Network Working Group                                         M. Crispin
INTERNET DRAFT: IMAP UIDPLUS extension                          May 2005
Obsoletes: 2359
Document: internet-drafts/draft-crispin-imap-rfc2359bis-02.txt


       Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) - UIDPLUS extension

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Abstract

     The UIDPLUS extension of the Internet Message Access Protocol [IMAP]
     provides a set of features intended to reduce the amount of time and
     resources used by some client operations.  The features in UIDPLUS
     are primarily intended for disconnected-use clients.

Conventions Used in this Document

     In examples, "C:" and "S:" indicate lines sent by the client and
     server respectively.

     The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
     "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are
      to be interpreted as described in [KEYWORDS].

Introduction and Overview

     The UIDPLUS extension is present in any IMAP server implementation
     which returns "UIDPLUS" as one of the supported capabilities to the
     CAPABILITY command.

     The UIDPLUS extension defines an additional command.  In addition,
     this document recommends new status response codes in IMAP which
     SHOULD be returned by all server implementations, regardless of
     whether or not the UIDPLUS extension is implemented.

     The added facilities of the features in UIDPLUS are optimizations;
     clients can provide equivalent functionality, albeit less
     efficiently, by using facilities in the base protocol.

1. Additional Commands

     The following command definition is an extension to [IMAP] section
     6.4.

1.1 UID EXPUNGE Command

     Arguments:  message set

     Data:       untagged responses: EXPUNGE

     Result:     OK - expunge completed
                 NO - expunge failure (e.g., permission denied)
                 BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

        The UID EXPUNGE command permanently removes from the currently
        selected mailbox all messages that both have the \Deleted flag set
        and have a UID that is included in the specified message set.  If
        a message either does not have the \Deleted flag set or has a UID
        that is not included in the specified message set, it is not
        affected.

        This command may be used to ensure that a replayed EXPUNGE command
        does not remove any messages that have been marked as \Deleted
        between the time that the user requested the expunge operation and
        the time the server processes the command.

        If the server does not support the UIDPLUS capability, the client
        should fall back to using the STORE command to temporarily remove
        the \Deleted flag from messages it does not want to remove.  The
        client could alternatively fall back to using the EXPUNGE command,
        risking the unintended removal of some messages.

     Example:    C: A003 UID EXPUNGE 3000:3002
                 S: * 3 EXPUNGE
                 S: * 3 EXPUNGE
                 S: * 3 EXPUNGE
                 S: A003 OK UID EXPUNGE completed

2. Additional Response Codes

     The following response codes are extensions to the response codes
     defined in [IMAP] section 7.1.  With limited exceptions, discussed
     below, server implementations that advertise the UIDPLUS extension
     SHOULD return these response codes.

     In the case of a mailbox which has permissions set so that the client
     can COPY or APPEND to the mailbox, but not SELECT or EXAMINE it, the
     server SHOULD NOT send an APPENDUID or COPYUID response code as it
     would disclose information about the mailbox.

     In the case of a mailbox that has UIDNOTSTICKY status (as defined
     below), the server MAY omit the APPENDUID or COPYUID response code as
     it is not meaningful.

     If the server does not return the APPENDUID or COPYUID response
     codes, the client can discover this information by selecting the
     destination mailbox.  The location of messages placed in the
     destination mailbox by COPY or APPEND can be determined by using
     FETCH and/or SEARCH commands (e.g. for Message-ID or some unique
     marker placed in the message in an APPEND).

     APPENDUID

        Followed by the UIDVALIDITY of the destination mailbox and the
        UID assigned to the appended message in the destination mailbox,
        indicates that the message has been appended to the destination
        mailbox with that UID.

        If the server also supports the [MULTIAPPEND] extension, then the
        second value is a message set containing the UIDs assigned to the
        appended messages, in the order they were transmitted in the
        APPEND command.  This message set may not contain extraneous UIDs
        or the symbol "*".

        UIDs are assigned strictly ascending in the mailbox (refer to
        [IMAP], section 2.3.1.1) and UID ranges are as in [IMAP]; in
        particular, note that a range of 12:10 is exactly equivalent to
        10:12 and refers to the sequence 10,11,12.

        This response code is returned in a tagged OK response to the
        APPEND command.

     COPYUID

        Followed by the UIDVALIDITY of the destination mailbox, a message
        set containing the UIDs of the message(s) in the source mailbox
        which were copied to the destination mailbox, and a message set
        containing the UIDs assigned to the copied message(s) in the
        destination mailbox, indicates that the message(s) have been
        copied to the destination mailbox with the stated UID(s).

        The source message set is in the order the message(s) were copied;
        the destination message set corresponds to the source message set
        and is in the same order.  Neither of the message sets may contain
        extraneous UIDs or the symbol "*".

        UIDs are assigned strictly ascending in the mailbox (refer to
        [IMAP], section 2.3.1.1) and UID ranges are as in [IMAP]; in
        particular, note that a range of 12:10 is exactly equivalent to
        10:12 and refers to the sequence 10,11,12.

        This response code is returned in a tagged OK response to the
        COPY command.

     UIDNOTSTICKY

        The selected mailbox is supported by a mail store which does not
        support persistent UIDs; that is, UIDVALIDITY will be different
        each time the mailbox is selected.  Consequently, APPEND or COPY
        to this mailbox will not return an APPENDUID or COPYUID response
        code.

        This response code is returned in an untagged NO response to the
        SELECT command.

           Note: servers SHOULD NOT have any UIDNOTSTICKY mail stores.
           This facility exists to support legacy mail stores in which
           it is technically infeasible to support persistant UIDs.
           This should be avoided when designing new mail stores.

     Example:    C: A003 APPEND saved-messages (\Seen) {297}
                 C: Date: Mon, 7 Feb 1994 21:52:25 -0800 (PST)
                 C: From: Fred Foobar <foobar@example.com>
                 C: Subject: afternoon meeting
                 C: To: mooch@example.com
                 C: Message-Id: <B27397-0100000@example.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 [APPENDUID 38505 3955] APPEND completed
                 C: A004 COPY 2:4 meeting
                 S: A004 OK [COPYUID 38505 304,319:320 3956:3958] Done
                 C: A005 UID COPY 305:310 meeting
                 S: A005 OK No matching messages, so nothing copied
                 C: A006 COPY 2 funny
                 S: A006 OK Done
                 C: A007 SELECT funny
                 S: * 1 EXISTS
                 S: * 1 RECENT
                 S: * OK [UNSEEN 1] Message 1 is first unseen
                 S: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 3857529045] Validity session-only
                 S: * OK [UIDNEXT 2] Predicted next UID
                 S: * NO [UIDNOTSTICKY] Non-persistent UIDs
                 S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft)
                 S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Deleted \Seen)] Limited
                 S: A007 OK [READ-WRITE] SELECT completed

     In this example, A003 and A004 demonstrate successful appending and
     copying to a mailbox which returns the UIDs assigned to the messages.
     A005 is an example in which no messages were copied; this is because
     in A003 we see that message 2 had UID 304 and message 3 had UID 319;
     therefore UIDs 305 through 310 do not exist (refer to section 2.3.1.1
     of [IMAP] for further explanation).  A006 is an example of a message
     being copied that did not return a COPYUID; and as expected A007
     shows that the mail store containing that mailbox does not support
     persistent UIDs.

5.   Formal Syntax

     Formal syntax is defined using ABNF [ABNF], extending the ABNF rules
     defined in [IMAP4].  The IMAP4 ABNF should be imported first before
     attempting to validate these rules.

     append-uid      = uniqueid

     capability      =/ "UIDPLUS"

     command-select  =/ uid-expunge

     resp-code-apnd  = "APPENDUID" SP nz-number SP append-uid

     resp-code-copy  = "COPYUID" SP nz-number SP uid-set SP uid-set

     resp-text-code  =/ resp-code-apnd / resp-code-copy / "UIDNOTSTICKY"
                       ; incorporated before the expansion rule of
                       ;  atom [SP 1*<any TEXT-CHAR except "]">]
                       ; which appears in [IMAP]

     uid-expunge     = "UID" SP "EXPUNGE" SP sequence-set

     uid-set         = (uniqueid / uid-range) *("," uid-set)

     uid-range       = (uniqueid ":" uniqueid)
                       ; two uniquid values and all values between
                       ; these two regards of order.
                       ; Example: 2:4 and 4:2 are equivalent.

     Servers which support [MULTIAPPEND] will have the following extension
     to the above rules:

     append-uid      =/ uid-set

Security Considerations

     The COPYUID and APPENDUID response codes return information about the
     mailbox.  These response codes SHOULD NOT be issused if the client
     does not have access to SELECT or EXAMINE the mailbox.

IANA Considerations

     This document constitutes registration of the UIDPLUS capability in
     the imap4-capabilities registry, replacing RFC 2359.

Normative References

     [ABNF]        Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
                   Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.

     [IMAP]        Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol -
                   Version 4rev1", RFC 3501, March 2003.

     [KEYWORDS]    Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
                   Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

     [MULTIAPPEND] Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) -
                   MULTIAPPEND Extension", RFC 3502, March 2003.

     [RFC-2822]    Resnick, P., "Internet Message Format", RFC 2822, April
                   2001.

Informative References

     [RFC-2359]    Myers, J., "IMAP4 UIDPLUS extension", RFC 2359, June
                   1988.

Acknowledgements

     This document obsoletes [RFC-2359].  However, it is based upon that
     document, and takes substantial text from it.

Author's Address

     Mark R. Crispin
     Networks and Distributed Computing
     University of Washington
     4545 15th Avenue NE
     Seattle, WA  98105-4527

     Phone: (206) 543-5762
     EMail: MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU


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