8BIT" / "BINARY" / "BASE64"/
"QUOTED-PRINTABLE") <">) / string
body_fld_id ::= nstring
body_fld_lang ::= nstring / "(" 1#string ")"
Crispin Standards Track [Page 66]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
body_fld_lines ::= number
body_fld_md5 ::= nstring
body_fld_octets ::= number
body_fld_param ::= "(" 1#(string SPACE string) ")" / nil
body_type_1part ::= (body_type_basic / body_type_msg / body_type_text)
[SPACE body_ext_1part]
body_type_basic ::= media_basic SPACE body_fields
;; MESSAGE subtype MUST NOT be "RFC822"
body_type_mpart ::= 1*body SPACE media_subtype
[SPACE body_ext_mpart]
body_type_msg ::= media_message SPACE body_fields SPACE envelope
SPACE body SPACE body_fld_lines
body_type_text ::= media_text SPACE body_fields SPACE body_fld_lines
capability ::= "AUTH=" auth_type / atom
;; New capabilities MUST begin with "X" or be
;; registered with IANA as standard or
;; standards-track
capability_data ::= "CAPABILITY" SPACE [1#capability SPACE] "IMAP4rev1"
[SPACE 1#capability]
;; IMAP4rev1 servers which offer RFC 1730
;; compatibility MUST list "IMAP4" as the first
;; capability.
CHAR ::= <any 7-bit US-ASCII character except NUL,
0x01 - 0x7f>
CHAR8 ::= <any 8-bit octet except NUL, 0x01 - 0xff>
command ::= tag SPACE (command_any / command_auth /
command_nonauth / command_select) CRLF
;; Modal based on state
command_any ::= "CAPABILITY" / "LOGOUT" / "NOOP" / x_command
;; Valid in all states
command_auth ::= append / create / delete / examine / list / lsub /
rename / select / status / subscribe / unsubscribe
;; Valid only in Authenticated or Selected state
Crispin Standards Track [Page 67]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
command_nonauth ::= login / authenticate
;; Valid only when in Non-Authenticated state
command_select ::= "CHECK" / "CLOSE" / "EXPUNGE" /
copy / fetch / store / uid / search
;; Valid only when in Selected state
continue_req ::= "+" SPACE (resp_text / base64)
copy ::= "COPY" SPACE set SPACE mailbox
CR ::= <ASCII CR, carriage return, 0x0D>
create ::= "CREATE" SPACE mailbox
;; Use of INBOX gives a NO error
CRLF ::= CR LF
CTL ::= <any ASCII control character and DEL,
0x00 - 0x1f, 0x7f>
date ::= date_text / <"> date_text <">
date_day ::= 1*2digit
;; Day of month
date_day_fixed ::= (SPACE digit) / 2digit
;; Fixed-format version of date_day
date_month ::= "Jan" / "Feb" / "Mar" / "Apr" / "May" / "Jun" /
"Jul" / "Aug" / "Sep" / "Oct" / "Nov" / "Dec"
date_text ::= date_day "-" date_month "-" date_year
date_year ::= 4digit
date_time ::= <"> date_day_fixed "-" date_month "-" date_year
SPACE time SPACE zone <">
delete ::= "DELETE" SPACE mailbox
;; Use of INBOX gives a NO error
digit ::= "0" / digit_nz
digit_nz ::= "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" / "6" / "7" / "8" /
"9"
Crispin Standards Track [Page 68]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
envelope ::= "(" env_date SPACE env_subject SPACE env_from
SPACE env_sender SPACE env_reply_to SPACE env_to
SPACE env_cc SPACE env_bcc SPACE env_in_reply_to
SPACE env_message_id ")"
env_bcc ::= "(" 1*address ")" / nil
env_cc ::= "(" 1*address ")" / nil
env_date ::= nstring
env_from ::= "(" 1*address ")" / nil
env_in_reply_to ::= nstring
env_message_id ::= nstring
env_reply_to ::= "(" 1*address ")" / nil
env_sender ::= "(" 1*address ")" / nil
env_subject ::= nstring
env_to ::= "(" 1*address ")" / nil
examine ::= "EXAMINE" SPACE mailbox
fetch ::= "FETCH" SPACE set SPACE ("ALL" / "FULL" /
"FAST" / fetch_att / "(" 1#fetch_att ")")
fetch_att ::= "ENVELOPE" / "FLAGS" / "INTERNALDATE" /
"RFC822" [".HEADER" / ".SIZE" / ".TEXT"] /
"BODY" ["STRUCTURE"] / "UID" /
"BODY" [".PEEK"] section
["<" number "." nz_number ">"]
flag ::= "\Answered" / "\Flagged" / "\Deleted" /
"\Seen" / "\Draft" / flag_keyword / flag_extension
flag_extension ::= "\" atom
;; Future expansion. Client implementations
;; MUST accept flag_extension flags. Server
;; implementations MUST NOT generate
;; flag_extension flags except as defined by
;; future standard or standards-track
;; revisions of this specification.
flag_keyword ::= atom
Crispin Standards Track [Page 69]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
flag_list ::= "(" #flag ")"
greeting ::= "*" SPACE (resp_cond_auth / resp_cond_bye) CRLF
header_fld_name ::= astring
header_list ::= "(" 1#header_fld_name ")"
LF ::= <ASCII LF, line feed, 0x0A>
list ::= "LIST" SPACE mailbox SPACE list_mailbox
list_mailbox ::= 1*(ATOM_CHAR / list_wildcards) / string
list_wildcards ::= "%" / "*"
literal ::= "{" number "}" CRLF *CHAR8
;; Number represents the number of CHAR8 octets
login ::= "LOGIN" SPACE userid SPACE password
lsub ::= "LSUB" SPACE mailbox SPACE list_mailbox
mailbox ::= "INBOX" / astring
;; INBOX is case-insensitive. All case variants of
;; INBOX (e.g. "iNbOx") MUST be interpreted as INBOX
;; not as an astring. Refer to section 5.1 for
;; further semantic details of mailbox names.
mailbox_data ::= "FLAGS" SPACE flag_list /
"LIST" SPACE mailbox_list /
"LSUB" SPACE mailbox_list /
"MAILBOX" SPACE text /
"SEARCH" [SPACE 1#nz_number] /
"STATUS" SPACE mailbox SPACE
"(" #<status_att number ")" /
number SPACE "EXISTS" / number SPACE "RECENT"
mailbox_list ::= "(" #("\Marked" / "\Noinferiors" /
"\Noselect" / "\Unmarked" / flag_extension) ")"
SPACE (<"> QUOTED_CHAR <"> / nil) SPACE mailbox
media_basic ::= (<"> ("APPLICATION" / "AUDIO" / "IMAGE" /
"MESSAGE" / "VIDEO") <">) / string)
SPACE media_subtype
;; Defined in [MIME-IMT]
media_message ::= <"> "MESSAGE" <"> SPACE <"> "RFC822" <">
Crispin Standards Track [Page 70]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
;; Defined in [MIME-IMT]
media_subtype ::= string
;; Defined in [MIME-IMT]
media_text ::= <"> "TEXT" <"> SPACE media_subtype
;; Defined in [MIME-IMT]
message_data ::= nz_number SPACE ("EXPUNGE" /
("FETCH" SPACE msg_att))
msg_att ::= "(" 1#("ENVELOPE" SPACE envelope /
"FLAGS" SPACE "(" #(flag / "\Recent") ")" /
"INTERNALDATE" SPACE date_time /
"RFC822" [".HEADER" / ".TEXT"] SPACE nstring /
"RFC822.SIZE" SPACE number /
"BODY" ["STRUCTURE"] SPACE body /
"BODY" section ["<" number ">"] SPACE nstring /
"UID" SPACE uniqueid) ")"
nil ::= "NIL"
nstring ::= string / nil
number ::= 1*digit
;; Unsigned 32-bit integer
;; (0 <= n < 4,294,967,296)
nz_number ::= digit_nz *digit
;; Non-zero unsigned 32-bit integer
;; (0 < n < 4,294,967,296)
password ::= astring
quoted ::= <"> *QUOTED_CHAR <">
QUOTED_CHAR ::= <any TEXT_CHAR except quoted_specials> /
"\" quoted_specials
quoted_specials ::= <"> / "\"
rename ::= "RENAME" SPACE mailbox SPACE mailbox
;; Use of INBOX as a destination gives a NO error
response ::= *(continue_req / response_data) response_done
response_data ::= "*" SPACE (resp_cond_state / resp_cond_bye /
mailbox_data / message_data / capability_data)
Crispin Standards Track [Page 71]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
CRLF
response_done ::= response_tagged / response_fatal
response_fatal ::= "*" SPACE resp_cond_bye CRLF
;; Server closes connection immediately
response_tagged ::= tag SPACE resp_cond_state CRLF
resp_cond_auth ::= ("OK" / "PREAUTH") SPACE resp_text
;; Authentication condition
resp_cond_bye ::= "BYE" SPACE resp_text
resp_cond_state ::= ("OK" / "NO" / "BAD") SPACE resp_text
;; Status condition
resp_text ::= ["[" resp_text_code "]" SPACE] (text_mime2 / text)
;; text SHOULD NOT begin with "[" or "="
resp_text_code ::= "ALERT" / "PARSE" /
"PERMANENTFLAGS" SPACE "(" #(flag / "\*") ")" /
"READ-ONLY" / "READ-WRITE" / "TRYCREATE" /
"UIDVALIDITY" SPACE nz_number /
"UNSEEN" SPACE nz_number /
atom [SPACE 1*<any TEXT_CHAR except "]">]
search ::= "SEARCH" SPACE ["CHARSET" SPACE astring SPACE]
1#search_key
;; [CHARSET] MUST be registered with IANA
search_key ::= "ALL" / "ANSWERED" / "BCC" SPACE astring /
"BEFORE" SPACE date / "BODY" SPACE astring /
"CC" SPACE astring / "DELETED" / "FLAGGED" /
"FROM" SPACE astring /
"KEYWORD" SPACE flag_keyword / "NEW" / "OLD" /
"ON" SPACE date / "RECENT" / "SEEN" /
"SINCE" SPACE date / "SUBJECT" SPACE astring /
"TEXT" SPACE astring / "TO" SPACE astring /
"UNANSWERED" / "UNDELETED" / "UNFLAGGED" /
"UNKEYWORD" SPACE flag_keyword / "UNSEEN" /
;; Above this line were in [IMAP2]
"DRAFT" /
"HEADER" SPACE header_fld_name SPACE astring /
"LARGER" SPACE number / "NOT" SPACE search_key /
"OR" SPACE search_key SPACE search_key /
"SENTBEFORE" SPACE date / "SENTON" SPACE date /
"SENTSINCE" SPACE date / "SMALLER" SPACE number /
Crispin Standards Track [Page 72]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
"UID" SPACE set / "UNDRAFT" / set /
"(" 1#search_key ")"
section ::= "[" [section_text / (nz_number *["." nz_number]
["." (section_text / "MIME")])] "]"
section_text ::= "HEADER" / "HEADER.FIELDS" [".NOT"]
SPACE header_list / "TEXT"
select ::= "SELECT" SPACE mailbox
sequence_num ::= nz_number / "*"
;; * is the largest number in use. For message
;; sequence numbers, it is the number of messages
;; in the mailbox. For unique identifiers, it is
;; the unique identifier of the last message in
;; the mailbox.
set ::= sequence_num / (sequence_num ":" sequence_num) /
(set "," set)
;; Identifies a set of messages. For message
;; sequence numbers, these are consecutive
;; numbers from 1 to the number of messages in
;; the mailbox
;; Comma delimits individual numbers, colon
;; delimits between two numbers inclusive.
;; Example: 2,4:7,9,12:* is 2,4,5,6,7,9,12,13,
;; 14,15 for a mailbox with 15 messages.
SPACE ::= <ASCII SP, space, 0x20>
status ::= "STATUS" SPACE mailbox SPACE "(" 1#status_att ")"
status_att ::= "MESSAGES" / "RECENT" / "UIDNEXT" / "UIDVALIDITY" /
"UNSEEN"
store ::= "STORE" SPACE set SPACE store_att_flags
store_att_flags ::= (["+" / "-"] "FLAGS" [".SILENT"]) SPACE
(flag_list / #flag)
string ::= quoted / literal
subscribe ::= "SUBSCRIBE" SPACE mailbox
tag ::= 1*<any ATOM_CHAR except "+">
text ::= 1*TEXT_CHAR
Crispin Standards Track [Page 73]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
text_mime2 ::= "=?" <charset> "?" <encoding> "?"
<encoded-text> "?="
;; Syntax defined in [MIME-HDRS]
TEXT_CHAR ::= <any CHAR except CR and LF>
time ::= 2digit ":" 2digit ":" 2digit
;; Hours minutes seconds
uid ::= "UID" SPACE (copy / fetch / search / store)
;; Unique identifiers used instead of message
;; sequence numbers
uniqueid ::= nz_number
;; Strictly ascending
unsubscribe ::= "UNSUBSCRIBE" SPACE mailbox
userid ::= astring
x_command ::= "X" atom <experimental command arguments>
zone ::= ("+" / "-") 4digit
;; Signed four-digit value of hhmm representing
;; hours and minutes west of Greenwich (that is,
;; (the amount that the given time differs from
;; Universal Time). Subtracting the timezone
;; from the given time will give the UT form.
;; The Universal Time zone is "+0000".
10. Author's Note
This document is a revision or rewrite of earlier documents, and
supercedes the protocol specification in those documents: RFC 1730,
unpublished IMAP2bis.TXT document, RFC 1176, and RFC 1064.
11. Security Considerations
IMAP4rev1 protocol transactions, including electronic mail data, are
sent in the clear over the network unless privacy protection is
negotiated in the AUTHENTICATE command.
A server error message for an AUTHENTICATE command which fails due to
invalid credentials SHOULD NOT detail why the credentials are
invalid.
Use of the LOGIN command sends passwords in the clear. This can be
avoided by using the AUTHENTICATE command instead.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 74]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
A server error message for a failing LOGIN command SHOULD NOT specify
that the user name, as opposed to the password, is invalid.
Additional security considerations are discussed in the section
discussing the AUTHENTICATE and LOGIN commands.
12. Author's Address
Mark R. Crispin
Networks and Distributed Computing
University of Washington
4545 15th Aveneue NE
Seattle, WA 98105-4527
Phone: (206) 543-5762
EMail: MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU
Crispin Standards Track [Page 75]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
Appendices
A. References
[ACAP] Myers, J. "ACAP -- Application Configuration Access Protocol",
Work in Progress.
[CHARSET] Reynolds, J., and J. Postel, "Assigned Numbers", STD 2,
RFC 1700, USC/Information Sciences Institute, October 1994.
[DISPOSITION] Troost, R., and Dorner, S., "Communicating Presentation
Information in Internet Messages: The Content-Disposition Header",
RFC 1806, June 1995.
[IMAP-AUTH] Myers, J., "IMAP4 Authentication Mechanism", RFC 1731.
Carnegie-Mellon University, December 1994.
[IMAP-COMPAT] Crispin, M., "IMAP4 Compatibility with IMAP2bis", RFC
2061, University of Washington, November 1996.
[IMAP-DISC] Austein, R., "Synchronization Operations for Disconnected
IMAP4 Clients", Work in Progress.
[IMAP-HISTORICAL] Crispin, M. "IMAP4 Compatibility with IMAP2 and
IMAP2bis", RFC 1732, University of Washington, December 1994.
[IMAP-MODEL] Crispin, M., "Distributed Electronic Mail Models in
IMAP4", RFC 1733, University of Washington, December 1994.
[IMAP-OBSOLETE] Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol -
Obsolete Syntax", RFC 2062, University of Washington, November 1996.
[IMAP2] Crispin, M., "Interactive Mail Access Protocol - Version 2",
RFC 1176, University of Washington, August 1990.
[LANGUAGE-TAGS] Alvestrand, H., "Tags for the Identification of
Languages", RFC 1766, March 1995.
[MD5] Myers, J., and M. Rose, "The Content-MD5 Header Field", RFC
1864, October 1995.
[MIME-IMB] Freed, N., and N. Borenstein, "MIME (Multipurpose Internet
Mail Extensions) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies", RFC
2045, November 1996.
[MIME-IMT] Freed, N., and N. Borenstein, "MIME (Multipurpose
Internet Mail Extensions) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046,
November 1996.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 76]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
[MIME-HDRS] Moore, K., "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
Part Three: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text", RFC
2047, November 1996.
[RFC-822] Crocker, D., "Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text
Messages", STD 11, RFC 822, University of Delaware, August 1982.
[SMTP] Postel, J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", STD 10,
RFC 821, USC/Information Sciences Institute, August 1982.
[UTF-7] Goldsmith, D., and Davis, M., "UTF-7: A Mail-Safe
Transformation Format of Unicode", RFC 1642, July 1994.
B. Changes from RFC 1730
1) The STATUS command has been added.
2) Clarify in the formal syntax that the "#" construct can never
refer to multiple spaces.
3) Obsolete syntax has been moved to a separate document.
4) The PARTIAL command has been obsoleted.
5) The RFC822.HEADER.LINES, RFC822.HEADER.LINES.NOT, RFC822.PEEK, and
RFC822.TEXT.PEEK fetch attributes have been obsoleted.
6) The "<" origin "." size ">" suffix for BODY text attributes has
been added.
7) The HEADER, HEADER.FIELDS, HEADER.FIELDS.NOT, MIME, and TEXT part
specifiers have been added.
8) Support for Content-Disposition and Content-Language has been
added.
9) The restriction on fetching nested MULTIPART parts has been
removed.
10) Body part number 0 has been obsoleted.
11) Server-supported authenticators are now identified by
capabilities.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 77]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
12) The capability that identifies this protocol is now called
"IMAP4rev1". A server that provides backwards support for RFC 1730
SHOULD emit the "IMAP4" capability in addition to "IMAP4rev1" in its
CAPABILITY response. Because RFC-1730 required "IMAP4" to appear as
the first capability, it MUST listed first in the response.
13) A description of the mailbox name namespace convention has been
added.
14) A description of the international mailbox name convention has
been added.
15) The UID-NEXT and UID-VALIDITY status items are now called UIDNEXT
and UIDVALIDITY. This is a change from the IMAP STATUS
Work in Progress and not from RFC-1730
16) Add a clarification that a null mailbox name argument to the LIST
command returns an untagged LIST response with the hierarchy
delimiter and root of the reference argument.
17) Define terms such as "MUST", "SHOULD", and "MUST NOT".
18) Add a section which defines message attributes and more
thoroughly details the semantics of message sequence numbers, UIDs,
and flags.
19) Add a clarification detailing the circumstances when a client may
send multiple commands without waiting for a response, and the
circumstances in which ambiguities may result.
20) Add a recommendation on server behavior for DELETE and RENAME
when inferior hierarchical names of the given name exist.
21) Add a clarification that a mailbox name may not be unilaterally
unsubscribed by the server, even if that mailbox name no longer
exists.
22) Add a clarification that LIST should return its results quickly
without undue delay.
23) Add a clarification that the date_time argument to APPEND sets
the internal date of the message.
24) Add a clarification on APPEND behavior when the target mailbox is
the currently selected mailbox.
Crispin Standards Track [Page 78]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
25) Add a clarification that external changes to flags should be
always announced via an untagged FETCH even if the current command is
a STORE with the ".SILENT" suffix.
26) Add a clarification that COPY appends to the target mailbox.
27) Add the NEWNAME response code.
28) Rewrite the description of the untagged BYE response to clarify
its semantics.
29) Change the reference for the body MD5 to refer to the proper RFC.
30) Clarify that the formal syntax contains rules which may overlap,
and that in the event of such an overlap the rule which occurs first
takes precedence.
31) Correct the definition of body_fld_param.
32) More formal syntax for capability_data.
33) Clarify that any case variant of "INBOX" must be interpreted as
INBOX.
34) Clarify that the human-readable text in resp_text should not
begin with "[" or "=".
35) Change MIME references to Draft Standard documents.
36) Clarify \Recent semantics.
37) Additional examples.
C. Key Word Index
+FLAGS <flag list> (store command data item) ............... 45
+FLAGS.SILENT <flag list> (store command data item) ........ 46
-FLAGS <flag list> (store command data item) ............... 46
-FLAGS.SILENT <flag list> (store command data item) ........ 46
ALERT (response code) ...................................... 50
ALL (fetch item) ........................................... 41
ALL (search key) ........................................... 38
ANSWERED (search key) ...................................... 38
APPEND (command) ........................................... 34
AUTHENTICATE (command) ..................................... 20
BAD (response) ............................................. 52
BCC <string> (search key) .................................. 38
BEFORE <date> (search key) ................................. 39
Crispin Standards Track [Page 79]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
BODY (fetch item) .......................................... 41
BODY (fetch result) ........................................ 58
BODY <string> (search key) ................................. 39
BODY.PEEK[<section>]<<partial>> (fetch item) ............... 44
BODYSTRUCTURE (fetch item) ................................. 44
BODYSTRUCTURE (fetch result) ............................... 59
BODY[<section>]<<origin_octet>> (fetch result) ............. 58
BODY[<section>]<<partial>> (fetch item) .................... 41
BYE (response) ............................................. 52
Body Structure (message attribute) ......................... 11
CAPABILITY (command) ....................................... 18
CAPABILITY (response) ...................................... 53
CC <string> (search key) ................................... 39
CHECK (command) ............................................ 36
CLOSE (command) ............................................ 36
COPY (command) ............................................. 46
CREATE (command) ........................................... 25
DELETE (command) ........................................... 26
DELETED (search key) ....................................... 39
DRAFT (search key) ......................................... 39
ENVELOPE (fetch item) ...................................... 44
ENVELOPE (fetch result) .................................... 62
EXAMINE (command) .......................................... 24
EXISTS (response) .......................................... 56
EXPUNGE (command) .......................................... 37
EXPUNGE (response) ......................................... 57
Envelope Structure (message attribute) ..................... 11
FAST (fetch item) .......................................... 44
FETCH (command) ............................................ 41
FETCH (response) ........................................... 58
FLAGGED (search key) ....................................... 39
FLAGS (fetch item) ......................................... 44
FLAGS (fetch result) ....................................... 62
FLAGS (response) ........................................... 56
FLAGS <flag list> (store command data item) ................ 45
FLAGS.SILENT <flag list> (store command data item) ......... 45
FROM <string> (search key) ................................. 39
FULL (fetch item) .......................................... 44
Flags (message attribute) .................................. 9
HEADER (part specifier) .................................... 41
HEADER <field-name> <string> (search key) .................. 39
HEADER.FIELDS <header_list> (part specifier) ............... 41
HEADER.FIELDS.NOT <header_list> (part specifier) ........... 41
INTERNALDATE (fetch item) .................................. 44
INTERNALDATE (fetch result) ................................ 62
Internal Date (message attribute) .......................... 10
KEYWORD <flag> (search key) ................................ 39
Keyword (type of flag) ..................................... 10
Crispin Standards Track [Page 80]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
LARGER <n> (search key) .................................... 39
LIST (command) ............................................. 30
LIST (response) ............................................ 54
LOGIN (command) ............................................ 22
LOGOUT (command) ........................................... 20
LSUB (command) ............................................. 32
LSUB (response) ............................................ 55
MAY (specification requirement term) ....................... 5
MESSAGES (status item) ..................................... 33
MIME (part specifier) ...................................... 42
MUST (specification requirement term) ...................... 4
MUST NOT (specification requirement term) .................. 4
Message Sequence Number (message attribute) ................ 9
NEW (search key) ........................................... 39
NEWNAME (response code) .................................... 50
NO (response) .............................................. 51
NOOP (command) ............................................. 19
NOT <search-key> (search key) .............................. 39
OK (response) .............................................. 51
OLD (search key) ........................................... 39
ON <date> (search key) ..................................... 39
OPTIONAL (specification requirement term) .................. 5
OR <search-key1> <search-key2> (search key) ................ 39
PARSE (response code) ...................................... 50
PERMANENTFLAGS (response code) ............................. 50
PREAUTH (response) ......................................... 52
Permanent Flag (class of flag) ............................. 10
READ-ONLY (response code) .................................. 50
READ-WRITE (response code) ................................. 50
RECENT (response) .......................................... 57
RECENT (search key) ........................................ 39
RECENT (status item) ....................................... 33
RENAME (command) ........................................... 27
REQUIRED (specification requirement term) .................. 4
RFC822 (fetch item) ........................................ 44
RFC822 (fetch result) ...................................... 63
RFC822.HEADER (fetch item) ................................. 44
RFC822.HEADER (fetch result) ............................... 62
RFC822.SIZE (fetch item) ................................... 44
RFC822.SIZE (fetch result) ................................. 62
RFC822.TEXT (fetch item) ................................... 44
RFC822.TEXT (fetch result) ................................. 62
SEARCH (command) ........................................... 37
SEARCH (response) .......................................... 55
SEEN (search key) .......................................... 40
SELECT (command) ........................................... 23
SENTBEFORE <date> (search key) ............................. 40
SENTON <date> (search key) ................................. 40
Crispin Standards Track [Page 81]
RFC 2060 IMAP4rev1 December 1996
SENTSINCE <date> (search key) .............................. 40
SHOULD (specification requirement term) .................... 5
SHOULD NOT (specification requirement term) ................ 5
SINCE <date> (search key) .................................. 40
SMALLER <n> (search key) ................................... 40
STATUS (command) ........................................... 33
STATUS (response) .......................................... 55
STORE (command) ............................................ 45
SUBJECT <string> (search key) .............................. 40
SUBSCRIBE (command) ........................................ 29
Session Flag (class of flag) ............................... 10
System Flag (type of flag) ................................. 9
TEXT (part specifier) ...................................... 42
TEXT <string> (search key) ................................. 40
TO <string> (search key) ................................... 40
TRYCREATE (response code) .................................. 51
UID (command) .............................................. 47
UID (fetch item) ........................................... 44
UID (fetch result) ......................................... 63
UID <message set> (search key) ............................. 40
UIDNEXT (status item) ...................................... 33
UIDVALIDITY (response code) ................................ 51
UIDVALIDITY (status item) .................................. 34
UNANSWERED (search key) .................................... 40
UNDELETED (search key) ..................................... 40
UNDRAFT (search key) ....................................... 40
UNFLAGGED (search key) ..................................... 40
UNKEYWORD <flag> (search key) .............................. 40
UNSEEN (response code) ..................................... 51
UNSEEN (search key) ........................................ 40
UNSEEN (status item) ....................................... 34
UNSUBSCRIBE (command) ...................................... 30
Unique Identifier (UID) (message attribute) ................ 7
X<atom> (command) .......................................... 48
[RFC-822] Size (message attribute) ......................... 11
\Answered (system flag) .................................... 9
\Deleted (system flag) ..................................... 9
\Draft (system flag) ....................................... 9
\Flagged (system flag) ..................................... 9
\Marked (mailbox name attribute) ........................... 54
\Noinferiors (mailbox name attribute) ...................... 54
\Noselect (mailbox name attribute) ......................... 54
\Recent (system flag) ...................................... 10
\Seen (system flag) ........................................ 9
\Unmarked (mailbox name attribute) ......................... 54
Crispin Standards Track [Page 82]