Technical Summary
The UIDBATCHES extension of the Internet Message Access Protocol
(IMAP) allows clients to retrieve UID ranges that partition a
mailbox's messages into equally sized batches. This enables clients
to perform operations such as FETCH, SEARCH, and STORE on specific
message batches, providing better control over resource usage and
response sizes. The extension is particularly useful with the
UIDONLY mode where sequence numbers are unavailable.
Working Group Summary
There was strong concurrence among those that actually implemented
the protocol. Others in the group saw value in the protocol and were in
favor of moving the document forward based on the implementation and
inter-operation results. There was no opposition to the document.
There was no controversy on the technical aspects of the protocol.
The main discussion points were about text regarding range sizes and
how to make that text sane and unambiguous.
Document Quality
There are at least three known implementations of this protocol:
- Apple iOS Mail client
- iCloud IMAP Server
- Cyrus IMAP Server (used in production at Fastmail)
The Apple client has proven to be interoperable in production with both server
implementations for several weeks.
The relevant DE was part of the conversation in the working group.
Personnel
The Document Shepherd for this document is Kenneth Murchison. The
Responsible Area Director is Andy Newton.
IANA Note
The IANA Considerations are complete and correct according to the
shepherd and the DE was consulted on this document.