Network Working Group                                   A. Melnikov, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                                 Isode Ltd
Obsoletes: 3501 (if approved)                              B. Leiba, Ed.
Intended status: Standards Track                     Huawei Technologies
Expires: August 15, 2020                               February 12, 2020


            INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4rev2
                     draft-ietf-extra-imap4rev2-12

Abstract

   The Internet Message Access Protocol, Version 4rev2 (IMAP4rev2)
   allows a client to access and manipulate electronic mail messages on
   a server.  IMAP4rev2 permits manipulation of mailboxes (remote
   message folders) in a way that is functionally equivalent to local
   folders.  IMAP4rev2 also provides the capability for an offline
   client to resynchronize with the server.

   IMAP4rev2 includes operations for creating, deleting, and renaming
   mailboxes, checking for new messages, permanently removing messages,
   setting and clearing flags, RFC 5322, RFC 2045 and RFC 2231 parsing,
   searching, and selective fetching of message attributes, texts, and
   portions thereof.  Messages in IMAP4rev2 are accessed by the use of
   numbers.  These numbers are either message sequence numbers or unique
   identifiers.

   IMAP4rev2 does not specify a means of posting mail; this function is
   handled by a mail submission protocol such as RFC 6409.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 15, 2020.





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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

   This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
   Contributions published or made publicly available before November
   10, 2008.  The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
   material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
   modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
   Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
   the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
   outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
   not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
   it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
   than English.

Table of Contents

   1.  How to Read This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     1.1.  Organization of This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     1.2.  Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     1.3.  Special Notes to Implementors . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   2.  Protocol Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     2.1.  Link Level  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     2.2.  Commands and Responses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       2.2.1.  Client Protocol Sender and Server Protocol Receiver .   7
       2.2.2.  Server Protocol Sender and Client Protocol Receiver .   8
     2.3.  Message Attributes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       2.3.1.  Message Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       2.3.2.  Flags Message Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
       2.3.3.  Internal Date Message Attribute . . . . . . . . . . .  12
       2.3.4.  [RFC-5322] Size Message Attribute . . . . . . . . . .  13
       2.3.5.  Envelope Structure Message Attribute  . . . . . . . .  13
       2.3.6.  Body Structure Message Attribute  . . . . . . . . . .  13
     2.4.  Message Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   3.  State and Flow Diagram  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     3.1.  Not Authenticated State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13



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     3.2.  Authenticated State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     3.3.  Selected State  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     3.4.  Logout State  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   4.  Data Formats  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     4.1.  Atom  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
       4.1.1.  Sequence set and UID set  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     4.2.  Number  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     4.3.  String  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
       4.3.1.  8-bit and Binary Strings  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     4.4.  Parenthesized List  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
     4.5.  NIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
   5.  Operational Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
     5.1.  Mailbox Naming  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
       5.1.1.  Mailbox Hierarchy Naming  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
       5.1.2.  Namespaces  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     5.2.  Mailbox Size and Message Status Updates . . . . . . . . .  21
     5.3.  Response when no Command in Progress  . . . . . . . . . .  22
     5.4.  Autologout Timer  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
     5.5.  Multiple Commands in Progress (Command Pipelining)  . . .  22
   6.  Client Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
     6.1.  Client Commands - Any State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
       6.1.1.  CAPABILITY Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
       6.1.2.  NOOP Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
       6.1.3.  LOGOUT Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
     6.2.  Client Commands - Not Authenticated State . . . . . . . .  26
       6.2.1.  STARTTLS Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
       6.2.2.  AUTHENTICATE Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
       6.2.3.  LOGIN Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
     6.3.  Client Commands - Authenticated State . . . . . . . . . .  32
       6.3.1.  ENABLE Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  32
       6.3.2.  SELECT Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34
       6.3.3.  EXAMINE Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  36
       6.3.4.  CREATE Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  37
       6.3.5.  DELETE Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  38
       6.3.6.  RENAME Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  39
       6.3.7.  SUBSCRIBE Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  41
       6.3.8.  UNSUBSCRIBE Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  42
       6.3.9.  LIST Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  42
       6.3.10. NAMESPACE Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  60
       6.3.11. STATUS Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  65
       6.3.12. APPEND Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  66
       6.3.13. IDLE Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  69
     6.4.  Client Commands - Selected State  . . . . . . . . . . . .  71
       6.4.1.  CLOSE Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  71
       6.4.2.  UNSELECT Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  72
       6.4.3.  EXPUNGE Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  72
       6.4.4.  SEARCH Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  73
       6.4.5.  FETCH Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  85



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       6.4.6.  STORE Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  89
       6.4.7.  COPY Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  90
       6.4.8.  MOVE Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  91
       6.4.9.  UID Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  93
     6.5.  Client Commands - Experimental/Expansion  . . . . . . . .  95
       6.5.1.  X<atom> Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  95
   7.  Server Responses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  96
     7.1.  Server Responses - Status Responses . . . . . . . . . . .  97
       7.1.1.  OK Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
       7.1.2.  NO Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
       7.1.3.  BAD Response  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
       7.1.4.  PREAUTH Response  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
       7.1.5.  BYE Response  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
     7.2.  Server Responses - Server and Mailbox Status  . . . . . . 107
       7.2.1.  The ENABLED Response  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
       7.2.2.  CAPABILITY Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
       7.2.3.  LIST Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
       7.2.4.  NAMESPACE Response  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
       7.2.5.  STATUS Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
       7.2.6.  ESEARCH Response  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
       7.2.7.  FLAGS Response  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
     7.3.  Server Responses - Mailbox Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
       7.3.1.  EXISTS Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
     7.4.  Server Responses - Message Status . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
       7.4.1.  EXPUNGE Response  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
       7.4.2.  FETCH Response  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
     7.5.  Server Responses - Command Continuation Request . . . . . 121
   8.  Sample IMAP4rev2 connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
   9.  Formal Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
   10. Author's Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
   11. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
     11.1.  STARTTLS Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
     11.2.  COPYUID and APPENDUID response codes . . . . . . . . . . 140
     11.3.  LIST command and Other Users' namespace  . . . . . . . . 140
     11.4.  Other Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
   12. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
     12.1.  Updates to IMAP4 Capabilities registry . . . . . . . . . 142
     12.2.  GSSAPI/SASL service name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
   13. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
     13.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
     13.2.  Informative References (related protocols) . . . . . . . 145
     13.3.  Informative References (historical aspects of IMAP and
            related protocols) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
   Appendix A.  Backward compatibility with IMAP4rev1  . . . . . . . 147
     A.1.  Mailbox International Naming Convention for compatibility
           with IMAP4rev1  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
   Appendix B.  Backward compatibility with BINARY extension . . . . 149
   Appendix C.  Changes from RFC 3501 / IMAP4rev1  . . . . . . . . . 149



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   Appendix D.  Acknowledgement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
   Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

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 IMAP4rev2 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 IMAP4rev2
   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

   "Conventions" are basic principles or procedures.  Document
   conventions are noted in this section.

   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", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

   The word "can" (not "may") is used to refer 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



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   the time that selection ends (SELECT or EXAMINE of another mailbox,
   CLOSE command, UNSELECT command, or connection termination).

   Characters are 8-bit UTF-8 (of which 7-bit US-ASCII is a subset)
   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.

   There are several protocol conventions in IMAP.  These refer to
   aspects of the specification which are not strictly part of the IMAP
   protocol, but reflect generally-accepted practice.  Implementations
   need to be aware of these conventions, and avoid conflicts whether or
   not they implement the convention.  For example, "&" may not be used
   as a hierarchy delimiter since it conflicts with the Mailbox
   International Naming Convention, and other uses of "&" in mailbox
   names are impacted as well.

1.3.  Special Notes to Implementors

   Implementors of the IMAP protocol are strongly encouraged to read the
   IMAP implementation recommendations document [IMAP-IMPLEMENTATION] in
   conjunction with this document, to help understand the intricacies of
   this protocol and how best to build an interoperable product.

   IMAP4rev2 is designed to be upwards compatible from the [IMAP2] and
   unpublished IMAP2bis protocols.  IMAP4rev2 is largely compatible with
   the IMAP4rev1 protocol described in RFC 3501 and the IMAP4 protocol
   described in RFC 1730; the exception being in certain facilities
   added in RFC 1730 that proved problematic and were subsequently
   removed.  In the course of the evolution of IMAP4rev2, some aspects
   in the earlier protocols have become obsolete.  Obsolete commands,
   responses, and data formats which an IMAP4rev2 implementation can
   encounter when used with an earlier implementation are described in
   Appendix C and [IMAP-OBSOLETE].

   Other compatibility issues with IMAP2bis, the most common variant of
   the earlier protocol, are discussed in [IMAP-COMPAT].  A full
   discussion of compatibility issues with rare (and presumed extinct)
   variants of [IMAP2] is in [IMAP-HISTORICAL]; this document is
   primarily of historical interest.

   IMAP was originally developed for the older [RFC-822] standard, and
   as a consequence several fetch items in IMAP incorporate "RFC822" in
   their name.  In all cases, "RFC822" should be interpreted as a
   reference to the updated [RFC-5322] standard.





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2.  Protocol Overview

2.1.  Link Level

   The IMAP4rev2 protocol assumes a reliable data stream such as that
   provided by TCP.  When TCP is used, an IMAP4rev2 server listens on
   port 143 or port 993 (IMAP-over-TLS).

2.2.  Commands and Responses

   An IMAP4rev2 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 IMAP4rev2 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.

   Clients MUST follow the syntax outlined in this specification
   strictly.  It is a syntax error to send a command with missing or
   extraneous spaces or arguments.

   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 a 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



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      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 IMAP4rev2 server reads a command line
   from the client, parses the command and its arguments, and transmits
   server data and a server command completion result response.

2.2.2.  Server Protocol Sender and Client Protocol Receiver

   Data transmitted by the server to the client and status responses
   that do not indicate command completion are prefixed with the token
   "*", and are called untagged responses.

   Server data MAY be sent as a result of a client command, or MAY be
   sent unilaterally by the server.  There is no syntactic difference
   between server data that resulted from a specific command and server
   data that were sent unilaterally.

   The server completion result response indicates the success or
   failure of the operation.  It is tagged with the same tag as the
   client command which began the operation.  Thus, if more than one
   command is in progress, the tag in a server completion response
   identifies the command to which the response applies.  There are
   three possible server completion responses: OK (indicating success),
   NO (indicating failure), or BAD (indicating a protocol error such as
   unrecognized command or command syntax error).

   Servers SHOULD enforce the syntax outlined in this specification
   strictly.  Any client command with a protocol syntax error, including
   (but not limited to) missing or extraneous spaces or arguments,
   SHOULD be rejected, and the client given a BAD server completion
   response.

   The protocol receiver of an IMAP4rev2 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.





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   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 can be retrieved individually
   or in conjunction with other attributes or message texts.

2.3.1.  Message Numbers

   Messages in IMAP4rev2 are accessed by one of two numbers; the unique
   identifier or the message sequence number.

2.3.1.1.  Unique Identifier (UID) Message Attribute

   An unsigned 32-bit value assigned to each message, which when used
   with the unique identifier validity value (see below) forms a 64-bit
   value that MUST NOT refer to any other message in the mailbox or any
   subsequent mailbox with the same name forever.  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.

   The unique identifier of a message MUST NOT change during the
   session, and SHOULD NOT change between sessions.  Any change of
   unique identifiers between sessions MUST be detectable using the
   UIDVALIDITY mechanism discussed below.  Persistent unique identifiers
   are required for 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 are two 32-bit unsigned values which
   aid in unique identifier handling: the next unique identifier value
   (UIDNEXT) and the unique identifier validity value (UIDVALIDITY).

   The next unique identifier value is the predicted value that will be
   assigned to a new message in the mailbox.  Unless the unique
   identifier validity also changes (see below), the next unique
   identifier value MUST have the following two characteristics.  First,
   the next unique identifier value MUST NOT change unless new messages
   are added to the mailbox; and second, the next unique identifier
   value MUST change whenever new messages are added to the mailbox,
   even if those new messages are subsequently expunged.

      Note: The next unique identifier value is intended to provide a
      means for a client to determine whether any messages have been



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      delivered to the mailbox since the previous time it checked this
      value.  It is not intended to provide any guarantee that any
      message will have this unique identifier.  A client can only
      assume, at the time that it obtains the next unique identifier
      value, that messages arriving after that time will have a UID
      greater than or equal to that value.

   The unique identifier validity value is sent in a UIDVALIDITY
   response code in an OK untagged response at mailbox selection time.
   If unique identifiers from an earlier session fail to persist in this
   session, the unique identifier validity value MUST be greater than
   the one used in the earlier session.

      Note: Ideally, unique identifiers SHOULD persist at all times.
      Although this specification recognizes that failure to persist can
      be unavoidable in certain server environments, it STRONGLY
      ENCOURAGES message store implementation techniques that avoid this
      problem.  For example:

      1.  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
          identifiers are no longer strictly ascending as a result of
          the re-ordering.

      2.  If the message store has no mechanism to store unique
          identifiers, it must regenerate unique identifiers at each
          session, and each session must have a unique UIDVALIDITY
          value.

      3.  If the mailbox is deleted and a new mailbox with the same name
          is created at a later date, the server must either keep track
          of unique identifiers from the previous instance of the
          mailbox, or it must assign a new UIDVALIDITY value to the new
          instance of the mailbox.  A good UIDVALIDITY value to use in
          this case 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.

      4.  The combination of mailbox name, UIDVALIDITY, and UID must
          refer to a single immutable message on that server forever.
          In particular, the internal date, [RFC-5322] size, envelope,
          body structure, and message texts (all BODY[...] fetch data
          items) must never change.  This does not include message



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          numbers, nor does it include attributes that can be set by a
          STORE command (e.g., FLAGS).

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.  The number of messages in the mailbox is also
   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 "11 EXISTS" 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 IMAP4rev2.  A flag of
   either type can be permanent or session-only.

   A system flag is a flag name that is pre-defined in this
   specification and begin with "\".  Certain system flags (\Deleted and
   \Seen) have special semantics described elsewhere in this document.
   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




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   \Draft  Message has not completed composition (marked as a draft).

   \Recent  This flag was in used in IMAP4rev1 and is now deprecated.

   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).  Some keywords that start with "$" are
   also defined in this specification.

   This document defines several keywords that were not originally
   defined in RFC 3501, but which were found to be useful by client
   implementations.  These keywords SHOULD be supported (i.e. allowed in
   APPEND, COPY, MOVE and SEARCH commands) by server implementations:

   $Forwarded  Message has been forwarded to another email address,
      embedded within or attached to a new message.  An email client
      sets this keyword when it successfully forwards the message to
      another email address.  Typical usage of this keyword is to show a
      different (or additional) icon for a message that has been
      forwarded.  Once set, the flag SHOULD NOT be cleared.

   $MDNSent  Message Disposition Notification [RFC8098] was generated
      and sent for this message.

   A flag can 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, concurrent and subsequent
   sessions will see any change in permanent flags.  Changes to session
   flags are valid only in that session.

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-5322] 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 IMAP4rev2 COPY or MOVE command, this SHOULD
   be the internal date and time of the source message.  In the case of
   messages delivered by the IMAP4rev2 APPEND command, this SHOULD be
   the date and time as specified in the APPEND command description.
   All other cases are implementation defined.








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2.3.4.  [RFC-5322] Size Message Attribute

   The number of octets in the message, as expressed in [RFC-5322]
   format.

2.3.5.  Envelope Structure Message Attribute

   A parsed representation of the [RFC-5322] header of the message.
   Note that the IMAP Envelope structure is not the same as an [SMTP]
   envelope.

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-5322] text of a
   message, IMAP4rev2 permits the fetching of portions of the full
   message text.  Specifically, it is possible to fetch the [RFC-5322]
   message header, [RFC-5322] message body, a [MIME-IMB] body part, or a
   [MIME-IMB] header.

3.  State and Flow Diagram

   Once the connection between client and server is established, an
   IMAP4rev2 connection is in one of four states.  The initial state is
   identified in the server greeting.  Most commands are only valid in
   certain states.  It is a protocol error for the client to attempt a
   command while the connection is in an inappropriate state, and the
   server will respond with a BAD or NO (depending upon server
   implementation) command completion result.

3.1.  Not Authenticated State

   In the not 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 the 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




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   been provided, after an error in selecting a mailbox, or after a
   successful CLOSE command.

3.3.  Selected State

   In a 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 the logout state, the connection is being terminated.  This state
   can be entered as a result of a client request (via the LOGOUT
   command) or by unilateral action on the part of either the client or
   server.

   If the client requests the logout state, the server MUST send an
   untagged BYE response and a tagged OK response to the LOGOUT command
   before the server closes the connection; and the client MUST read the
   tagged OK response to the LOGOUT command before the client closes the
   connection.

   A server SHOULD NOT unilaterally close the connection without sending
   an untagged BYE response that contains the reason for having done so.
   A client SHOULD NOT unilaterally close the connection, and instead
   SHOULD issue a LOGOUT command.  If the server detects that the client
   has unilaterally closed the connection, the server MAY omit the
   untagged BYE response and simply close its connection.
























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                      +----------------------+
                      |connection established|
                      +----------------------+
                                 ||
                                 \/
               +--------------------------------------+
               |          server greeting             |
               +--------------------------------------+
                         || (1)       || (2)        || (3)
                         \/           ||            ||
               +-----------------+    ||            ||
               |Not Authenticated|    ||            ||
               +-----------------+    ||            ||
                || (7)   || (4)       ||            ||
                ||       \/           \/            ||
                ||     +----------------+           ||
                ||     | Authenticated  |<=++       ||
                ||     +----------------+  ||       ||
                ||       || (7)   || (5)   || (6)   ||
                ||       ||       \/       ||       ||
                ||       ||    +--------+  ||       ||
                ||       ||    |Selected|==++       ||
                ||       ||    +--------+           ||
                ||       ||       || (7)            ||
                \/       \/       \/                \/
               +--------------------------------------+
               |               Logout                 |
               +--------------------------------------+
                                 ||
                                 \/
                   +-------------------------------+
                   |both sides close the 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, unsolicited CLOSED response code or
                failed SELECT or EXAMINE command
            (7) LOGOUT command, server shutdown, or connection closed









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4.  Data Formats

   IMAP4rev2 uses textual commands and responses.  Data in IMAP4rev2 can
   be in one of several forms: atom, number, string, parenthesized list,
   or NIL.  Note that a particular data item may take more than one
   form; for example, a data item defined as using "astring" syntax may
   be either an atom or a string.

4.1.  Atom

   An atom consists of one or more non-special characters.

4.1.1.  Sequence set and UID set

   A set of messages can be referenced by a sequence set containing
   either message sequence numbers or unique identifiers.  See Section 9
   for details.  Sequence sets can contain ranges (e.g. "5:50"), an
   enumeration of specific message/UID numbers, a special symbol "*", or
   a combination of the above.

   A "UID set" is similar to the sequence set of unique identifiers;
   however, the "*" value for a sequence number is not permitted.

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 three forms: synchonizing literal, non-
   synchronizing literal or quoted string.  The synchronizing literal
   form is the general form of string.  The non-synchronizing literal
   form is also the general form, but has length limitation.  The quoted
   string form is an alternative that avoids the overhead of processing
   a literal at the cost of limitations of characters which may be used.

   When the distinction between synchronizing and non-synchronizing
   literals is not important, this document just uses the term
   "literal".

   A synchronizing 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 synchronizing literals transmitted from server
   to client, the CRLF is immediately followed by the octet data.  In
   the case of synchronizing literals transmitted from client to server,
   the client MUST wait to receive a command continuation request



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   (described later in this document) before sending the octet data (and
   the remainder of the command).

   The non-synchronizing literal is an alternate form of synchronizing
   literal, and it may appear in communication from client to server
   instead of the synchonizing form of literal.  The non-synchronizing
   literal form MUST NOT be sent from server to client.  The non-
   synchronizing literal is distinguished from the synchronizing literal
   by having a plus ("+") between the octet count and the closing brace
   ("}").  The server does not generate a command continuation request
   in response to a non-synchronizing literal, and clients are not
   required to wait before sending the octets of a non- synchronizing
   literal.  Non-synchronizing literals MUST NOT be larger than 4096
   octets.  Any literal larger than 4096 bytes MUST be sent as a
   synchronizing literal.  (Non-synchronizing literals defined in this
   document are the same as non-synchronizing literals defined by the
   LITERAL- extension from [RFC7888].  See that document for details on
   how to handle invalid non-synchronizing literals longer than 4096
   octets and for interaction with other IMAP extensions.)

   A quoted string is a sequence of zero or more Unicode characters,
   excluding CR and LF, encoded in UTF-8, with double quote (<">)
   characters at each end.

   The empty string is represented as "" (a quoted string with zero
   characters between double quotes), as {0} followed by CRLF (a
   synchronizing literal with an octet count of 0) or as {0+} followed
   by CRLF (a non-synchronizing literal with an octet count of 0).

      Note: Even if the octet count is 0, a client transmitting a
      synchronizing 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.  IMAP4rev2 implementations MAY
   transmit 8-bit or multi-octet characters in literals, but SHOULD do
   so only when the [CHARSET] is identified.

   IMAP4rev2 is compatible with [I18N-HDRS].  As a result, the
   identified charset for header-field values with 8-bit content is
   UTF-8 [UTF-8].  IMAP4rev2 implementations MUST accept and MAY
   transmit [UTF-8] text in quoted-strings as long as the string does
   not contain NUL, CR, or LF.  This differs from IMAP4rev1
   implementations.





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   Although a BINARY content transfer encoding is defined, unencoded
   binary strings are not permitted, unless returned in a <literal8> in
   response to BINARY.PEEK[<section-binary>]<<partial>> or
   BINARY[<section-binary>]<<partial>> FETCH data item.  A "binary
   string" is any string with NUL characters.  A string with an
   excessive amount of CTL characters MAY also be considered to be
   binary.  Unless returned in response to BINARY.PEEK[...]/BINARY[...]
   FETCH, client and server implementations MUST encode binary data into
   a textual form, such as BASE64, before transmitting the data.

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 form "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 ().

      Note: NIL is never used for any data item which takes the form of
      an atom.  For example, a mailbox name of "NIL" is a mailbox named
      NIL as opposed to a non-existent mailbox name.  This is because
      mailbox uses "astring" syntax which is an atom or a string.
      Conversely, an addr-name of NIL is a non-existent personal name,
      because addr-name uses "nstring" syntax which is NIL or a string,
      but never an atom.


















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      Examples:

      The following LIST response:

       * LIST () "/" NIL

      is equivalent to:
       * LIST () "/" "NIL"

      as LIST response ABNF is using astring for mailbox name.

      However, the following response

       * FETCH 1 (BODY[1] NIL)

      is not equivalent to:
      * FETCH 1 (BODY[1] "NIL")
      The former means absence of the body part, while the latter
      means that it contains literal sequence of characters "NIL".

5.  Operational Considerations

   The following rules are listed here to ensure that all IMAP4rev2
   implementations interoperate properly.

5.1.  Mailbox Naming

   In IMAP4rev2, Mailbox names are encoded in Net-Unicode [NET-UNICODE]
   (this differs from IMAP4rev1).  Client implementations MAY attempt to
   create Net-Unicode mailbox names, and MUST interpret any 8-bit
   mailbox names returned by LIST as [NET-UNICODE].  Server
   implementations MUST prohibit the creation of 8-bit mailbox names
   that do not comply with Net-Unicode (however, servers MAY accept a
   de-normalized UTF-8 mailbox name and convert it to Net-Unicode prior
   to mailbox creation).

   The case-insensitive mailbox name INBOX is a special name reserved to
   mean "the primary mailbox for this user on this server".  (Note that
   this special name may not exist on some servers for some users, for
   example if the user has no access to personal namespace.)  The
   interpretation of all other names is implementation-dependent.

   In particular, this specification takes no position on case
   sensitivity in non-INBOX mailbox names.  Some server implementations
   are fully case-sensitive in ASCII range; others preserve case of a
   newly-created name but otherwise are case-insensitive; and yet others
   coerce names to a particular case.  Client implementations MUST
   interact with any of these.



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   There are certain client considerations when creating a new mailbox
   name:

   1.  Any character which is one of the atom-specials (see the Formal
       Syntax) will require that the mailbox name be represented as a
       quoted string or literal.

   2.  CTL and other non-graphic characters are difficult to represent
       in a user interface and are best avoided.  Servers MAY refuse to
       create mailbox names containing Unicode CTL characters.

   3.  Although the list-wildcard characters ("%" and "*") are valid in
       a mailbox name, it is difficult to use such mailbox names with
       the LIST command due to the conflict with wildcard
       interpretation.

   4.  Usually, a character (determined by the server implementation) is
       reserved to delimit levels of hierarchy.

   5.  Two characters, "#" and "&", have meanings by convention, and
       should be avoided except when used in that convention.

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.  Namespaces

   Personal Namespace: A namespace that the server considers within the
   personal scope of the authenticated user on a particular connection.
   Typically, only the authenticated user has access to mailboxes in
   their Personal Namespace.  It is the part of the namespace that
   belongs to the user that is allocated for mailboxes.  If an INBOX
   exists for a user, it MUST appear within the user's personal
   namespace.  In the typical case, there SHOULD be only one Personal
   Namespace on a server.

   Other Users' Namespace: A namespace that consists of mailboxes from
   the Personal Namespaces of other users.  To access mailboxes in the
   Other Users' Namespace, the currently authenticated user MUST be
   explicitly granted access rights.  For example, it is common for a
   manager to grant to their secretary access rights to their mailbox.
   In the typical case, there SHOULD be only one Other Users' Namespace
   on a server.




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   Shared Namespace: A namespace that consists of mailboxes that are
   intended to be shared amongst users and do not exist within a user's
   Personal Namespace.

   The namespaces a server uses MAY differ on a per-user basis.

5.1.2.1.  Historic Mailbox Namespace Naming Convention

   By convention, the first hierarchical element of any mailbox name
   which begins with "#" identifies the "namespace" of the remainder of
   the name.  This makes it possible to disambiguate between different
   types of mailbox stores, each of which have their own namespaces.

      For example, implementations which offer access to USENET
      newsgroups MAY use the "#news" namespace to partition the USENET
      newsgroup namespace from that of other mailboxes.  Thus, the
      comp.mail.misc newsgroup would have a mailbox name of
      "#news.comp.mail.misc", and the name "comp.mail.misc" can refer to
      a different object (e.g., a user's private mailbox).

   Namespaces that include the "#" character are not IMAP URL [IMAP-URL]
   friendly requiring the "#" character to be represented as %23 when
   within URLs.  As such, server implementers MAY instead consider using
   namespace prefixes that do not contain the "#" character.

5.1.2.2.  Common namespace models

   Previous version of this protocol does not define a default server
   namespace.  Two common namespace models have evolved:

   The "Personal Mailbox" model, in which the default namespace that is
   presented consists of only the user's personal mailboxes.  To access
   shared mailboxes, the user must use an escape mechanism to reach
   another namespace.

   The "Complete Hierarchy" model, in which the default namespace that
   is presented includes the user's personal mailboxes along with any
   other mailboxes they have access to.

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 message
   delivery), change the flags of the messages 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



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   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.  In particular,
   it is NOT permitted to send an EXISTS response that would reduce the
   number of messages in the mailbox; only the EXPUNGE response can do
   this.

   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 the
   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 applies to
   sessions after authentication, the duration of that timer MUST be at
   least 30 minutes.  The receipt of ANY command from the client during
   that interval SHOULD suffice to reset the autologout timer.

5.5.  Multiple Commands in Progress (Command Pipelining)

   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.  If the server
   detects a possible ambiguity, it MUST execute commands to completion
   in the order given by the client.




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   The most obvious example of ambiguity is when a command would affect
   the results of another command, e.g., 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 the completion result response before sending a command
   with message sequence numbers.

      Note: EXPUNGE responses are permitted while UID FETCH, UID STORE,
      and UID SEARCH are in progress.  If the client sends a UID
      command, it MUST wait for a completion result response before
      sending a command which uses message sequence numbers (this may
      include UID SEARCH).  Any message sequence numbers in an argument
      to UID SEARCH are associated with messages prior to the effect of
      any untagged EXPUNGE returned by the UID SEARCH.

   For example, the following non-waiting command sequences are invalid:

      FETCH + NOOP + STORE

      STORE + COPY + FETCH

      COPY + COPY

   The following are examples of valid non-waiting command sequences:

      FETCH + STORE + SEARCH + NOOP

      STORE + COPY + EXPUNGE

      UID SEARCH + UID SEARCH may be valid or invalid as a non-waiting
      command sequence, depending upon whether or not the second UID
      SEARCH contains message sequence numbers.

   Use of SEARCH result variable (see Section 6.4.4.1) creates direct
   dependency between two commands.  See Section 6.4.4.2 for more
   considerations about pipelining such dependent commands.








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6.  Client Commands

   IMAP4rev2 commands are described in this section.  Commands are
   organized by the state in which the command is permitted.  Commands
   which are permitted in multiple states are listed in the minimum
   permitted state (for example, commands valid in authenticated and
   selected state are listed in the authenticated state commands).

   Command arguments, identified by "Arguments:" in the command
   descriptions below, are described by function, not by syntax.  The
   precise syntax of command arguments is described in the Formal Syntax
   (Section 9).

   Some commands cause specific server responses to be returned; these
   are identified by "Responses:" in the command descriptions below.
   See the response descriptions in the Responses section for
   information on these responses, and the Formal Syntax section for the
   precise syntax of these responses.  It is possible for server data to
   be transmitted as a result of any command.  Thus, commands that do
   not specifically require server data specify "no specific responses
   for this command" instead of "none".

   The "Result:" in the command description refers to the possible
   tagged status responses to a command, and any special interpretation
   of these status responses.

   The state of a connection is only changed by successful commands
   which are documented as changing state.  A rejected command (BAD
   response) never changes the state of the connection or of the
   selected mailbox.  A failed command (NO response) generally does not
   change the state of the connection or of the selected mailbox; the
   exception being the SELECT and EXAMINE commands.

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





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   The CAPABILITY command requests a listing of capabilities that the
   server supports.  The server MUST send a single untagged CAPABILITY
   response with "IMAP4rev2" as one of the listed capabilities before
   the (tagged) OK response.

   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 IMAP4rev2 set defined in this specification, are enabled without
   explicit client action to invoke the capability.

   Client and server implementations MUST implement the STARTTLS,
   LOGINDISABLED, and AUTH=PLAIN (described in [PLAIN]) capabilities.
   See the Security Considerations section for important information.

   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 IMAP4rev2 STARTTLS AUTH=GSSAPI
               LOGINDISABLED
               S: abcd OK CAPABILITY completed
               C: efgh STARTTLS
               S: efgh OK STARTLS completed
               <TLS negotiation, further commands are under [TLS] layer>
               C: ijkl CAPABILITY
               S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev2 AUTH=GSSAPI AUTH=PLAIN
               S: ijkl 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.




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   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 IDLE
   command Section 6.3.13 should be used instead of NOOP if real-time
   updates to mailbox state are desirable).  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: * 14 FETCH (UID 1305 FLAGS (\Seen \Deleted))
                  S: a047 OK NOOP completed

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 IMAP4rev2 Server logging out
                  S: A023 OK LOGOUT completed
                  (Server and client then close the connection)

6.2.  Client Commands - Not Authenticated State

   In the not authenticated state, the AUTHENTICATE or LOGIN command
   establishes authentication and enters the authenticated state.  The
   AUTHENTICATE command provides a general mechanism for a variety of
   authentication techniques, privacy protection, and integrity
   checking; whereas the LOGIN command uses a traditional user name and
   plaintext password pair and has no means of establishing privacy
   protection or integrity checking.

   The STARTTLS command is an alternate form of establishing session
   privacy protection and integrity checking, but does not by itself
   establish authentication or enter the authenticated state.




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   Server implementations MAY allow access to certain mailboxes without
   establishing authentication.  This can be done by means of the
   ANONYMOUS [SASL] authenticator described in [ANONYMOUS].  An older
   convention is a LOGIN command using the userid "anonymous"; in this
   case, a password is required although the server may choose to accept
   any password.  The restrictions placed on anonymous users are
   implementation-dependent.

   Once authenticated (including as anonymous), it is not possible to
   re-enter not authenticated state.

   In addition to the universal commands (CAPABILITY, NOOP, and LOGOUT),
   the following commands are valid in the not authenticated state:
   STARTTLS, AUTHENTICATE and LOGIN.  See the Security Considerations
   section for important information about these commands.

6.2.1.  STARTTLS Command

   Arguments:  none

   Responses:  no specific response for this command

   Result:     OK - starttls completed, begin TLS negotiation
               BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

   A [TLS] negotiation begins immediately after the CRLF at the end of
   the tagged OK response from the server.  Once a client issues a
   STARTTLS command, it MUST NOT issue further commands until a server
   response is seen and the [TLS] negotiation is complete.

   The server remains in the non-authenticated state, even if client
   credentials are supplied during the [TLS] negotiation.  This does not
   preclude an authentication mechanism such as EXTERNAL (defined in
   [SASL]) from using client identity determined by the [TLS]
   negotiation.

   Once [TLS] has been started, the client MUST discard cached
   information about server capabilities and SHOULD re-issue the
   CAPABILITY command.  This is necessary to protect against man-in-
   the-middle attacks which alter the capabilities list prior to
   STARTTLS.  The server MAY advertise different capabilities, and in
   particular SHOULD NOT advertise the STARTTLS capability, after a
   successful STARTTLS command.








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   Example:    C: a001 CAPABILITY
               S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev2 STARTTLS LOGINDISABLED
               S: a001 OK CAPABILITY completed
               C: a002 STARTTLS
               S: a002 OK Begin TLS negotiation now
               <TLS negotiation, further commands are under [TLS] layer>
               C: a003 CAPABILITY
               S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev2 AUTH=PLAIN
               S: a003 OK CAPABILITY completed
               C: a004 LOGIN joe password
               S: a004 OK LOGIN completed

6.2.2.  AUTHENTICATE Command

   Arguments:  SASL authentication mechanism name
               OPTIONAL initial response

   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 a [SASL] authentication mechanism
   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 security layer 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 AUTHENTICATE command supports the optional "initial response"
   feature defined in Section 5.1 of [SASL].  The client doesn't need to
   use it.  If a SASL mechanism supports "initial response", but it is
   not specified by the client, the server handles this as specified in
   Section 3 of [SASL].

   The service name specified by this protocol's profile of [SASL] is
   "imap".

   The authentication protocol exchange consists of a series of server
   challenges and client responses 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 (see Section 4 of [RFC4648]) string.  The client response



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   consists of a single line consisting of a BASE64 encoded string.  If
   the client wishes to cancel an authentication exchange, it issues a
   line consisting of a single "*".  If the server receives such a
   response, or if it receives an invalid BASE64 string (e.g.
   characters outside the BASE64 alphabet, or non-terminal "="), it MUST
   reject the AUTHENTICATE command by sending a tagged BAD response.

   As with any other client response, this initial response MUST be
   encoded as BASE64.  It also MUST be transmitted outside of a quoted
   string or literal.  To send a zero-length initial response, the
   client MUST send a single pad character ("=").  This indicates that
   the response is present, but is a zero-length string.

   When decoding the BASE64 data in the initial response, decoding
   errors MUST be treated as in any normal SASL client response, i.e.
   with a tagged BAD response.  In particular, the server should check
   for any characters not explicitly allowed by the BASE64 alphabet, as
   well as any sequence of BASE64 characters that contains the pad
   character ('=') anywhere other than the end of the string (e.g.,
   "=AAA" and "AAA=BBB" are not allowed).

   If the client uses an initial response with a SASL mechanism that
   does not support an initial response, the server MUST reject the
   command with a tagged BAD response.

   If a security layer is negotiated through the [SASL] authentication
   exchange, it 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.

   While client and server implementations MUST implement the
   AUTHENTICATE command itself, it is not required to implement any
   authentication mechanisms other than the PLAIN mechanism described in
   [PLAIN].  Also, an authentication mechanism is not required to
   support any security layers.

      Note: a server implementation MUST implement a configuration in
      which it does NOT permit any plaintext password mechanisms, unless
      either the STARTTLS command has been negotiated or some other
      mechanism that protects the session from password snooping has
      been provided.  Server sites SHOULD NOT use any configuration
      which permits a plaintext password mechanism without such a
      protection mechanism against password snooping.  Client and server
      implementations SHOULD implement additional [SASL] mechanisms that
      do not use plaintext passwords, such the GSSAPI mechanism
      described in [SASL] and/or the SCRAM-SHA-256/SCRAM-SHA-256-PLUS
      [SCRAM-SHA-256] mechanisms.




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   Servers and clients can support multiple authentication mechanisms.
   The server SHOULD list its supported authentication mechanisms in the
   response to the CAPABILITY command so that the client knows which
   authentication mechanisms to use.

   A server MAY include a CAPABILITY response code in the tagged OK
   response of a successful AUTHENTICATE command in order to send
   capabilities automatically.  It is unnecessary for a client to send a
   separate CAPABILITY command if it recognizes these automatic
   capabilities.  This should only be done if a security layer was not
   negotiated by the AUTHENTICATE command, because the tagged OK
   response as part of an AUTHENTICATE command is not protected by
   encryption/integrity checking.  [SASL] requires the client to re-
   issue a CAPABILITY command in this case.  The server MAY advertise
   different capabilities after a successful AUTHENTICATE command.

   If an AUTHENTICATE command fails with a NO response, the client MAY
   try another authentication mechanism by issuing another AUTHENTICATE
   command.  It MAY also attempt to authenticate by using the LOGIN
   command (see Section 6.2.3 for more detail).  In other words, the
   client MAY request authentication types in decreasing order of
   preference, with the LOGIN command as a last resort.

   The authorization identity passed from the client to the server
   during the authentication exchange is interpreted by the server as
   the user name whose privileges the client is requesting.

























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      Example:    S: * OK IMAP4rev2 Server
                  C: A001 AUTHENTICATE GSSAPI
                  S: +
                  C: YIIB+wYJKoZIhvcSAQICAQBuggHqMIIB5qADAgEFoQMCAQ6iBw
                     MFACAAAACjggEmYYIBIjCCAR6gAwIBBaESGxB1Lndhc2hpbmd0
                     b24uZWR1oi0wK6ADAgEDoSQwIhsEaW1hcBsac2hpdmFtcy5jYW
                     Mud2FzaGluZ3Rvbi5lZHWjgdMwgdCgAwIBAaEDAgEDooHDBIHA
                     cS1GSa5b+fXnPZNmXB9SjL8Ollj2SKyb+3S0iXMljen/jNkpJX
                     AleKTz6BQPzj8duz8EtoOuNfKgweViyn/9B9bccy1uuAE2HI0y
                     C/PHXNNU9ZrBziJ8Lm0tTNc98kUpjXnHZhsMcz5Mx2GR6dGknb
                     I0iaGcRerMUsWOuBmKKKRmVMMdR9T3EZdpqsBd7jZCNMWotjhi
                     vd5zovQlFqQ2Wjc2+y46vKP/iXxWIuQJuDiisyXF0Y8+5GTpAL
                     pHDc1/pIGmMIGjoAMCAQGigZsEgZg2on5mSuxoDHEA1w9bcW9n
                     FdFxDKpdrQhVGVRDIzcCMCTzvUboqb5KjY1NJKJsfjRQiBYBdE
                     NKfzK+g5DlV8nrw81uOcP8NOQCLR5XkoMHC0Dr/80ziQzbNqhx
                     O6652Npft0LQwJvenwDI13YxpwOdMXzkWZN/XrEqOWp6GCgXTB
                     vCyLWLlWnbaUkZdEYbKHBPjd8t/1x5Yg==
                  S: + YGgGCSqGSIb3EgECAgIAb1kwV6ADAgEFoQMCAQ+iSzBJoAMC
                     AQGiQgRAtHTEuOP2BXb9sBYFR4SJlDZxmg39IxmRBOhXRKdDA0
                     uHTCOT9Bq3OsUTXUlk0CsFLoa8j+gvGDlgHuqzWHPSQg==
                  C:
                  S: + YDMGCSqGSIb3EgECAgIBAAD/////6jcyG4GE3KkTzBeBiVHe
                     ceP2CWY0SR0fAQAgAAQEBAQ=
                  C: YDMGCSqGSIb3EgECAgIBAAD/////3LQBHXTpFfZgrejpLlLImP
                     wkhbfa2QteAQAgAG1yYwE=
                  S: A001 OK GSSAPI authentication successful

   Note: The line breaks within server challenges and client responses
   are for editorial clarity and are not in real authenticators.

6.2.3.  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.

   A server MAY include a CAPABILITY response code in the tagged OK
   response to a successful LOGIN command in order to send capabilities
   automatically.  It is unnecessary for a client to send a separate
   CAPABILITY command if it recognizes these automatic capabilities.



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      Example:    C: a001 LOGIN SMITH SESAME
                  S: a001 OK LOGIN completed

   Note: Use of the LOGIN command over an insecure network (such as the
   Internet) is a security risk, because anyone monitoring network
   traffic can obtain plaintext passwords.  The LOGIN command SHOULD NOT
   be used except as a last resort, and it is recommended that client
   implementations have a means to disable any automatic use of the
   LOGIN command.

   Unless either the client is accessing IMAP service on IMAPS port
   [RFC8314], the STARTTLS command has been negotiated or some other
   mechanism that protects the session from password snooping has been
   provided, a server implementation MUST implement a configuration in
   which it advertises the LOGINDISABLED capability and does NOT permit
   the LOGIN command.  Server sites SHOULD NOT use any configuration
   which permits the LOGIN command without such a protection mechanism
   against password snooping.  A client implementation MUST NOT send a
   LOGIN command if the LOGINDISABLED capability is advertised.

6.3.  Client Commands - Authenticated State

   In the 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 the
   selected state.

   In addition to the universal commands (CAPABILITY, NOOP, and LOGOUT),
   the following commands are valid in the authenticated state: ENABLE,
   SELECT, EXAMINE, NAMESPACE, CREATE, DELETE, RENAME, SUBSCRIBE,
   UNSUBSCRIBE, LIST, STATUS, APPEND and IDLE.

6.3.1.  ENABLE Command

   Arguments:  capability names

   Responses:  no specific responses for this command

   Result:     OK - Relevant capabilities enabled
               BAD - No arguments, or syntax error in an argument

   Several IMAP extensions allow the server to return unsolicited
   responses specific to these extensions in certain circumstances.
   However, servers cannot send those unsolicited responses (with the
   exception of response codes (see Section 7.1) included in tagged or
   untagged OK/NO/BAD responses, which can always be sent) until they
   know that the clients support such extensions and thus won't choke on
   the extension response data.



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   The ENABLE command provides an explicit indication from the client
   that it supports particular extensions.  It is designed such that the
   client can send a simple constant string with the extensions it
   supports, and the server will enable the shared subset that both
   support.

   The ENABLE command takes a list of capability names, and requests the
   server to enable the named extensions.  Once enabled using ENABLE,
   each extension remains active until the IMAP connection is closed.
   For each argument, the server does the following:

   o  If the argument is not an extension known to the server, the
      server MUST ignore the argument.

   o  If the argument is an extension known to the server, and it is not
      specifically permitted to be enabled using ENABLE, the server MUST
      ignore the argument.  (Note that knowing about an extension
      doesn't necessarily imply supporting that extension.)

   o  If the argument is an extension that is supported by the server
      and that needs to be enabled, the server MUST enable the extension
      for the duration of the connection.  Note that once an extension
      is enabled, there is no way to disable it.

   If the ENABLE command is successful, the server MUST send an untagged
   ENABLED response Section 7.2.1.

   Clients SHOULD only include extensions that need to be enabled by the
   server.  For example, a client can enable IMAP4rev2 specific
   behaviour when both IMAP4rev1 and IMAP4rev2 are advertised in the
   CAPABILITY response.  Future RFCs may add to this list.

   The ENABLE command is only valid in the authenticated state, before
   any mailbox is selected.  Clients MUST NOT issue ENABLE once they
   SELECT/EXAMINE a mailbox; however, server implementations don't have
   to check that no mailbox is selected or was previously selected
   during the duration of a connection.

   The ENABLE command can be issued multiple times in a session.  It is
   additive; i.e., "ENABLE a b", followed by "ENABLE c" is the same as a
   single command "ENABLE a b c".  When multiple ENABLE commands are
   issued, each corresponding ENABLED response SHOULD only contain
   extensions enabled by the corresponding ENABLE command, i.e.  for the
   above example, the ENABLED response to "ENABLE c" should not contain
   "a" or "b".






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   There are no limitations on pipelining ENABLE.  For example, it is
   possible to send ENABLE and then immediately SELECT, or a LOGIN
   immediately followed by ENABLE.

   The server MUST NOT change the CAPABILITY list as a result of
   executing ENABLE; i.e., a CAPABILITY command issued right after an
   ENABLE command MUST list the same capabilities as a CAPABILITY
   command issued before the ENABLE command.  This is demonstrated in
   the following example:

         C: t1 CAPABILITY
         S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev2 ID LITERAL+ X-GOOD-IDEA
         S: t1 OK foo
         C: t2 ENABLE CONDSTORE X-GOOD-IDEA
         S: * ENABLED X-GOOD-IDEA
         S: t2 OK foo
         C: t3 CAPABILITY
         S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev2 ID LITERAL+ X-GOOD-IDEA
         S: t3 OK foo again

   In the following example, the client enables CONDSTORE:

         C: a1 ENABLE CONDSTORE
         S: * ENABLED CONDSTORE
         S: a1 OK Conditional Store enabled

6.3.1.1.  Note to Designers of Extensions That May Use the ENABLE
          Command

   Designers of IMAP extensions are discouraged from creating extensions
   that require ENABLE unless there is no good alternative design.
   Specifically, extensions that cause potentially incompatible behavior
   changes to deployed server responses (and thus benefit from ENABLE)
   have a higher complexity cost than extensions that do not.

6.3.2.  SELECT Command

   Arguments:  mailbox name

   Responses:  REQUIRED untagged responses: FLAGS, EXISTS
               REQUIRED OK untagged responses: PERMANENTFLAGS,
               UIDNEXT, UIDVALIDITY

   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




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   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.  Note that
   earlier versions of this protocol only required the FLAGS and EXISTS
   untagged data; consequently, client implementations SHOULD implement
   default behavior for missing data as discussed with the individual
   item.

   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.

   OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (<list of flags>)]  A list of message flags that
      the client can change permanently.  If this is missing, the client
      should assume that all flags can be changed permanently.

   OK [UIDNEXT <n>]  The next unique identifier value.  Refer to
      Section 2.3.1.1 for more information.  If this is missing, the
      client can not make any assumptions about the next unique
      identifier value.

   OK [UIDVALIDITY <n>]  The unique identifier validity value.  Refer to
      Section 2.3.1.1 for more information.  If this is missing, the
      server does not support unique identifiers.

   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.  When deselecting a
   selected mailbox, the server MUST return an untagged OK response with
   the "[CLOSED]" response code when the currently selected mailbox is
   closed (see Paragraph 10).

   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



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   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: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 3857529045] UIDs valid
                  S: * OK [UIDNEXT 4392] Predicted next UID
                  S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft)
                  S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Deleted \Seen \*)] Limited
                  S: A142 OK [READ-WRITE] SELECT completed

   Example:    C: A142 SELECT INBOX
               S: * 172 EXISTS
               S: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 3857529045] UIDs valid
               S: * OK [UIDNEXT 4392] Predicted next UID
               S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft)
               S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Deleted \Seen \*)] Limited
               S: A142 OK [READ-WRITE] SELECT completed
               [...some time later...]
               C: A143 SELECT Drafts
               S: * OK [CLOSED] Previous mailbox is now closed
               S: * 5 EXISTS
               S: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 9877410381] UIDs valid
               S: * OK [UIDNEXT 102] Predicted next UID
               S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft)
               S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Deleted \Seen \Answered
                   \Flagged \Draft \*)] System flags and keywords allowed
               S: A143 OK [READ-WRITE] SELECT completed

   Note that IMAP4rev1 compliant servers can also send the untagged
   RECENT response which was deprecated in IMAP4rev2.  E.g. "* 0
   RECENT".  Pure IMAP4rev2 clients are advised to ignore the untagged
   RECENT response.

6.3.3.  EXAMINE Command

   Arguments:  mailbox name

   Responses:  REQUIRED untagged responses: FLAGS, EXISTS
               REQUIRED OK untagged responses: PERMANENTFLAGS,
               UIDNEXT, UIDVALIDITY

   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





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   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.

   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: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 3857529045] UIDs valid
                S: * OK [UIDNEXT 4392] Predicted next UID
                S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft)
                S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS ()] No permanent flags permitted
                S: A932 OK [READ-ONLY] EXAMINE completed

6.3.4.  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 a client attempts to create a UTF-8
   mailbox name that is not a valid Net-Unicode name, the server MUST
   reject the creation or convert the name to Net-Unicode prior to
   creating the mailbox.

   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 the declaration.  In any case,
   the name created is without the trailing hierarchy delimiter.

   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 be successfully completed.
   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.



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   If a new mailbox is created with the same name as a mailbox which was
   deleted, its unique identifiers MUST be greater than any unique
   identifiers used in the previous incarnation of the mailbox UNLESS
   the new incarnation has a different unique identifier validity value.
   See the description of the UID command for more detail.

      Example:    C: A003 CREATE owatagusiam/
                  S: A003 OK CREATE completed
                  C: A004 CREATE owatagusiam/blurdybloop
                  S: A004 OK CREATE 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.

6.3.5.  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.  If the
   server implementation does not permit deleting the name while
   inferior hierarchical names exists then it SHOULD disallow the DELETE
   command by returning tagged NO response or it MAY allow the DELETE
   command, but sets the \Noselect mailbox name attribute for that name.
   In any case, all messages in that mailbox are removed by the DELETE
   command.



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   The value of the highest-used unique identifier of the deleted
   mailbox MUST be preserved so that a new mailbox created with the same
   name will not reuse the identifiers of the former incarnation, UNLESS
   the new incarnation has a different unique identifier validity value.
   See the description of the UID command for more detail.

      Examples:   C: A682 LIST "" *
                  S: * LIST () "/" blurdybloop
                  S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" foo
                  S: * LIST () "/" foo/bar
                  S: A682 OK LIST completed
                  C: A683 DELETE blurdybloop
                  S: A683 OK DELETE completed
                  C: A684 DELETE foo
                  S: A684 NO Name "foo" has inferior hierarchical names
                  C: A685 DELETE foo/bar
                  S: A685 OK DELETE Completed
                  C: A686 LIST "" *
                  S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" foo
                  S: A686 OK LIST completed
                  C: A687 DELETE foo
                  S: A687 OK DELETE 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

6.3.6.  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



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               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 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".

   If the server's hierarchy separator character appears in the name,
   the server SHOULD create any superior hierarchical names that are
   needed for the RENAME command to complete successfully.  In other
   words, an attempt to rename "foo/bar/zap" to baz/rag/zowie on a
   server in which "/" is the hierarchy separator character SHOULD
   create baz/ and baz/rag/ if they do not already exist.

   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.  (Note that
   some servers refuse renaming INBOX).  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.




















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      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

                  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

   Note that renaming a mailbox doesn't update subscription information
   on the original name.  To keep subscription information in sync, the
   following sequence of commands can be used:

      C: 1001 RENAME X Y
      C: 1002 SUBSCRIBE Y
      C: 1003 UNSUBSCRIBE X

   Note that the above sequence of commands doesn't account for updating
   subscription for any children mailboxes of mailbox X.

6.3.7.  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




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   The SUBSCRIBE command adds the specified mailbox name to the server's
   set of "active" or "subscribed" mailboxes as returned by the LIST
   (SUBSCRIBED) command.  This command returns a tagged OK response if
   the subscription is successful or if the mailbox is already
   subscribed.

   A server MAY validate the mailbox argument to SUBSCRIBE to verify
   that it exists.  However, it SHOULD 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 a server site can choose to
      routinely remove a mailbox with a well-known name (e.g., "system-
      alerts") after its contents expire, with the intention of
      recreating it when new contents are appropriate.

      Example:    C: A002 SUBSCRIBE #news.comp.mail.mime
                  S: A002 OK SUBSCRIBE completed

6.3.8.  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
   LIST (SUBSCRIBED) command.  This command returns a tagged OK response
   if the unsubscription is successful or if the mailbox is not
   subscribed.

      Example:    C: A002 UNSUBSCRIBE #news.comp.mail.mime
                  S: A002 OK UNSUBSCRIBE completed

6.3.9.  LIST Command

   Arguments (basic):  reference name
               mailbox name with possible wildcards

   Arguments (extended):  selection options (OPTIONAL)
               reference name
               mailbox patterns
               return options (OPTIONAL)




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   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, name, and possible extension information; 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 the
   \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!

   The extended LIST command, originally introduced in [RFC5258],
   provides capabilities beyond that of the original IMAP LIST command.
   The extended syntax is being used if one or more of the following
   conditions is true:

   1.  if the first word after the command name begins with a
       parenthesis ("LIST selection options")

   2.  if the second word after the command name begins with a
       parenthesis ("multiple mailbox patterns")

   3.  if the LIST command has more than 2 parameters ("LIST return
       options")

   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(s).  A non-empty
   reference name argument is the name of a mailbox or a level of
   mailbox hierarchy, and indicates the context in which the mailbox
   name is interpreted.  Clients SHOULD use the empty reference
   argument.

   In the basic syntax only, 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 the empty string if the reference is non-rooted or is an
   empty string.  In all cases, a hierarchy delimiter (or NIL if there
   is no hierarchy) is returned.  This permits a client to get the
   hierarchy delimiter (or find out that the mailbox names are flat)
   even when no mailboxes by that name currently exist.



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   In the extended syntax, any mailbox name arguments that are empty
   strings are ignored.  There is no special meaning for empty mailbox
   names when the extended syntax is used.

   The reference and mailbox name arguments are interpreted into a
   canonical form that represents an unambiguous left-to-right
   hierarchy.  The returned mailbox names will be in the interpreted
   form, that we call "canonical LIST pattern" later in this document.
   To define the term "canonical LIST pattern" formally: it refers to
   the canonical pattern constructed internally by the server from the
   reference and mailbox name arguments.

      Note: The interpretation of the reference argument is
      implementation-defined.  It depends upon whether the server
      implementation has a concept of the "current working directory"
      and leading "break out characters", which override the current
      working directory.

      For example, on a server which exports a UNIX or NT filesystem,
      the reference argument contains the current working directory, and
      the mailbox name argument would contain the name as interpreted in
      the current working directory.

      If a server implementation has no concept of break out characters,
      the canonical form is normally the reference name appended with
      the mailbox name.  Note that if the server implements the
      namespace convention (Section 5.1.2.1), "#" is a break out
      character and must be treated as such.

      If the reference argument is not a level of mailbox hierarchy
      (that is, it is a \NoInferiors name), and/or the reference
      argument does not end with the hierarchy delimiter, it is
      implementation-dependent how this is interpreted.  For example, a
      reference of "foo/bar" and mailbox name of "rag/baz" could be
      interpreted as "foo/bar/rag/baz", "foo/barrag/baz", or "foo/rag/
      baz".  A client SHOULD NOT use such a reference argument except at
      the explicit request of the user.  A hierarchical browser MUST NOT
      make any assumptions about server interpretation of the reference
      unless the reference is a level of mailbox hierarchy AND ends with
      the hierarchy delimiter.

   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



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   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).

   If multiple mailbox patterns are used (in the extended syntax), a
   mailbox matches if it matches at least one mailbox pattern.  If a
   mailbox matches more than one pattern, it is still only returned
   once.  Any syntactically valid pattern that is not accepted by a
   server for any reason MUST be silently ignored.

   Selection options tell the server to limit the mailbox names that are
   selected by the LIST operation.  If selection options are used, the
   mailboxes returned are those that match both the list of canonical
   LIST patterns and the selection options.  Unless a particular
   selection option provides special rules, the selection options are
   cumulative: a mailbox that matches the mailbox patterns is selected
   only if it also matches all of the selection options.  (An example of
   a selection option with special rules is the RECURSIVEMATCH option.)

   Return options control what information is returned for each matched
   mailbox.  Return options MUST NOT cause the server to report



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   information about additional mailbox names other than those that
   match the canonical LIST patterns and selection options.  If no
   return options are specified, the client is only expecting
   information about mailbox attributes.  The server MAY return other
   information about the matched mailboxes, and clients MUST be able to
   handle that situation.

   Initial selection options and return options are defined in the
   following subsections, and new ones will also be defined in
   extensions.  Initial options defined in this document MUST be
   supported.  Each non-initial option will be enabled by a capability
   string (one capability may enable multiple options), and a client
   MUST NOT send an option for which the server has not advertised
   support.  A server MUST respond to options it does not recognize with
   a BAD response.  The client SHOULD NOT specify any option more than
   once; however, if the client does this, the server MUST act as if it
   received the option only once.  The order in which options are
   specified by the client is not significant.

   In general, each selection option except RECURSIVEMATCH will have a
   corresponding return option.  The REMOTE selection option is an
   anomaly in this regard, and does not have a corresponding return
   option.  That is because it expands, rather than restricts, the set
   of mailboxes that are returned.  Future extensions to this
   specification should keep parallelism in mind and define a pair of
   corresponding options.

   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.

6.3.9.1.  LIST Selection Options

   The selection options defined in this specification are as follows:

   SUBSCRIBED -  causes the LIST command to list subscribed names,
      rather than the existing mailboxes.  This will often be a subset
      of the actual mailboxes.  It's also possible for this list to
      contain the names of mailboxes that don't exist.  In any case, the



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      list MUST include exactly those mailbox names that match the
      canonical list pattern and are subscribed to.

      This option defines a mailbox attribute, "\Subscribed", that
      indicates that a mailbox name is subscribed to.  The "\Subscribed"
      attribute MUST be supported and MUST be accurately computed when
      the SUBSCRIBED selection option is specified.

      Note that the SUBSCRIBED selection option implies the SUBSCRIBED
      return option (see below).

   REMOTE -  causes the LIST command to show remote mailboxes as well as
      local ones, as described in [RFC2193].  This option is intended to
      replace the RLIST command and, in conjunction with the SUBSCRIBED
      selection option, the RLSUB command.  Servers that don't support
      remote mailboxes just ignore this option.

      This option defines a mailbox attribute, "\Remote", that indicates
      that a mailbox is a remote mailbox.  The "\Remote" attribute MUST
      be accurately computed when the REMOTE option is specified.

      The REMOTE selection option has no interaction with other options.
      Its effect is to tell the server to apply the other options, if
      any, to remote mailboxes, in addition to local ones.  In
      particular, it has no interaction with RECURSIVEMATCH (see below).
      A request for (REMOTE RECURSIVEMATCH) is invalid, because a
      request for (RECURSIVEMATCH) is also invalid.  A request for
      (REMOTE RECURSIVEMATCH SUBSCRIBED) is asking for all subscribed
      mailboxes, both local and remote.

   RECURSIVEMATCH -  this option forces the server to return information
      about parent mailboxes that don't match other selection options,
      but have some submailboxes that do.  Information about children is
      returned in the CHILDINFO extended data item, as described in
      Section 6.3.9.6.

      Note 1: In order for a parent mailbox to be returned, it still has
      to match the canonical LIST pattern.

      Note 2: When returning the CHILDINFO extended data item, it
      doesn't matter whether or not the submailbox matches the canonical
      LIST pattern.  See also example 9 in Section 6.3.9.7.

      The RECURSIVEMATCH option MUST NOT occur as the only selection
      option (or only with REMOTE), as it only makes sense when other
      selection options are also used.  The server MUST return BAD
      tagged response in such case.




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      Note that even if the RECURSIVEMATCH option is specified, the
      client MUST still be able to handle a case when a CHILDINFO
      extended data item is returned and there are no submailboxes that
      meet the selection criteria of the subsequent LIST command, as
      they can be deleted/renamed after the LIST response was sent, but
      before the client had a chance to access them.

6.3.9.2.  LIST Return Options

   The return options defined in this specification are as follows:

   SUBSCRIBED -  causes the LIST command to return subscription state
      for all matching mailbox names.  The "\Subscribed" attribute MUST
      be supported and MUST be accurately computed when the SUBSCRIBED
      return option is specified.  Further, all mailbox flags MUST be
      accurately computed (this differs from the behavior of the
      obsolete LSUB command from IMAP4rev1).


   CHILDREN -  requests mailbox child information as originally proposed
      in [RFC3348].  See Section 6.3.9.5, below, for details.  This
      option MUST be supported by all servers.

   STATUS -  requests STATUS response for each matching mailbox.

         This option takes STATUS data items as parameters.  For each
         selectable mailbox matching the list pattern and selection
         options, the server MUST return an untagged LIST response
         followed by an untagged STATUS response containing the
         information requested in the STATUS return option.

         If an attempted STATUS for a listed mailbox fails because the
         mailbox can't be selected (e.g., if the "l" ACL right [RFC4314]
         is granted to the mailbox and the "r" right is not granted, or
         due to a race condition between LIST and STATUS changing the
         mailbox to \NoSelect), the STATUS response MUST NOT be returned
         and the LIST response MUST include the \NoSelect attribute.
         This means the server may have to buffer the LIST reply until
         it has successfully looked up the necessary STATUS information.

         If the server runs into unexpected problems while trying to
         look up the STATUS information, it MAY drop the corresponding
         STATUS reply.  In such a situation, the LIST command would
         still return a tagged OK reply.







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6.3.9.3.  General Principles for Returning LIST Responses

   This section outlines several principles that can be used by server
   implementations of this document to decide whether a LIST response
   should be returned, as well as how many responses and what kind of
   information they may contain.

   1.  At most one LIST response should be returned for each mailbox
       name that matches the canonical LIST pattern.  Server
       implementors must not assume that clients will be able to
       assemble mailbox attributes and other information returned in
       multiple LIST responses.

   2.  There are only two reasons for including a matching mailbox name
       in the responses to the LIST command (note that the server is
       allowed to return unsolicited responses at any time, and such
       responses are not governed by this rule):

       A.  The mailbox name also satisfies the selection criteria.

       B.  The mailbox name doesn't satisfy the selection criteria, but
           it has at least one descendant mailbox name that satisfies
           the selection criteria and that doesn't match the canonical
           LIST pattern.

           For more information on this case, see the CHILDINFO extended
           data item described in Section 6.3.9.6.  Note that the
           CHILDINFO extended data item can only be returned when the
           RECURSIVEMATCH selection option is specified.

   3.  Attributes returned in the same LIST response must be treated
       additively.  For example, the following response

          S: * LIST (\Subscribed \NonExistent) "/" "Fruit/Peach"

       means that the "Fruit/Peach" mailbox doesn't exist, but it is
       subscribed.

6.3.9.4.  Additional LIST-related Requirements on Clients

   All clients MUST treat a LIST attribute with a stronger meaning as
   implying any attribute that can be inferred from it.  (See
   Section 7.2.3 for the list of currently defined attributes).  For
   example, the client must treat the presence of the \NoInferiors
   attribute as if the \HasNoChildren attribute was also sent by the
   server.





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              The following table summarizes inference rules.

                +--------------------+-------------------+
                | returned attribute | implied attribute |
                +--------------------+-------------------+
                |    \NoInferiors    |   \HasNoChildren  |
                |    \NonExistent    |     \NoSelect     |
                +--------------------+-------------------+

6.3.9.5.  The CHILDREN Return Option

   The CHILDREN return option implements the Child Mailbox Extension,
   originally proposed by Mike Gahrns and Raymond Cheng, of Microsoft
   Corporation.  Most of the information in this section is taken
   directly from their original specification [RFC3348].  The CHILDREN
   return option is simply an indication that the client wants this
   information; a server MAY provide it even if the option is not
   specified.

   Many IMAP4 clients present to the user a hierarchical view of the
   mailboxes that a user has access to.  Rather than initially
   presenting to the user the entire mailbox hierarchy, it is often
   preferable to show to the user a collapsed outline list of the
   mailbox hierarchy (particularly if there is a large number of
   mailboxes).  The user can then expand the collapsed outline hierarchy
   as needed.  It is common to include within the collapsed hierarchy a
   visual clue (such as a ''+'') to indicate that there are child
   mailboxes under a particular mailbox.  When the visual clue is
   clicked, the hierarchy list is expanded to show the child mailboxes.
   The CHILDREN return option provides a mechanism for a client to
   efficiently determine whether a particular mailbox has children,
   without issuing a LIST "" * or a LIST "" % for each mailbox name.
   The CHILDREN return option defines two new attributes that MUST be
   returned within a LIST response: \HasChildren and \HasNoChildren.
   Although these attributes MAY be returned in response to any LIST
   command, the CHILDREN return option is provided to indicate that the
   client particularly wants this information.  If the CHILDREN return
   option is present, the server MUST return these attributes even if
   their computation is expensive.

   \HasChildren

        The presence of this attribute indicates that the mailbox has
        child mailboxes.  A server SHOULD NOT set this attribute if
        there are child mailboxes and the user does not have permission
        to access any of them.  In this case, \HasNoChildren SHOULD be
        used.  In many cases, however, a server may not be able to
        efficiently compute whether a user has access to any child



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        mailbox.  Note that even though the \HasChildren attribute for a
        mailbox must be correct at the time of processing of the
        mailbox, a client must be prepared to deal with a situation when
        a mailbox is marked with the \HasChildren attribute, but no
        child mailbox appears in the response to the LIST command.  This
        might happen, for example, due to children mailboxes being
        deleted or made inaccessible to the user (using access control)
        by another client before the server is able to list them.

   \HasNoChildren

        The presence of this attribute indicates that the mailbox has NO
        child mailboxes that are accessible to the currently
        authenticated user.

   It is an error for the server to return both a \HasChildren and a
   \HasNoChildren attribute in the same LIST response.

   Note: the \HasNoChildren attribute should not be confused with the
   the \NoInferiors attribute, which indicates that no child mailboxes
   exist now and none can be created in the future.

6.3.9.6.  CHILDINFO Extended Data Item

   The CHILDINFO extended data item MUST NOT be returned unless the
   client has specified the RECURSIVEMATCH selection option.

   The CHILDINFO extended data item in a LIST response describes the
   selection criteria that has caused it to be returned and indicates
   that the mailbox has at least one descendant mailbox that matches the
   selection criteria.

   Note: Some servers allow for mailboxes to exist without requiring
   their parent to exist.  For example, a mailbox "Customers/ABC" can
   exist while the mailbox "Customers" does not.  As CHILDINFO extended
   data item is not allowed if the RECURSIVEMATCH selection option is
   not specified, such servers SHOULD use the "\NonExistent
   \HasChildren" attribute pair to signal to the client that there is a
   descendant mailbox that matches the selection criteria.  See example
   11 in Section 6.3.9.7.

   The returned selection criteria allow the client to distinguish a
   solicited response from an unsolicited one, as well as to distinguish
   among solicited responses caused by multiple pipelined LIST commands
   that specify different criteria.






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   Servers SHOULD ONLY return a non-matching mailbox name along with
   CHILDINFO if at least one matching child is not also being returned.
   That is, servers SHOULD suppress redundant CHILDINFO responses.

   Examples 8 and 10 in Section 6.3.9.7 demonstrate the difference
   between present CHILDINFO extended data item and the "\HasChildren"
   attribute.

   The following table summarizes interaction between the "\NonExistent"
      attribute and CHILDINFO (the first column indicates whether the
                          parent mailbox exists):

   +--------+--------------+--------------------+----------------------+
   | exists |  meets the   |  has a child that  |    returned LIST-    |
   |        |  selection   |     meets the      | EXTENDED attributes  |
   |        |   criteria   | selection criteria |    and CHILDINFO     |
   +--------+--------------+--------------------+----------------------+
   |   no   |      no      |         no         |   no LIST response   |
   |        |              |                    |       returned       |
   |  yes   |      no      |         no         |   no LIST response   |
   |        |              |                    |       returned       |
   |   no   |     yes      |         no         |    (\NonExistent     |
   |        |              |                    |       <attr>)        |
   |  yes   |     yes      |         no         |       (<attr>)       |
   |   no   |      no      |        yes         |   (\NonExistent) +   |
   |        |              |                    |      CHILDINFO       |
   |  yes   |      no      |        yes         |    () + CHILDINFO    |
   |   no   |     yes      |        yes         |    (\NonExistent     |
   |        |              |                    | <attr>) + CHILDINFO  |
   |  yes   |     yes      |        yes         | (<attr>) + CHILDINFO |
   +--------+--------------+--------------------+----------------------+

       where <attr> is one or more attributes that correspond to the
   selection criteria; for example, for the SUBSCRIBED option the <attr>
                              is \Subscribed.

6.3.9.7.  LIST Command Examples

   This example shows some uses of the basic LIST command:












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      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

   Extended examples:

   1:   The first example shows the complete local hierarchy that will
        be used for the other examples.

      C: A01 LIST "" "*"
      S: * LIST (\Marked \NoInferiors) "/" "inbox"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Fruit"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Fruit/Apple"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Fruit/Banana"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Tofu"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Vegetable"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Vegetable/Broccoli"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Vegetable/Corn"
      S: A01 OK done

   2:   In the next example, we will see the subscribed mailboxes.  This
        is similar to, but not equivalent with, <LSUB "" "*">.  Note
        that the mailbox called "Fruit/Peach" is subscribed to, but does
        not actually exist (perhaps it was deleted while still
        subscribed).  The "Fruit" mailbox is not subscribed to, but it
        has two subscribed children.  The "Vegetable" mailbox is
        subscribed and has two children; one of them is subscribed as
        well.

      C: A02 LIST (SUBSCRIBED) "" "*"
      S: * LIST (\Marked \NoInferiors \Subscribed) "/" "inbox"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "Fruit/Banana"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed \NonExistent) "/" "Fruit/Peach"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "Vegetable"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "Vegetable/Broccoli"
      S: A02 OK done





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   3:   The next example shows the use of the CHILDREN option.  The
        client, without having to list the second level of hierarchy,
        now knows which of the top-level mailboxes have submailboxes
        (children) and which do not.  Note that it's not necessary for
        the server to return the \HasNoChildren attribute for the inbox,
        because the \NoInferiors attribute already implies that, and has
        a stronger meaning.

      C: A03 LIST () "" "%" RETURN (CHILDREN)
      S: * LIST (\Marked \NoInferiors) "/" "inbox"
      S: * LIST (\HasChildren) "/" "Fruit"
      S: * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "Tofu"
      S: * LIST (\HasChildren) "/" "Vegetable"
      S: A03 OK done

   4:   In this example, we see more mailboxes that reside on another
        server.  This is similar to the command <RLIST "" "%">.

      C: A04 LIST (REMOTE) "" "%" RETURN (CHILDREN)
      S: * LIST (\Marked \NoInferiors) "/" "inbox"
      S: * LIST (\HasChildren) "/" "Fruit"
      S: * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "Tofu"
      S: * LIST (\HasChildren) "/" "Vegetable"
      S: * LIST (\Remote) "/" "Bread"
      S: * LIST (\HasChildren \Remote) "/" "Meat"
      S: A04 OK done

   5:   The following example also requests the server to include
        mailboxes that reside on another server.  The server returns
        information about all mailboxes that are subscribed.  This is
        similar to the command <RLSUB "" "*">.  We also see the use of
        two selection options.

      C: A05 LIST (REMOTE SUBSCRIBED) "" "*"
      S: * LIST (\Marked \NoInferiors \Subscribed) "/" "inbox"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "Fruit/Banana"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed \NonExistent) "/" "Fruit/Peach"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "Vegetable"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "Vegetable/Broccoli"
      S: * LIST (\Remote \Subscribed) "/" "Bread"
      S: A05 OK done

   6:   The following example requests the server to include mailboxes
        that reside on another server.  The server is asked to return
        subscription information for all returned mailboxes.  This is
        different from the example above.





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        Note that the output of this command is not a superset of the
        output in the previous example, as it doesn't include LIST
        response for the non-existent "Fruit/Peach".

      C: A06 LIST (REMOTE) "" "*" RETURN (SUBSCRIBED)
      S: * LIST (\Marked \NoInferiors \Subscribed) "/" "inbox"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Fruit"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Fruit/Apple"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "Fruit/Banana"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Tofu"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "Vegetable"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "Vegetable/Broccoli"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Vegetable/Corn"
      S: * LIST (\Remote \Subscribed) "/" "Bread"
      S: * LIST (\Remote) "/" "Meat"
      S: A06 OK done

   7:   In the following example, the client has specified multiple
        mailbox patterns.  Note that this example does not use the
        mailbox hierarchy used in the previous examples.

      C: BBB LIST "" ("INBOX" "Drafts" "Sent/%")
      S: * LIST () "/" "INBOX"
      S: * LIST (\NoInferiors) "/" "Drafts"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Sent/March2004"
      S: * LIST (\Marked) "/" "Sent/December2003"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Sent/August2004"
      S: BBB OK done

   8:   The following example demonstrates the difference between the
        \HasChildren attribute and the CHILDINFO extended data item.

        Let's assume there is the following hierarchy:

      C: C01 LIST "" "*"
      S: * LIST (\Marked \NoInferiors) "/" "inbox"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Foo"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Foo/Bar"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Foo/Baz"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Moo"
      S: C01 OK done

        If the client asks RETURN (CHILDREN), it will get this:








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      C: CA3 LIST "" "%" RETURN (CHILDREN)
      S: * LIST (\Marked \NoInferiors) "/" "inbox"
      S: * LIST (\HasChildren) "/" "Foo"
      S: * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "Moo"
      S: CA3 OK done

        A) Let's also assume that the mailbox "Foo/Baz" is the only
        subscribed mailbox.  Then we get this result:

      C: C02 LIST (SUBSCRIBED) "" "*"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "Foo/Baz"
      S: C02 OK done

        Now, if the client issues <LIST (SUBSCRIBED) "" "%">, the server
        will return no mailboxes (as the mailboxes "Moo", "Foo", and
        "Inbox" are NOT subscribed).  However, if the client issues
        this:

      C: C04 LIST (SUBSCRIBED RECURSIVEMATCH) "" "%"
      S: * LIST () "/" "Foo" ("CHILDINFO" ("SUBSCRIBED"))
      S: C04 OK done

        (i.e., the mailbox "Foo" is not subscribed, but it has a child
        that is.)

        A1) If the mailbox "Foo" had also been subscribed, the last
        command would return this:

      C: C04 LIST (SUBSCRIBED RECURSIVEMATCH) "" "%"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "Foo" ("CHILDINFO" ("SUBSCRIBED"))
      S: C04 OK done

        or even this:

      C: C04 LIST (SUBSCRIBED RECURSIVEMATCH) "" "%"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed \HasChildren) "/" "Foo" ("CHILDINFO"
         ("SUBSCRIBED"))
      S: C04 OK done

        A2) If we assume instead that the mailbox "Foo" is not part of
        the original hierarchy and is not subscribed, the last command
        will give this result:

      C: C04 LIST (SUBSCRIBED RECURSIVEMATCH) "" "%"
      S: * LIST (\NonExistent) "/" "Foo" ("CHILDINFO" ("SUBSCRIBED"))
      S: C04 OK done





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        B) Now, let's assume that no mailbox is subscribed.  In this
        case, the command <LIST (SUBSCRIBED RECURSIVEMATCH) "" "%"> will
        return no responses, as there are no subscribed children (even
        though "Foo" has children).

        C) And finally, suppose that only the mailboxes "Foo" and "Moo"
        are subscribed.  In that case, we see this result:

      C: C04 LIST (SUBSCRIBED RECURSIVEMATCH) "" "%" RETURN (CHILDREN)
      S: * LIST (\HasChildren \Subscribed) "/" "Foo"
      S: * LIST (\HasNoChildren \Subscribed) "/" "Moo"
      S: C04 OK done

        (which means that the mailbox "Foo" has children, but none of
        them is subscribed).

   9:   The following example demonstrates that the CHILDINFO extended
        data item is returned whether or not children mailboxes match
        the canonical LIST pattern.

        Let's assume there is the following hierarchy:

      C: D01 LIST "" "*"
      S: * LIST (\Marked \NoInferiors) "/" "inbox"
      S: * LIST () "/" "foo2"
      S: * LIST () "/" "foo2/bar1"
      S: * LIST () "/" "foo2/bar2"
      S: * LIST () "/" "baz2"
      S: * LIST () "/" "baz2/bar2"
      S: * LIST () "/" "baz2/bar22"
      S: * LIST () "/" "baz2/bar222"
      S: * LIST () "/" "eps2"
      S: * LIST () "/" "eps2/mamba"
      S: * LIST () "/" "qux2/bar2"
      S: D01 OK done

        And that the following mailboxes are subscribed:

      C: D02 LIST (SUBSCRIBED) "" "*"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "foo2/bar1"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "foo2/bar2"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "baz2/bar2"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "baz2/bar22"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "baz2/bar222"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "eps2"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "eps2/mamba"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "qux2/bar2"
      S: D02 OK done



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        The client issues the following command first:

      C: D03 LIST (RECURSIVEMATCH SUBSCRIBED) "" "*2"
      S: * LIST () "/" "foo2" ("CHILDINFO" ("SUBSCRIBED"))
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "foo2/bar2"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "baz2/bar2"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "baz2/bar22"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "baz2/bar222"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "eps2" ("CHILDINFO" ("SUBSCRIBED"))
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "qux2/bar2"
      S: D03 OK done

        and the server may also include (but this would violate a SHOULD
        NOT in Section 3.5, because CHILDINFO is redundant)

      S: * LIST () "/" "baz2" ("CHILDINFO" ("SUBSCRIBED"))
      S: * LIST (\NonExistent) "/" "qux2" ("CHILDINFO" ("SUBSCRIBED"))

        The CHILDINFO extended data item is returned for mailboxes
        "foo2", "baz2", and "eps2", because all of them have subscribed
        children, even though for the mailbox "foo2" only one of the two
        subscribed children matches the pattern, for the mailbox "baz2"
        all the subscribed children match the pattern, and for the
        mailbox "eps2" none of the subscribed children matches the
        pattern.

        Note that if the client issues

      C: D03 LIST (RECURSIVEMATCH SUBSCRIBED) "" "*"
      S: * LIST () "/" "foo2" ("CHILDINFO" ("SUBSCRIBED"))
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "foo2/bar1"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "foo2/bar2"
      S: * LIST () "/" "baz2" ("CHILDINFO" ("SUBSCRIBED"))
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "baz2/bar2"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "baz2/bar22"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "baz2/bar222"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "eps2" ("CHILDINFO" ("SUBSCRIBED"))
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "eps2/mamba"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "/" "qux2/bar2"
      S: D03 OK done

        The LIST responses for mailboxes "foo2", "baz2", and "eps2"
        still have the CHILDINFO extended data item, even though this
        information is redundant and the client can determine it by
        itself.

   10:  The following example shows usage of extended syntax for mailbox
        pattern.  It also demonstrates that the presence of the



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        CHILDINFO extended data item doesn't necessarily imply
        \HasChildren.

      C: a1 LIST "" ("foo")
      S: * LIST () "/" foo
      S: a1 OK done

      C: a2 LIST (SUBSCRIBED) "" "foo/*"
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed \NonExistent) "/" foo/bar
      S: a2 OK done

      C: a3 LIST (SUBSCRIBED RECURSIVEMATCH) "" foo RETURN (CHILDREN)
      S: * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" foo ("CHILDINFO" ("SUBSCRIBED"))
      S: a3 OK done

   11:  The following example shows how a server that supports missing
        mailbox hierarchy elements can signal to a client that didn't
        specify the RECURSIVEMATCH selection option that there is a
        child mailbox that matches the selection criteria.

      C: a1 LIST (REMOTE) "" *
      S: * LIST () "/" music/rock
      S: * LIST (\Remote) "/" also/jazz
      S: a1 OK done

      C: a2 LIST () "" %
      S: * LIST (\NonExistent \HasChildren) "/" music
      S: a2 OK done

      C: a3 LIST (REMOTE) "" %
      S: * LIST (\NonExistent \HasChildren) "/" music
      S: * LIST (\NonExistent \HasChildren) "/" also
      S: a3 OK done

      C: a3.1 LIST "" (% music/rock)
      S: * LIST () "/" music/rock
      S: a3.1 OK done

        Because "music/rock" is the only mailbox under "music", there's
        no need for the server to also return "music".  However clients
        must handle both cases.

   12:  The following examples show use of STATUS return option.








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      C: A01 LIST "" % RETURN (STATUS (MESSAGES UNSEEN))
      S: * LIST () "."  "INBOX"
      S: * STATUS "INBOX" (MESSAGES 17 UNSEEN 16)
      S: * LIST () "." "foo"
      S: * STATUS "foo" (MESSAGES 30 UNSEEN 29)
      S: * LIST (\NoSelect) "." "bar"
      S: A01 OK List completed.

        The "bar" mailbox isn't selectable, so it has no STATUS reply.

      C: A02 LIST (SUBSCRIBED RECURSIVEMATCH) "" % RETURN (STATUS
          (MESSAGES))
      S: * LIST (\Subscribed) "."  "INBOX"
      S: * STATUS "INBOX" (MESSAGES 17)
      S: * LIST () "." "foo" (CHILDINFO ("SUBSCRIBED"))
      S: A02 OK List completed.

        The LIST reply for "foo" is returned because it has matching
        children, but no STATUS reply is returned because "foo" itself
        doesn't match the selection criteria.

6.3.10.  NAMESPACE Command

   Arguments:  none

   Responses:  REQUIRED untagged responses: NAMESPACE

   Result:     OK - command completed
               NO - Can't complete the command
               BAD - arguments invalid

   The NAMESPACE command causes a single ungagged NAMESPACE response to
   be returned.  The untagged NAMESPACE response contains the prefix and
   hierarchy delimiter to the server's Personal Namespace(s), Other
   Users' Namespace(s), and Shared Namespace(s) that the server wishes
   to expose.  The response will contain a NIL for any namespace class
   that is not available.  Namespace-Response-Extensions ABNF non
   terminal is defined for extensibility and MAY be included in the
   response.

   Example 1:

   In this example a server supports a single personal namespace.  No
   leading prefix is used on personal mailboxes and "/" is the hierarchy
   delimiter.






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                  C: A001 NAMESPACE
                  S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) NIL NIL
                  S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed

   Example 2:

   A user logged on anonymously to a server.  No personal mailboxes are
   associated with the anonymous user and the user does not have access
   to the Other Users' Namespace.  No prefix is required to access
   shared mailboxes and the hierarchy delimiter is "."

                  C: A001 NAMESPACE
                  S: * NAMESPACE NIL NIL (("" "."))
                  S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed

   Example 3:

   A server that contains a Personal Namespace and a single Shared
   Namespace.

                 C: A001 NAMESPACE
                 S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) NIL (("Public Folders/" "/"))
                 S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed

   Example 4:

   A server that contains a Personal Namespace, Other Users' Namespace
   and multiple Shared Namespaces.  Note that the hierarchy delimiter
   used within each namespace can be different.

                 C: A001 NAMESPACE
                 S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) (("~" "/")) (("#shared/" "/")
                     ("#public/" "/")("#ftp/" "/")("#news." "."))
                 S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed

   The prefix string allows a client to do things such as automatically
   creating personal mailboxes or LISTing all available mailboxes within
   a namespace.

   Example 5:

   A server that supports only the Personal Namespace, with a leading
   prefix of INBOX to personal mailboxes and a hierarchy delimiter of
   "."







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                  C: A001 NAMESPACE
                  S: * NAMESPACE (("INBOX." ".")) NIL  NIL
                  S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed

                  < Automatically create a mailbox to store sent items.>

                  C: A002 CREATE "INBOX.Sent Mail"
                  S: A002 OK CREATE command completed

   Although typically a server will support only a single Personal
   Namespace, and a single Other User's Namespace, circumstances exist
   where there MAY be multiples of these, and a client MUST be prepared
   for them.  If a client is configured such that it is required to
   create a certain mailbox, there can be circumstances where it is
   unclear which Personal Namespaces it should create the mailbox in.
   In these situations a client SHOULD let the user select which
   namespaces to create the mailbox in or just use the first personal
   namespace.

   Example 6:

   In this example, a server supports 2 Personal Namespaces.  In
   addition to the regular Personal Namespace, the user has an
   additional personal namespace to allow access to mailboxes in an MH
   format mailstore.

   The client is configured to save a copy of all mail sent by the user
   into a mailbox called 'Sent Mail'.  Furthermore, after a message is
   deleted from a mailbox, the client is configured to move that message
   to a mailbox called 'Deleted Items'.

   Note that this example demonstrates how some extension flags can be
   passed to further describe the #mh namespace.


















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                  C: A001 NAMESPACE
                  S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")("#mh/" "/" "X-PARAM"
                      ("FLAG1" "FLAG2"))) NIL NIL
                  S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed

                  < It is desired to keep only one copy of sent mail.
                    It is unclear which Personal Namespace the client
                    should use to create the 'Sent Mail' mailbox.
                    The user is prompted to select a namespace and only
                    one 'Sent Mail' mailbox is created. >

                  C: A002 CREATE "Sent Mail"
                  S: A002 OK CREATE command completed

                  < The client is designed so that it keeps two
                  'Deleted Items' mailboxes, one for each namespace. >

                  C: A003 CREATE "Delete Items"
                  S: A003 OK CREATE command completed

                  C: A004 CREATE "#mh/Deleted Items"
                  S: A004 OK CREATE command completed

   The next level of hierarchy following the Other Users' Namespace
   prefix SHOULD consist of <username>, where <username> is a user name
   as per the LOGIN or AUTHENTICATE command.

   A client can construct a LIST command by appending a "%" to the Other
   Users' Namespace prefix to discover the Personal Namespaces of other
   users that are available to the currently authenticated user.

   In response to such a LIST command, a server SHOULD NOT return user
   names that have not granted access to their personal mailboxes to the
   user in question.

   A server MAY return a LIST response containing only the names of
   users that have explicitly granted access to the user in question.

   Alternatively, a server MAY return NO to such a LIST command,
   requiring that a user name be included with the Other Users'
   Namespace prefix before listing any other user's mailboxes.

   Example 7:

   A server that supports providing a list of other user's mailboxes
   that are accessible to the currently logged on user.





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                  C: A001 NAMESPACE
                  S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) (("Other Users/" "/")) NIL
                  S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed

                  C: A002 LIST "" "Other Users/%"
                  S: * LIST () "/" "Other Users/Mike"
                  S: * LIST () "/" "Other Users/Karen"
                  S: * LIST () "/" "Other Users/Matthew"
                  S: * LIST () "/" "Other Users/Tesa"
                  S: A002 OK LIST command completed

   Example 8:

   A server that does not support providing a list of other user's
   mailboxes that are accessible to the currently logged on user.  The
   mailboxes are listable if the client includes the name of the other
   user with the Other Users' Namespace prefix.

         C: A001 NAMESPACE
         S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) (("#Users/" "/")) NIL
         S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed

         < In this example, the currently logged on user has access to
           the Personal Namespace of user Mike, but the server chose to
           suppress this information in the LIST response.  However,
           by appending the user name Mike (received through user input)
           to the Other Users' Namespace prefix, the client is able
           to get a listing of the personal mailboxes of user Mike. >

         C: A002 LIST "" "#Users/%"
         S: A002 NO The requested item could not be found.

         C: A003 LIST "" "#Users/Mike/%"
         S: * LIST () "/" "#Users/Mike/INBOX"
         S: * LIST () "/" "#Users/Mike/Foo"
         S: A003 OK LIST command completed.

   A prefix string might not contain a hierarchy delimiter, because in
   some cases it is not needed as part of the prefix.

   Example 9:

   A server that allows access to the Other Users' Namespace by
   prefixing the others' mailboxes with a '~' followed by <username>,
   where <username> is a user name as per the LOGIN or AUTHENTICATE
   command.





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                  C: A001 NAMESPACE
                  S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) (("~" "/")) NIL
                  S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed

                  < List the mailboxes for user mark >

                  C: A002 LIST "" "~mark/%"
                  S: * LIST () "/" "~mark/INBOX"
                  S: * LIST () "/" "~mark/foo"
                  S: A002 OK LIST command completed

6.3.11.  STATUS Command

   Arguments:  mailbox name
               status data item names

   Responses:  REQUIRED 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.

   The STATUS command provides an alternative to opening a second
   IMAP4rev2 connection and doing an EXAMINE command on a mailbox to
   query that mailbox's status without deselecting the current mailbox
   in the first IMAP4rev2 connection.

   Unlike the LIST command, the STATUS command is not guaranteed to be
   fast in its response.  Under certain circumstances, it can be quite
   slow.  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.

      Note: The STATUS command is intended to access the status of
      mailboxes other than the currently selected mailbox.  Because the
      STATUS command can cause the mailbox to be opened internally, and
      because this information is available by other means on the
      selected mailbox, the STATUS command SHOULD NOT be used on the
      currently selected mailbox.  However, servers MUST be able to
      execute STATUS command on the selected mailbox.  (This might also
      implicitly happen when STATUS return option is used in a LIST
      command).




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      The STATUS command MUST NOT be used as a "check for new messages
      in the selected mailbox" operation (refer to sections Section 7,
      Section 7.3.1 for more information about the proper method for new
      message checking).

      STATUS SIZE (see below) can take a significant amount of time,
      depending upon server implementation.  Clients should use STATUS
      SIZE cautiously.

   The currently defined status data items that can be requested are:

   MESSAGES  The number of messages in the mailbox.

   UIDNEXT  The next unique identifier value of the mailbox.  Refer to
      Section 2.3.1.1 for more information.

   UIDVALIDITY  The unique identifier validity value of the mailbox.
      Refer to Section 2.3.1.1 for more information.

   UNSEEN  The number of messages which do not have the \Seen flag set.

   DELETED  The number of messages which have the \Deleted flag set.

   SIZE  The total size of the mailbox in octets.  This is not strictly
      required to be an exact value, but it MUST be equal to or greater
      than the sum of the values of the RFC822.SIZE FETCH message data
      items (see Section 6.4.5) of all messages in the mailbox.

      Example:    C: A042 STATUS blurdybloop (UIDNEXT MESSAGES)
                  S: * STATUS blurdybloop (MESSAGES 231 UIDNEXT 44292)
                  S: A042 OK STATUS completed

6.3.12.  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



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   be in the format of an [RFC-5322] or [I18N-HDRS] 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-5322] 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 to empty by default.

   If a date-time is specified, the internal date SHOULD be set in the
   resulting message; otherwise, the internal date of the resulting
   message is set to the current date and time by default.

   If the append is unsuccessful for any reason, the mailbox MUST be
   restored to its state before the APPEND attempt (other than possibly
   keeping the changed mailbox's UIDNEXT value); 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.

   On successful completion of an APPEND, the server SHOULD return an
   APPENDUID response code.

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

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

   If the server does not return the APPENDUID response codes, the
   client can discover this information by selecting the destination
   mailbox.  The location of messages placed in the destination mailbox
   by APPEND can be determined by using FETCH and/or SEARCH commands



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   (e.g., for Message-ID or some unique marker placed in the message in
   an APPEND).

   If the mailbox is currently selected, the normal new message 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 after one or more APPEND
   commands.

    Example:    C: A003 APPEND saved-messages (\Seen) {310}
                S: + Ready for literal data
                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





























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    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: * 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 that 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 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.

      Note: The APPEND command is not used for message delivery, because
      it does not provide a mechanism to transfer [SMTP] envelope
      information.

6.3.13.  IDLE Command

   Arguments:  none

   Responses:  continuation data will be requested; the client sends the
               continuation data "DONE" to end the command




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   Result:     OK - IDLE completed after client sent "DONE"
               NO - failure: the server will not allow the IDLE command
               at this time
               BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

   Without the IDLE command a client requires to poll the server for
   changes to the selected mailbox (new mail, deletions, flag changes).
   It's often more desirable to have the server transmit updates to the
   client in real time.  This allows a user to see new mail immediately.
   The IDLE command allows a client to tell the server that it's ready
   to accept such real-time updates.

   The IDLE command is sent from the client to the server when the
   client is ready to accept unsolicited update messages.  The server
   requests a response to the IDLE command using the continuation ("+")
   response.  The IDLE command remains active until the client responds
   to the continuation, and as long as an IDLE command is active, the
   server is now free to send untagged EXISTS, EXPUNGE, FETCH, and other
   responses at any time.  If the server choose to send unsolicited
   FETCH responses, they MUST include UID FETCH item.

   The IDLE command is terminated by the receipt of a "DONE"
   continuation from the client; such response satisfies the server's
   continuation request.  At that point, the server MAY send any
   remaining queued untagged responses and then MUST immediately send
   the tagged response to the IDLE command and prepare to process other
   commands.  As for other commands, the processing of any new command
   may cause the sending of unsolicited untagged responses, subject to
   the ambiguity limitations.  The client MUST NOT send a command while
   the server is waiting for the DONE, since the server will not be able
   to distinguish a command from a continuation.

   The server MAY consider a client inactive if it has an IDLE command
   running, and if such a server has an inactivity timeout it MAY log
   the client off implicitly at the end of its timeout period.  Because
   of that, clients using IDLE are advised to terminate the IDLE and re-
   issue it at least every 29 minutes to avoid being logged off.  This
   still allows a client to receive immediate mailbox updates even
   though it need only "poll" at half hour intervals.












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  Example:    C: A001 SELECT INBOX
              S: * FLAGS (\Deleted \Seen \Flagged)
              S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Deleted \Seen \Flagged)] Limited
              S: * 3 EXISTS
              S: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 1]
              S: A001 OK [READ-WRITE] SELECT completed
              C: A002 IDLE
              S: + idling
              ...time passes; new mail arrives...
              S: * 4 EXISTS
              C: DONE
              S: A002 OK IDLE terminated
              ...another client expunges message 2 now...
              C: A003 FETCH 4 ALL
              S: * 4 FETCH (...)
              S: A003 OK FETCH completed
              C: A004 IDLE
              S: * 2 EXPUNGE
              S: * 3 EXISTS
              S: + idling
              ...time passes; another client expunges message 3...
              S: * 3 EXPUNGE
              S: * 2 EXISTS
              ...time passes; new mail arrives...
              S: * 3 EXISTS
              C: DONE
              S: A004 OK IDLE terminated
              C: A005 FETCH 3 ALL
              S: * 3 FETCH (...)
              S: A005 OK FETCH completed
              C: A006 IDLE

6.4.  Client Commands - Selected State

   In the 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, NAMESPACE,
   CREATE, DELETE, RENAME, SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, LIST, STATUS, and
   APPEND), the following commands are valid in the selected state:
   CLOSE, UNSELECT, EXPUNGE, SEARCH, FETCH, STORE, COPY, MOVE, and UID.

6.4.1.  CLOSE Command

   Arguments:  none

   Responses:  no specific responses for this command



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   Result:     OK - close completed, now in authenticated state
               BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

   The CLOSE command permanently removes all messages that have the
   \Deleted flag set from the currently selected mailbox, and returns to
   the authenticated state from the 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 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

6.4.2.  UNSELECT Command

   Arguments:  none

   Responses:  no specific responses for this command

   Result:     OK - unselect completed, now in authenticated state
               BAD - no mailbox selected, or argument supplied but none
               permitted

   The UNSELECT command frees server's resources associated with the
   selected mailbox and returns the server to the authenticated state.
   This command performs the same actions as CLOSE, except that no
   messages are permanently removed from the currently selected mailbox.

      Example:    C: A342 UNSELECT
                  S: A342 OK Unselect completed

6.4.3.  EXPUNGE Command

   Arguments:  none

   Responses:  untagged responses: EXPUNGE

   Result:     OK - expunge completed



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               NO - expunge failure: can't expunge (e.g., permission
               denied)
               BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

   The EXPUNGE command permanently removes all messages that have the
   \Deleted flag set from the currently selected mailbox.  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 result specifier
               OPTIONAL [CHARSET] specification
               searching criteria (one or more)

   Responses:  OPTIONAL untagged response: ESEARCH

   Result:     OK - search completed
               NO - search error: can't search that [CHARSET] or
               criteria
               BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

   The SEARCH command searches the mailbox for messages that match the
   given searching criteria.

   The SEARCH command may contain result options.  Result options
   control what kind of information is returned about messages matching
   the search criteria in an untagged ESEARCH response.  If no result
   option is specified or empty list of options is specified "()", ALL
   is assumed (see below).  The order of individual options is
   arbitrary.  Individual options may contain parameters enclosed in
   parentheses (*).  If an option has parameters, they consist of atoms
   and/or strings and/or lists in a specific order.  Any options not
   defined by extensions that the server supports must be rejected with
   a BAD response.





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   (*) - if an option has a mandatory parameter, which can always be
   represented as a number or a sequence-set, the option parameter does
   not need the enclosing ().  See ABNF for more details.

   This document specifies the following result options:

   MIN

         Return the lowest message number/UID that satisfies the SEARCH
         criteria.

         If the SEARCH results in no matches, the server MUST NOT
         include the MIN result option in the ESEARCH response; however,
         it still MUST send the ESEARCH response.

   MAX

         Return the highest message number/UID that satisfies the SEARCH
         criteria.

         If the SEARCH results in no matches, the server MUST NOT
         include the MAX result option in the ESEARCH response; however,
         it still MUST send the ESEARCH response.

   ALL

         Return all message numbers/UIDs that satisfy the SEARCH
         criteria using the sequence-set syntax.  Note, the client MUST
         NOT assume that messages/UIDs will be listed in any particular
         order.

         If the SEARCH results in no matches, the server MUST NOT
         include the ALL result option in the ESEARCH response; however,
         it still MUST send the ESEARCH response.

   COUNT  Return number of the messages that satisfy the SEARCH
      criteria.  This result option MUST always be included in the
      ESEARCH response.

   SAVE

         This option tells the server to remember the result of the
         SEARCH or UID SEARCH command (as well as any command based on
         SEARCH, e.g., SORT and THREAD [RFC5256]>) and store it in an
         internal variable that we will reference as the "search result
         variable".  The client can use the "$" marker to reference the
         content of this internal variable.  The "$" marker can be used
         instead of message sequence or UID sequence in order to



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         indicate that the server should substitute it with the list of
         messages from the search result variable.  Thus, the client can
         use the result of the latest remembered SEARCH command as a
         parameter to another command.  See Section 6.4.4.1 for details
         on how the value of the search result variable is determined,
         how it is affected by other commands executed, and how SAVE
         return option interacts with other return options.

         In absence of any other SEARCH result option, the SAVE result
         option also suppresses any ESEARCH response that would have
         been otherwise returned by the SEARCH command.

   Note: future extensions to this document can allow servers to return
   multiple ESEARCH responses for a single extended SEARCH command.
   However all options specified above MUST result in a single ESEARCH
   response.  These extensions will have to describe how results from
   multiple ESEARCH responses are to be amalgamated.

   Searching criteria consist of one or more search keys.

   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 with INTERNALDATE greater than 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-5322]/[MIME-IMB]
   headers, MUST be decoded before comparing text.  Servers MUST support
   US-ASCII and UTF-8 charsets; other [CHARSET]s MAY be supported.
   Clients SHOULD use UTF-8.  Note that if "CHARSET" is not provided
   IMAP4rev2 server MUST assume UTF-8, so selecting CHARSET UTF-8 is
   redundant.  It is permitted for improved compatibility with existing
   IMAP4rev1 clients.

   If the server does not support the specified [CHARSET], it MUST
   return a tagged NO response (not a BAD).  This response SHOULD
   contain the BADCHARSET response code, which MAY list the [CHARSET]s
   supported by the server.





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   In all search keys that use strings, a message matches the key if the
   string is a substring of the associated text.  The matching SHOULD be
   case-insensitive for characters within ASCII range.  Consider using
   [IMAP-I18N] for language-sensitive case-insensitive searching.  Note
   that the empty string is a substring; this is useful when doing a
   HEADER search in order to test for a header field presence in the
   message.

   The defined search keys are as follows.  Refer to the Formal Syntax
   section for the precise syntactic definitions of the arguments.

   <sequence 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.

   BEFORE <date>  Messages whose internal date (disregarding time and
      timezone) is earlier than the specified date.

   BODY <string>  Messages that contain the specified string in the body
      of the message.  Unlike TEXT (see below), this doesn't match any
      header fields.

   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-5322]) and that contains
      the specified string in the text of the header (what comes after
      the colon).  If the string to search is zero-length, this matches
      all messages that have a header line with the specified field-name
      regardless of the contents.  Servers should use substring search
      for this SEARCH item, as clients can use it for automatic
      processing not initiated by end users.  For example this can be



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      used for searching for Message-ID or Content-Type header field
      values that need to be exact, or for searches in header fields
      that the IMAP server might not know anything about.

   KEYWORD <flag>  Messages with the specified keyword flag set.

   LARGER <n>  Messages with an [RFC-5322] size larger than the
      specified number of octets.

   NOT <search-key>  Messages that do not match the specified search
      key.

   ON <date>  Messages whose internal date (disregarding time and
      timezone) is within the specified date.

   OR <search-key1> <search-key2>  Messages that match either search
      key.

   SEEN  Messages that have the \Seen flag set.

   SENTBEFORE <date>  Messages whose [RFC-5322] Date: header
      (disregarding time and timezone) is earlier than the specified
      date.

   SENTON <date>  Messages whose [RFC-5322] Date: header (disregarding
      time and timezone) is within the specified date.

   SENTSINCE <date>  Messages whose [RFC-5322] Date: header
      (disregarding time and timezone) is within or later than the
      specified date.

   SINCE <date>  Messages whose internal date (disregarding time and
      timezone) is within or later than the specified date.

   SMALLER <n>  Messages with an [RFC-5322] 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 (including MIME header fields) or body of the message.

   TO <string>  Messages that contain the specified string in the
      envelope structure's TO field.






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   UID <sequence set>  Messages with unique identifiers corresponding to
      the specified unique identifier set.  Sequence set ranges are
      permitted.

   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
      flag set.

   UNSEEN  Messages that do not have the \Seen flag set.

      Example:    C: A282 SEARCH RETURN (MIN COUNT) FLAGGED
                      SINCE 1-Feb-1994 NOT FROM "Smith"
                  S: * ESEARCH (TAG "A282") MIN 2 COUNT 3
                  S: A282 OK SEARCH completed

      Example:    C: A283 SEARCH RETURN () FLAGGED
                      SINCE 1-Feb-1994 NOT FROM "Smith"
                  S: * ESEARCH (TAG "A283") ALL 2,10:11
                  S: A283 OK SEARCH completed

      Example:    C: A284 SEARCH TEXT "string not in mailbox"
                  S: * ESEARCH (TAG "A284")
                  S: A284 OK SEARCH completed
                  C: A285 SEARCH CHARSET UTF-8 TEXT {6}
                  S: + Ready for literal text
                  C: XXXXXX
                  S: * ESEARCH (TAG "A285") ALL 43
                  S: A285 OK SEARCH completed

   Note: Since this document is restricted to 7-bit ASCII text, it is
   not possible to show actual UTF-8 data.  The "XXXXXX" is a
   placeholder for what would be 6 octets of 8-bit data in an actual
   transaction.

   The following example demonstrates finding the first unseen message
   in the mailbox:

      Example:    C: A284 SEARCH RETURN (MIN) UNSEEN
                  S: * ESEARCH (TAG "A284") MIN 4
                  S: A284 OK SEARCH completed




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   The following example demonstrates that if the ESEARCH UID indicator
   is present, all data in the ESEARCH response is referring to UIDs;
   for example, the MIN result specifier will be followed by a UID.

      Example:    C: A285 UID SEARCH RETURN (MIN MAX) 1:5000
                  S: * ESEARCH (TAG "A285") UID MIN 7 MAX 3800
                  S: A285 OK SEARCH completed

   The following example demonstrates returning the number of deleted
   messages:

      Example:    C: A286 SEARCH RETURN (COUNT) DELETED
                  S: * ESEARCH (TAG "A286") COUNT 15
                  S: A286 OK SEARCH completed

6.4.4.1.  SAVE result option and SEARCH result variable

   Upon successful completion of a SELECT or an EXAMINE command (after
   the tagged OK response), the current search result variable is reset
   to the empty sequence.

   A successful SEARCH command with the SAVE result option sets the
   value of the search result variable to the list of messages found in
   the SEARCH command.  For example, if no messages were found, the
   search result variable will contain the empty sequence.

   Any of the following SEARCH commands MUST NOT change the search
   result variable:

      a SEARCH command that caused the server to return the BAD tagged
      response,

      a SEARCH command with no SAVE result option that caused the server
      to return NO tagged response,

      a successful SEARCH command with no SAVE result option.

   A SEARCH command with the SAVE result option that caused the server
   to return the NO tagged response sets the value of the search result
   variable to the empty sequence.

   When a message listed in the search result variable is EXPUNGEd, it
   is automatically removed from the list.  Implementors are reminded
   that if the server stores the list as a list of message numbers, it
   MUST automatically adjust them when notifying the client about
   expunged messages, as described in Section 7.4.1.





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   If the server decides to send a new UIDVALIDITY value while the
   mailbox is opened, this causes resetting of the search variable to
   the empty sequence.

   Note that even if the "$" marker contains the empty sequence of
   messages, it must be treated by all commands accepting message sets
   as parameters as a valid, but non-matching list of messages.  For
   example, the "FETCH $" command would return a tagged OK response and
   no FETCH responses.  See also the Example 5 in Section 6.4.4.4.

   The SAVE result option doesn't change whether the server would return
   items corresponding to MIN, MAX, ALL, or COUNT result options.

   When the SAVE result option is combined with the MIN or MAX result
   option, and both ALL and COUNT result options are absent, the
   corresponding MIN/MAX is returned (if the search result is not
   empty), but the "$" marker would contain a single message as returned
   in the MIN/MAX return item.

   If the SAVE result option is combined with both MIN and MAX result
   options, and both ALL and COUNT result options are absent, the "$"
   marker would contain zero, one or two messages as returned in the
   MIN/MAX return items.

   If the SAVE result option is combined with the ALL and/or COUNT
   result option(s), the "$" marker would always contain all messages
   found by the SEARCH or UID SEARCH command.

   The following table summarizes the additional requirement on ESEARCH
             server implementations described in this section.

           +------------------------------+--------------------+
           | Combination of Result option |  "$" marker value  |
           +------------------------------+--------------------+
           |           SAVE MIN           |        MIN         |
           |           SAVE MAX           |        MAX         |
           |         SAVE MIN MAX         |     MIN & MAX      |
           |          SAVE * [m]          | all found messages |
           +------------------------------+--------------------+

   where '*' means "ALL" and/or "COUNT", and '[m]' means optional "MIN"
                               and/or "MAX"

   Implementation note: server implementors should note that "$" can
   reference IMAP message sequences or UID sequences, depending on the
   context where it is used.  For example, the "$" marker can be set as
   a result of a SEARCH (SAVE) command and used as a parameter to a UID
   FETCH command (which accepts a UID sequence, not a message sequence),



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   or the "$" marker can be set as a result of a UID SEARCH (SAVE)
   command and used as a parameter to a FETCH command (which accepts a
   message sequence, not a UID sequence).  Server implementations need
   to automatically map the "$" marker value to message numbers or UIDs,
   depending on context where the "$" marker is used.

6.4.4.2.  Multiple Commands in Progress

   Use of a SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) command followed by a command using the
   "$" marker creates direct dependency between the two commands.  As
   directed by Section 5.5, a server MUST execute the two commands in
   the order they were received.

   A client MAY pipeline a SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) command with one or more
   command using the "$" marker, as long as this doesn't create an
   ambiguity, as described in by Section 5.5.  Examples 7-9 in
   Section 6.4.4.4 explain this in more details.

6.4.4.3.  Refusing to Save Search Results

   In some cases, the server MAY refuse to save a SEARCH (SAVE) result,
   for example, if an internal limit on the number of saved results is
   reached.  In this case, the server MUST return a tagged NO response
   containing the NOTSAVED response code and set the search result
   variable to the empty sequence, as described in Section 6.4.4.1.

6.4.4.4.  Examples showing use of SAVE result option

   Only in this section: explanatory comments in examples that start
   with // are not part of the protocol.

   1) The following example demonstrates how the client can use the
   result of a SEARCH command to FETCH headers of interesting messages:

     Example 1:
              C: A282 SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) FLAGGED SINCE 1-Feb-1994
                  NOT FROM "Smith"
              S: A282 OK SEARCH completed, result saved
              C: A283 FETCH $ (UID INTERNALDATE FLAGS BODY.PEEK[HEADER])
              S: * 2 FETCH (UID 14 ...
              S: * 84 FETCH (UID 100 ...
              S: * 882 FETCH (UID 1115 ...
              S: A283 OK completed

   The client can also pipeline the two commands:






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     Example 2:
              C: A282 SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) FLAGGED SINCE 1-Feb-1994
                  NOT FROM "Smith"
              C: A283 FETCH $ (UID INTERNALDATE FLAGS BODY.PEEK[HEADER])
              S: A282 OK SEARCH completed
              S: * 2 FETCH (UID 14 ...
              S: * 84 FETCH (UID 100 ...
              S: * 882 FETCH (UID 1115 ...
              S: A283 OK completed

   2) The following example demonstrates that the result of one SEARCH
   command can be used as input to another SEARCH command:

      Example 3:
               C: A300 SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) SINCE 1-Jan-2004
                   NOT FROM "Smith"
               S: A300 OK SEARCH completed
               C: A301 UID SEARCH UID $ SMALLER 4096
               S: * ESEARCH (TAG "A301") UID ALL 17,900,901
               S: A301 OK completed

   Note that the second command in Example 3 can be replaced with:
   C: A301 UID SEARCH $ SMALLER 4096
   and the result of the command would be the same.

   3) The following example shows that the "$" marker can be combined
   with other message numbers using the OR SEARCH criterion.

      Example 4:
               C: P282 SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) SINCE 1-Feb-1994
                   NOT FROM "Smith"
               S: P282 OK SEARCH completed
               C: P283 SEARCH CHARSET UTF-8 (OR $ 1,3000:3021) TEXT {8}
               C: YYYYYYYY
               S: * ESEARCH (TAG "P283") ALL 882,1102,3003,3005:3006
               S: P283 OK completed

   Note: Since this document format is restricted to 7-bit ASCII text,
   it is not possible to show actual UTF-8 data.  The "YYYYYYYY" is a
   placeholder for what would be 8 octets of 8-bit data in an actual
   transaction.

   4) The following example demonstrates that a failed SEARCH sets the
   search result variable to the empty list.  The server doesn't
   implement the KOI8-R charset.






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     Example 5:
              C: B282 SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) SINCE 1-Feb-1994
                  NOT FROM "Smith"
              S: B282 OK SEARCH completed
              C: B283 SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) CHARSET KOI8-R
                  (OR $ 1,3000:3021) TEXT {4}
              C: XXXX
              S: B283 NO [BADCHARSET UTF-8] KOI8-R is not supported
             //After this command the saved result variable contains
             //no messages.  A client that wants to reissue the B283
             //SEARCH command with another CHARSET would have to reissue
             //the B282 command as well.  One possible workaround for
             //this is to include the desired CHARSET parameter
             //in the earliest SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) command in a
             //sequence of related SEARCH commands, to cause
             //the earliest SEARCH in the sequence to fail.
             //A better approach might be to always use CHARSET UTF-8
             //instead.

   Note: Since this document format is restricted to 7-bit ASCII text,
   it is not possible to show actual KOI8-R data.  The "XXXX" is a
   placeholder for what would be 4 octets of 8-bit data in an actual
   transaction.

   5) The following example demonstrates that it is not an error to use
   the "$" marker when it contains no messages.

      Example 6:
               C: E282 SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) SINCE 28-Oct-2006
                   NOT FROM "Eric"
               C: E283 COPY $ "Other Messages"
              //The "$" contains no messages
               S: E282 OK SEARCH completed
               S: E283 OK COPY completed, nothing copied

      Example 7:
               C: F282 SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) KEYWORD $Junk
               C: F283 COPY $ "Junk"
               C: F284 STORE $ +FLAGS.Silent (\Deleted)
               S: F282 OK SEARCH completed
               S: F283 OK COPY completed
               S: F284 OK STORE completed









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      Example 8:
               C: G282 SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) KEYWORD $Junk
               C: G283 SEARCH RETURN (ALL) SINCE 28-Oct-2006
                   FROM "Eric"
              // The server can execute the two SEARCH commands
              // in any order, as they don't have any dependency.
              // For example, it may return:
               S: * ESEARCH (TAG "G283") ALL 3:15,27,29:103
               S: G283 OK SEARCH completed
               S: G282 OK SEARCH completed

   The following example demonstrates that the result of the second
   SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) always overrides the result of the first.

      Example 9:
                  C: H282 SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) KEYWORD $Junk
                  C: H283 SEARCH RETURN (SAVE) SINCE 28-Oct-2006
                      FROM "Eric"
                  S: H282 OK SEARCH completed
                  S: H283 OK SEARCH completed
                 // At this point "$" would contain results of H283

   The following example demonstrates behavioral difference for
   different combinations of ESEARCH result options.



























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      Example 10:
                 C: C282 SEARCH RETURN (ALL) SINCE 12-Feb-2006
                     NOT FROM "Smith"
                 S: * ESEARCH (TAG "C283") ALL 2,10:15,21
               //$ value hasn't changed
                 S: C282 OK SEARCH completed

                 C: C283 SEARCH RETURN (ALL SAVE) SINCE 12-Feb-2006
                     NOT FROM "Smith"
                 S: * ESEARCH (TAG "C283") ALL 2,10:15,21
               //$ value is 2,10:15,21
                 S: C283 OK SEARCH completed

                 C: C284 SEARCH RETURN (SAVE MIN) SINCE 12-Feb-2006
                     NOT FROM "Smith"
                 S: * ESEARCH (TAG "C284") MIN 2
               //$ value is 2
                 S: C284 OK SEARCH completed

                 C: C285 SEARCH RETURN (MAX SAVE MIN) SINCE
                     12-Feb-2006 NOT FROM "Smith"
                 S: * ESEARCH (TAG "C285") MIN 2 MAX 21
               //$ value is 2,21
                 S: C285 OK SEARCH completed

                 C: C286 SEARCH RETURN (MAX SAVE MIN COUNT)
                     SINCE 12-Feb-2006 NOT FROM "Smith"
                 S: * ESEARCH (TAG "C286") MIN 2 MAX 21 COUNT 8
               //$ value is 2,10:15,21
                 S: C286 OK SEARCH completed

                 C: C286 SEARCH RETURN (ALL SAVE MIN) SINCE
                     12-Feb-2006 NOT FROM "Smith"
                 S: * ESEARCH (TAG "C286") MIN 2 ALL 2,10:15,21
               //$ value is 2,10:15,21
                 S: C286 OK SEARCH completed

6.4.5.  FETCH Command

   Arguments:  sequence set
               message data item names or macro

   Responses:  untagged responses: FETCH

   Result:     OK - fetch completed
               NO - fetch error: can't fetch that data
               BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid




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   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.

   Most data items, identified in the formal syntax under the msg-att-
   static rule, are static and MUST NOT change for any particular
   message.  Other data items, identified in the formal syntax under the
   msg-att-dynamic rule, MAY change, either as a result of a STORE
   command or due to external events.

      For example, if a client receives an ENVELOPE for a message when
      it already knows the envelope, it can safely ignore the newly
      transmitted envelope.

   There are three macros which specify commonly-used sets of data
   items, and can be used instead of data items.  A macro must be used
   by itself, and not in conjunction with other macros or data items.

   ALL  Macro equivalent to: (FLAGS INTERNALDATE RFC822.SIZE ENVELOPE)

   FAST  Macro equivalent to: (FLAGS INTERNALDATE RFC822.SIZE)

   FULL  Macro equivalent to: (FLAGS INTERNALDATE RFC822.SIZE ENVELOPE
      BODY)

   The currently defined data items that can be fetched are:

   BINARY[<section-binary>]<<partial>>

         Requests that the specified section be transmitted after
         performing Content-Transfer-Encoding-related decoding.

         The <partial> argument, if present, requests that a subset of
         the data be returned.  The semantics of a partial FETCH BINARY
         command are the same as for a partial FETCH BODY command, with
         the exception that the <partial> arguments refer to the DECODED
         section data.

   BINARY.PEEK[<section-binary>]<<partial>>  An alternate form of
      BINARY[<section-binary>] that does not implicitly set the \Seen
      flag.

   BINARY.SIZE[<section-binary>]

         Requests the decoded size of the section (i.e., the size to
         expect in response to the corresponding FETCH BINARY request).





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         Note: client authors are cautioned that this might be an
         expensive operation for some server implementations.
         Needlessly issuing this request could result in degraded
         performance due to servers having to calculate the value every
         time the request is issued.

   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.

         A part of type MESSAGE/RFC822 or MESSAGE/GLOBAL 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 or
         MESSAGE/GLOBAL.  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-5322] header of the message or of
         an encapsulated [MIME-IMT] MESSAGE/RFC822 or MESSAGE/GLOBAL
         message.  HEADER.FIELDS and HEADER.FIELDS.NOT are followed by a
         list of field-name (as defined in [RFC-5322]) 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 ASCII
         range case-insensitive but otherwise exact.  Subsetting does



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         not exclude the [RFC-5322] delimiting blank line between the
         header and the body; the blank line is included in all header
         fetches, except in the case of a message which has no body and
         no blank line.

         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-5322] header.

            Here is an example of a complex message with some of its
            part specifiers:

        HEADER     ([RFC-5322] header of the message)
        TEXT       ([RFC-5322] text body of the message) MULTIPART/MIXED
        1          TEXT/PLAIN
        2          APPLICATION/OCTET-STREAM
        3          MESSAGE/RFC822
        3.HEADER   ([RFC-5322] header of the message)
        3.TEXT     ([RFC-5322] text body of the message) MULTIPART/MIXED
        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-5322] header of the message)
        4.2.TEXT   ([RFC-5322] text body of the message) MULTIPART/MIXED
        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.






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            Note: This means that BODY[]<0.2048> of a 1500-octet message
            will return BODY[]<0> with a literal of size 1500, not
            BODY[].

            Note: A substring fetch of a HEADER.FIELDS or
            HEADER.FIELDS.NOT part specifier is calculated after
            subsetting the header.

         The \Seen flag is implicitly set; if this causes the flags to
         change, they SHOULD be included as part of the FETCH responses.

   BODY.PEEK[<section>]<<partial>>  An alternate form of BODY[<section>]
      that does not implicitly set the \Seen flag.

   BODYSTRUCTURE  The [MIME-IMB] body structure of the message.  This is
      computed by the server by parsing the [MIME-IMB] header fields in
      the [RFC-5322] header and [MIME-IMB] headers.

   ENVELOPE  The envelope structure of the message.  This is computed by
      the server by parsing the [RFC-5322] header into the component
      parts, defaulting various fields as necessary.

   FLAGS  The flags that are set for this message.

   INTERNALDATE  The internal date of the message.

   RFC822.SIZE  The [RFC-5322] size of the message.

   UID  The unique identifier for the message.

   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:  sequence 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




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   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 is 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 is returned as if a FETCH of those
      flags was done.

   +FLAGS.SILENT <flag list>  Equivalent to +FLAGS, but without
      returning a new value.

   -FLAGS <flag list>  Remove the argument from the flags for the
      message.  The new value of the flags is 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:  sequence set
               mailbox name

   Responses:  no specific responses for this command



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   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.

   If the COPY command is unsuccessful for any reason, server
   implementations MUST restore the destination mailbox to its state
   before the COPY attempt.

   On successful completion of a COPY, the server SHOULD return a
   COPYUID response code.

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

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

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

      Example:    C: A003 COPY 2:4 MEETING
                  S: A003 OK COPY completed

6.4.8.  MOVE Command

   Arguments:  sequence set
               mailbox name

   Responses:  no specific responses for this command



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   Result:     OK - move completed
               NO - move error: can't move those messages or to that
               name
               BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

   The MOVE command moves the specified message(s) to the end of the
   specified destination mailbox.  The flags and internal date of the
   message(s) SHOULD be preserved.

   This means that a new message is created in the target mailbox with a
   new UID, the original message is removed from the source mailbox, and
   it appears to the client as a single action.  This has the same
   effect for each message as this sequence:

   1.  [UID] COPY

   2.  [UID] STORE +FLAGS.SILENT \DELETED

   3.  UID EXPUNGE

   Although the effect of the MOVE is the same as the preceding steps,
   the semantics are not identical: The intermediate states produced by
   those steps do not occur, and the response codes are different.  In
   particular, though the COPY and EXPUNGE response codes will be
   returned, response codes for a STORE MUST NOT be generated and the
   \Deleted flag MUST NOT be set for any message.

   Because a MOVE applies to a set of messages, it might fail partway
   through the set.  Regardless of whether the command is successful in
   moving the entire set, each individual message SHOULD either be moved
   or unaffected.  The server MUST leave each message in a state where
   it is in at least one of the source or target mailboxes (no message
   can be lost or orphaned).  The server SHOULD NOT leave any message in
   both mailboxes (it would be bad for a partial failure to result in a
   bunch of duplicate messages).  This is true even if the server
   returns a tagged NO response to the command.

   Because of the similarity of MOVE to COPY, extensions that affect
   COPY affect MOVE in the same way.  Response codes such as TRYCREATE
   (see Section 7.1), as well as those defined by extensions, are sent
   as appropriate.

   Servers SHOULD send COPYUID in response to a UID MOVE (see
   Section 6.4.9) command.  For additional information see Section 7.1.

   Servers are also advised to send the COPYUID response code in an
   untagged OK before sending EXPUNGE or moved responses.  (Sending
   COPYUID in the tagged OK, as described in the UIDPLUS specification,



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   means that clients first receive an EXPUNGE for a message and
   afterwards COPYUID for the same message.  It can be unnecessarily
   difficult to process that sequence usefully.)

      An example:
          C: a UID MOVE 42:69 foo
          S: * OK [COPYUID 432432 42:69 1202:1229]
          S: * 22 EXPUNGE
          S: (more expunges)
          S: a OK Done

   Note that the server may send unrelated EXPUNGE responses as well, if
   any happen to have been expunged at the same time; this is normal
   IMAP operation.

   Note that moving a message to the currently selected mailbox (that
   is, where the source and target mailboxes are the same) is allowed
   when copying the message to the currently selected mailbox is
   allowed.

   The server may send EXPUNGE responses before the tagged response, so
   the client cannot safely send more commands with message sequence
   number arguments while the server is processing MOVE.

   MOVE and UID MOVE can be pipelined with other commands, but care has
   to be taken.  Both commands modify sequence numbers and also allow
   unrelated EXPUNGE responses.  The renumbering of other messages in
   the source mailbox following any EXPUNGE response can be surprising
   and makes it unsafe to pipeline any command that relies on message
   sequence numbers after a MOVE or UID MOVE.  Similarly, MOVE cannot be
   pipelined with a command that might cause message renumbering.  See
   Section 5.5, for more information about ambiguities as well as
   handling requirements for both clients and servers.

6.4.9.  UID Command

   Arguments:  command name
               command arguments

   Responses:  untagged responses: FETCH, ESEARCH, EXPUNGE

   Result:     OK - UID command completed
               NO - UID command error
               BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

   The UID command has three forms.  In the first form, it takes as its
   arguments a COPY, MOVE, FETCH, or STORE command with arguments
   appropriate for the associated command.  However, the numbers in the



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   sequence set argument are unique identifiers instead of message
   sequence numbers.  Sequence set ranges are permitted, but there is no
   guarantee that unique identifiers will be contiguous.

   A non-existent unique identifier is ignored without any error message
   generated.  Thus, it is possible for a UID FETCH command to return an
   OK without any data or a UID COPY, UID MOVE or UID STORE to return an
   OK without performing any operations.

   In the second form, the UID command takes an EXPUNGE command with an
   extra parameter the specified a sequence set of UIDs to operate on.
   The UID EXPUNGE command permanently removes all messages that both
   have the \Deleted flag set and have a UID that is included in the
   specified sequence set from the currently selected mailbox.  If a
   message either does not have the \Deleted flag set or has a UID that
   is not included in the specified sequence set, it is not affected.

      UID EXPUNGE is particularly useful for disconnected use clients.
      By using UID EXPUNGE instead of EXPUNGE when resynchronizing with
      the server, the client can ensure that it does not inadvertantly
      remove any messages that have been marked as \Deleted by other
      clients between the time that the client was last connected and
      the time the client resynchronizes.

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

   In the third 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 ESEARCH response
   for a UID SEARCH command are unique identifiers instead of message
   sequence numbers.  Also, the corresponding ESEARCH response MUST
   include the UID indicator.  For example, the command UID SEARCH 1:100
   UID 443:557 returns the unique identifiers corresponding to the
   intersection of two sequence sets, the message sequence number range
   1:100 and the UID range 443:557.

      Note: in the above example, the UID range 443:557 appears.  The
      same comment about a non-existent unique identifier being ignored
      without any error message also applies here.  Hence, even if
      neither UID 443 or 557 exist, this range is valid and would
      include an existing UID 495.

      Also note that a UID range of 559:* always includes the UID of the
      last message in the mailbox, even if 559 is higher than any



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      assigned UID value.  This is because the contents of a range are
      independent of the order of the range endpoints.  Thus, any UID
      range with * as one of the endpoints indicates at least one
      message (the message with the highest numbered UID), unless the
      mailbox is empty.

   The number after the "*" in an untagged FETCH or EXPUNGE 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.

   Note: The rule about including the UID message data item as part of a
   FETCH response primarily applies to the UID FETCH and UID STORE
   commands, including a UID FETCH command that does not include UID as
   a message data item.  Although it is unlikely that the other UID
   commands will cause an untagged FETCH, this rule applies to these
   commands as well.

      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 OK 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.




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      Example:    C: a441 CAPABILITY
                  S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev2 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.

   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 the selected state.  In the 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 response



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   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
   can 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
   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.

   ALREADYEXISTS

         The operation attempts to create something that already exists,
         such as when the CREATE or RENAME directories attempt to create
         a mailbox and there is already one of that name.

         C: o356 RENAME this that
         S: o356 NO [ALREADYEXISTS] Mailbox "that" already exists

   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.




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



            Note: the UID set form of the APPENDUID response code MUST
            NOT be used if only a single message was appended.  In
            particular, a server MUST NOT send a range such as 123:123.
            This is because a client that does not support [MULTIAPPEND]
            expects only a single UID and not a UID set.

         UIDs are assigned in strictly ascending order in the mailbox
         (refer to Section 2.3.1.1); 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.

   AUTHENTICATIONFAILED

         Authentication failed for some reason on which the server is
         unwilling to elaborate.  Typically, this includes "unknown
         user" and "bad password".

         This is the same as not sending any response code, except that
         when a client sees AUTHENTICATIONFAILED, it knows that the
         problem wasn't, e.g., UNAVAILABLE, so there's no point in
         trying the same login/password again later.

         C: b LOGIN "fred" "foo"
         S: b NO [AUTHENTICATIONFAILED] Authentication failed

   AUTHORIZATIONFAILED

         Authentication succeeded in using the authentication identity,
         but the server cannot or will not allow the authentication
         identity to act as the requested authorization identity.  This
         is only applicable when the authentication and authorization
         identities are different.

         C: c1 AUTHENTICATE PLAIN
         [...]
         S: c1 NO [AUTHORIZATIONFAILED] No such authorization-ID



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         C: c2 AUTHENTICATE PLAIN
         [...]
         S: c2 NO [AUTHORIZATIONFAILED] Authenticator is not an admin

   BADCHARSET

         Optionally followed by a parenthesized list of charsets.  A
         SEARCH failed because the given charset is not supported by
         this implementation.  If the optional list of charsets is
         given, this lists the charsets that are supported by this
         implementation.

   CANNOT

         The operation violates some invariant of the server and can
         never succeed.

         C: l create "///////"
         S: l NO [CANNOT] Adjacent slashes are not supported

   CAPABILITY

         Followed by a list of capabilities.  This can appear in the
         initial OK or PREAUTH response to transmit an initial
         capabilities list.  It can also appear in tagged responses to
         LOGIN or AUTHENTICATE commands.  This makes it unnecessary for
         a client to send a separate CAPABILITY command if it recognizes
         this response.

   CLIENTBUG

         The server has detected a client bug.  This can accompany all
         of OK, NO, and BAD, depending on what the client bug is.

         C: k1 select "/archive/projects/experiment-iv"
         [...]
         S: k1 OK [READ-ONLY] Done
         C: k2 status "/archive/projects/experiment-iv" (messages)
         [...]
         S: k2 OK [CLIENTBUG] Done

   CLOSED

         The CLOSED response code has no parameters.  A server return
         the CLOSED response code when the currently selected mailbox is
         closed implicitly using the SELECT/EXAMINE command on another
         mailbox.  The CLOSED response code serves as a boundary between
         responses for the previously opened mailbox (which was closed)



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         and the newly selected mailbox; all responses before the CLOSED
         response code relate to the mailbox that was closed, and all
         subsequent responses relate to the newly opened mailbox.

         There is no need to return the CLOSED response code on
         completion of the CLOSE or the UNSELECT command (or similar),
         whose purpose is to close the currently selected mailbox
         without opening a new one.

         The server MAY also return an unsolicited CLOSED response code
         when it wants to force the client to return to authenticated
         state.  For example, the server can do that when the mailbox
         requires repairs or is deleted in another session.

   CONTACTADMIN

         The user should contact the system administrator or support
         desk.

         C: e login "fred" "foo"
         S: e OK [CONTACTADMIN]

   COPYUID

         Followed by the UIDVALIDITY of the destination mailbox, a UID
         set containing the UIDs of the message(s) in the source mailbox
         that were copied to the destination mailbox and 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 UID set is in the order the message(s) were copied;
         the destination UID set corresponds to the source UID set and
         is in the same order.  Neither of the UID sets may contain
         extraneous UIDs or the symbol "*".

         UIDs are assigned in strictly ascending order in the mailbox
         (refer to Section 2.3.1.1); 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.

   CORRUPTION

         The server discovered that some relevant data (e.g., the
         mailbox) are corrupt.  This response code does not include any



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         information about what's corrupt, but the server can write that
         to its logfiles.

         C: i select "/archive/projects/experiment-iv"
         S: i NO [CORRUPTION] Cannot open mailbox

   EXPIRED

         Either authentication succeeded or the server no longer had the
         necessary data; either way, access is no longer permitted using
         that passphrase.  The client or user should get a new
         passphrase.

         C: d login "fred" "foo"
         S: d NO [EXPIRED] That password isn't valid any more

   EXPUNGEISSUED

         Someone else has issued an EXPUNGE for the same mailbox.  The
         client may want to issue NOOP soon.  [IMAP-MULTIACCESS]
         discusses this subject in depth.

         C: h search from fred@example.com
         S: * ESEARCH (TAG "h") ALL 1:3,5,8,13,21,42
         S: h OK [EXPUNGEISSUED] Search completed

   INUSE

         An operation has not been carried out because it involves
         sawing off a branch someone else is sitting on.  Someone else
         may be holding an exclusive lock needed for this operation, or
         the operation may involve deleting a resource someone else is
         using, typically a mailbox.

         The operation may succeed if the client tries again later.

         C: g delete "/archive/projects/experiment-iv"
         S: g NO [INUSE] Mailbox in use

   LIMIT

         The operation ran up against an implementation limit of some
         kind, such as the number of flags on a single message or the
         number of flags used in a mailbox.

         C: m STORE 42 FLAGS f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 ... f250
         S: m NO [LIMIT] At most 32 flags in one mailbox supported




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   NONEXISTENT

         The operation attempts to delete something that does not exist.
         Similar to ALREADYEXISTS.

         C: p RENAME this that
         S: p NO [NONEXISTENT] No such mailbox

   NOPERM

         The access control system (e.g., Access Control List (ACL), see
         [RFC4314] does not permit this user to carry out an operation,
         such as selecting or creating a mailbox.

         C: f select "/archive/projects/experiment-iv"
         S: f NO [NOPERM] Access denied

   OVERQUOTA

         The user would be over quota after the operation.  (The user
         may or may not be over quota already.)

         Note that if the server sends OVERQUOTA but doesn't support the
         IMAP QUOTA extension defined by [RFC2087], then there is a
         quota, but the client cannot find out what the quota is.

         C: n1 uid copy 1:* oldmail
         S: n1 NO [OVERQUOTA] Sorry


         C: n2 uid copy 1:* oldmail
         S: n2 OK [OVERQUOTA] You are now over your soft quota

   PARSE

         The human-readable text represents an error in parsing the
         [RFC-5322] 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 the client can change permanently.  Any flags
         that are in the FLAGS untagged response, but not the
         PERMANENTFLAGS list, can not be set permanently.  The
         PERMANENTFLAGS list can also include the special flag \*, which
         indicates that it is possible to create new keywords by
         attempting to store those keywords in the mailbox.  If the



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         client attempts to STORE a flag that is not in the
         PERMANENTFLAGS list, the server will either ignore the change
         or store the state change for the remainder of the current
         session only.

         There is no need for a server that included the special flag \*
         to return a new PERMANENTFLAGS response code when a new keyword
         was successfully set on a message upon client request.  However
         if the server has a limit on the number of different keywords
         that can be stored in a mailbox and that limit is reached, the
         server MUST send a new PERMANENTFLAGS response code without the
         special flag \*.

   PRIVACYREQUIRED

         The operation is not permitted due to a lack of privacy.  If
         Transport Layer Security (TLS) is not in use, the client could
         try STARTTLS (see Section 6.2.1) and then repeat the operation.

         C: d login "fred" "foo"
         S: d NO [PRIVACYREQUIRED] Connection offers no privacy


         C: d select inbox
         S: d NO [PRIVACYREQUIRED] Connection offers no privacy

   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.

   SERVERBUG

         The server encountered a bug in itself or violated one of its
         own invariants.

         C: j select "/archive/projects/experiment-iv"
         S: j NO [SERVERBUG] This should not happen

   TRYCREATE

         An APPEND or COPY attempt is failing because the target mailbox
         does not exist (as opposed to some other reason).  This is a



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         hint to the client that the operation can succeed if the
         mailbox is first created by the CREATE command.

   UIDNEXT

         Followed by a decimal number, indicates the next unique
         identifier value.  Refer to Section 2.3.1.1 for more
         information.

   UIDNOTSTICKY

         The selected mailbox is supported by a mail store that 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 persistent UIDs.
            This should be avoided when designing new mail stores.

   UIDVALIDITY

         Followed by a decimal number, indicates the unique identifier
         validity value.  Refer to Section 2.3.1.1 for more information.

   UNAVAILABLE

         Temporary failure because a subsystem is down.  For example, an
         IMAP server that uses a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
         (LDAP) or Radius server for authentication might use this
         response code when the LDAP/Radius server is down.

         C: a LOGIN "fred" "foo"
         S: a NO [UNAVAILABLE] User's backend down for maintenance

   UNKNOWN-CTE

         The server does not know how to decode the section's Content-
         Transfer-Encoding.





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   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 or an AUTHENTICATE command is needed.

      Example:    S: * OK IMAP4rev2 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.

    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







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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; thus no LOGIN/
   AUTHENTICATE command is needed.

      Example:    S: * PREAUTH IMAP4rev2 server logged in as Smith

7.1.5.  BYE Response

   Contents:   OPTIONAL response code
               human-readable text

   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.





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   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.  In all cases the client SHOULD continue to read
   response data from the server until the connection is closed; this
   will ensure that any pending untagged or completion responses are
   read and processed.

      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.  The ENABLED Response

   Contents:   capability listing

   The ENABLED response occurs as a result of an ENABLE command.  The
   capability listing contains a space-separated listing of capability
   names that the server supports and that were successfully enabled.
   The ENABLED response may contain no capabilities, which means that no
   extensions listed by the client were successfully enabled.

7.2.2.  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 "IMAP4rev2".

   In addition, client and server implementations MUST implement the
   STARTTLS, LOGINDISABLED, and AUTH=PLAIN (described in [PLAIN])




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   capabilities.  See the Security Considerations section for important
   information.

   A capability name which begins with "AUTH=" indicates that the server
   supports that particular authentication mechanism.

   The LOGINDISABLED capability indicates that the LOGIN command is
   disabled, and that the server will respond with a tagged NO response
   to any attempt to use the LOGIN command even if the user name and
   password are valid.  An IMAP client MUST NOT issue the LOGIN command
   if the server advertises the LOGINDISABLED capability.

   Other capability names indicate that the server supports an
   extension, revision, or amendment to the IMAP4rev2 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 IMAP4rev2 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 "IMAP4rev2", and MUST ignore any unknown capability names.

   A server MAY send capabilities automatically, by using the CAPABILITY
   response code in the initial PREAUTH or OK responses, and by sending
   an updated CAPABILITY response code in the tagged OK response as part
   of a successful authentication.  It is unnecessary for a client to
   send a separate CAPABILITY command if it recognizes these automatic
   capabilities.

   Example:    S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev2 STARTTLS AUTH=GSSAPI XPIG-LATIN

7.2.3.  LIST Response

   Contents:   name attributes
               hierarchy delimiter
               name
               OPTIONAL extension data

   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.

   The following base name attributes are defined:




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   \NonExistent  The "\NonExistent" attribute indicates that a mailbox
      name does not refer to an existing mailbox.  Note that this
      attribute is not meaningful by itself, as mailbox names that match
      the canonical LIST pattern but don't exist must not be returned
      unless one of the two conditions listed below is also satisfied:

      1.  The mailbox name also satisfies the selection criteria (for
          example, it is subscribed and the "SUBSCRIBED" selection
          option has been specified).

      2.  "RECURSIVEMATCH" has been specified, and the mailbox name has
          at least one descendant mailbox name that does not match the
          LIST pattern and does match the selection criteria.

      In practice, this means that the "\NonExistent" attribute is
      usually returned with one or more of "\Subscribed", "\Remote",
      "\HasChildren", or the CHILDINFO extended data item.

      The "\NonExistent" attribute implies "\NoSelect".

   \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.

   \HasChildren  The presence of this attribute indicates that the
      mailbox has child mailboxes.  A server SHOULD NOT set this
      attribute if there are child mailboxes and the user does not have
      permission to access any of them.  In this case, \HasNoChildren
      SHOULD be used.  In many cases, however, a server may not be able
      to efficiently compute whether a user has access to any child
      mailbox.  Note that even though the \HasChildren attribute for a
      mailbox must be correct at the time of processing of the mailbox,
      a client must be prepared to deal with a situation when a mailbox
      is marked with the \HasChildren attribute, but no child mailbox
      appears in the response to the LIST command.  This might happen,
      for example, due to children mailboxes being deleted or made
      inaccessible to the user (using access control) by another client
      before the server is able to list them.

   \HasNoChildren  The presence of this attribute indicates that the
      mailbox has NO child mailboxes that are accessible to the
      currently authenticated user.






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   \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.

   \Subscribed  The mailbox name was subscribed to using the SUBSCRIBE
      command.

   \Remote  The mailbox is a remote mailbox.

   It is an error for the server to return both a \HasChildren and a
   \HasNoChildren attribute in the same LIST response.

      Note: the \HasNoChildren attribute should not be confused with the
      \NoInferiors attribute, which indicates that no child mailboxes
      exist now and none can be created in the future.

   If it is not feasible for the server to determine whether or not the
   mailbox is "interesting", the server SHOULD NOT send either \Marked
   or \Unmarked.  The server MUST NOT send more than one of \Marked,
   \Unmarked, and \Noselect for a single mailbox, and MAY send none of
   these.

   In addition to the base name attributes defined above, an IMAP server
   MAY also include any or all of the following attributes that denote
   "role" (or "special-use") of a mailbox.  These attributes are
   included along with base attributes defined above.  A given mailbox
   may have none, one, or more than one of these attributes.  In some
   cases, a special use is advice to a client about what to put in that
   mailbox.  In other cases, it's advice to a client about what to
   expect to find there.

   \All  This mailbox presents all messages in the user's message store.
      Implementations MAY omit some messages, such as, perhaps, those in
      \Trash and \Junk.  When this special use is supported, it is
      almost certain to represent a virtual mailbox.

   \Archive  This mailbox is used to archive messages.  The meaning of
      an "archival" mailbox is server-dependent; typically, it will be
      used to get messages out of the inbox, or otherwise keep them out
      of the user's way, while still making them accessible.

   \Drafts  This mailbox is used to hold draft messages -- typically,
      messages that are being composed but have not yet been sent.  In
      some server implementations, this might be a virtual mailbox,
      containing messages from other mailboxes that are marked with the



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      "\Draft" message flag.  Alternatively, this might just be advice
      that a client put drafts here.

   \Flagged  This mailbox presents all messages marked in some way as
      "important".  When this special use is supported, it is likely to
      represent a virtual mailbox collecting messages (from other
      mailboxes) that are marked with the "\Flagged" message flag.

   \Junk  This mailbox is where messages deemed to be junk mail are
      held.  Some server implementations might put messages here
      automatically.  Alternatively, this might just be advice to a
      client-side spam filter.

   \Sent  This mailbox is used to hold copies of messages that have been
      sent.  Some server implementations might put messages here
      automatically.  Alternatively, this might just be advice that a
      client save sent messages here.

   \Trash  This mailbox is used to hold messages that have been deleted
      or marked for deletion.  In some server implementations, this
      might be a virtual mailbox, containing messages from other
      mailboxes that are marked with the "\Deleted" message flag.
      Alternatively, this might just be advice that a client that
      chooses not to use the IMAP "\Deleted" model should use this as
      its trash location.  In server implementations that strictly
      expect the IMAP "\Deleted" model, this special use is likely not
      to be supported.

   All of special-use attributes are OPTIONAL, and any given server or
   message store may support any combination of the attributes, or none
   at all.  In most cases, there will likely be at most one mailbox with
   a given attribute for a given user, but in some server or message
   store implementations it might be possible for multiple mailboxes to
   have the same special-use attribute.

   Special-use attributes are likely to be user-specific.  User Adam
   might share his \Sent mailbox with user Barb, but that mailbox is
   unlikely to also serve as Barb's \Sent mailbox.

   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 command.  Unless \Noselect or



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   \NonExistent is indicated, the name MUST also be valid as an argument
   for commands, such as SELECT, that accept mailbox names.

   The name might be followed by an OPTIONAL series of extended fields,
   a parenthesized list of tagged data (also referred to as "extended
   data item").  The first element of an extended field is a tag, which
   identifies the type of data.  The server MAY return data in the
   extended fields that was not directly solicited by the client in the
   corresponding LIST command.  For example, the client can enable extra
   extended fields by using another IMAP extension that make use of the
   extended LIST responses.  The client MUST ignore all extended fields
   it doesn't recognize.

      Example:    S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" ~/Mail/foo

   Example:    S: * LIST (\Marked) ":" Tables (tablecloth (("edge" "lacy")
                   ("color" "red")) Sample "text")
               S: * LIST () ":" Tables:new (tablecloth ("edge" "lacy")
                   Sample ("text" "more text"))

7.2.4.  NAMESPACE Response

   Contents:   the prefix and hierarchy delimiter to the server's
               Personal Namespace(s), Other Users' Namespace(s), and
               Shared Namespace(s)

   The NAMESPACE response occurs as a result of a NAMESPACE command.  It
   contains the prefix and hierarchy delimiter to the server's Personal
   Namespace(s), Other Users' Namespace(s), and Shared Namespace(s) that
   the server wishes to expose.  The response will contain a NIL for any
   namespace class that is not available.  Namespace-Response-Extensions
   ABNF non terminal is defined for extensibility and MAY be included in
   the response.

      Example:    S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) (("~" "/")) NIL

7.2.5.  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)





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7.2.6.  ESEARCH Response

   Contents:   one or more search-return-data pairs

   The ESEARCH response occurs as a result of a SEARCH or UID SEARCH
   command.

   The ESEARCH response starts with an optional search correlator.  If
   it is missing, then the response was not caused by a particular IMAP
   command, whereas if it is present, it contains the tag of the command
   that caused the response to be returned.

   The search correlator is followed by an optional UID indicator.  If
   this indicator is present, all data in the ESEARCH response refers to
   UIDs, otherwise all returned data refers to message numbers.

   The rest of the ESEARCH response contains one or more search data
   pairs.  Each pair starts with unique return item name, followed by a
   space and the corresponding data.  Search data pairs may be returned
   in any order.  Unless specified otherwise by an extension, any return
   item name SHOULD appear only once in an ESEARCH response.

   [[TBD: describe the most common search data pairs returned.]]

     Example:    S: * ESEARCH UID COUNT 5 ALL 4:19,21,28

     Example:    S: * ESEARCH (TAG "a567") UID COUNT 5 ALL 4:19,21,28

     Example:    S: * ESEARCH COUNT 5 ALL 1:17,21

7.2.7.  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)








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7.3.  Server Responses - Mailbox Size

   These responses are always untagged.  This is how changes in the size
   of the mailbox are transmitted 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 messages).

   The update from the EXISTS response MUST be recorded by the client.

      Example:    S: * 23 EXISTS

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).

   The EXPUNGE response also decrements the number of messages in the
   mailbox; it is not necessary to send an EXISTS response with the new
   value.

   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 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"



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   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.  A command is not "in progress"
   until the complete command has been received; in particular, a
   command is not "in progress" during the negotiation of command
   continuation.

      Note: UID FETCH, UID STORE, and UID SEARCH are different commands
      from FETCH, STORE, and SEARCH.  An EXPUNGE response MAY be sent
      during a UID command.

   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:

   BINARY[<section-binary>]<<number>>

         An <nstring> or <literal8> expressing the content of the
         specified section after removing any Content-Transfer-Encoding-
         related encoding.  If <number> is present it refers to the
         offset within the DECODED section data.

         If the domain of the decoded data is "8bit" and the data does
         not contain the NUL octet, the server SHOULD return the data in
         a <string> instead of a <literal8>; this allows the client to
         determine if the "8bit" data contains the NUL octet without
         having to explicitly scan the data stream for for NULs.

         Messaging clients and servers have been notoriously lax in
         their adherence to the Internet CRLF convention for terminating
         lines of textual data (text/* media types) in Internet
         protocols.  When sending data in BINARY[...] FETCH data item,
         servers MUST ensure that textual line-oriented sections are



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         always transmitted using the IMAP4 CRLF line termination
         syntax, regardless of the underlying storage representation of
         the data on the server.

         If the server does not know how to decode the section's
         Content-Transfer-Encoding, it MUST fail the request and issue a
         "NO" response that contains the "UNKNOWN-CTE" response code.

   BINARY.SIZE[<section-binary>]

         The size of the section after removing any Content-Transfer-
         Encoding-related encoding.  The value returned MUST match the
         size of the <nstring> or <literal8> that will be returned by
         the corresponding FETCH BINARY request.

         If the server does not know how to decode the section's
         Content-Transfer-Encoding, it MUST fail the request and issue a
         "NO" response that contains the "UNKNOWN-CTE" response code.

   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.

            Note: The origin octet facility MUST NOT be used by a server
            in a FETCH response unless the client specifically requested
            it by means of a FETCH of a BODY[<section>]<<partial>> data
            item.

         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 or MESSAGE/GLOBAL part), MAY
         be in UTF-8.  Note also that the [RFC-5322] delimiting blank
         line between the header and the body is not affected by header
         line subsetting; the blank line is always included as part of
         header data, except in the case of a message which has no body
         and no blank line.





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         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 sequence of one or more nested body structures.  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
         BASE64-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
            "baz"] as defined in [MIME-IMB].  Servers SHOULD decode
            parameter value continuations as described in [RFC2231], for
            example, if the message contains parameters "foo*0*" and
            "foo*1*", the server should RFC2231-decode them, concatenate
            and return the resulting value as "foo*".

         body disposition  A parenthesized list, consisting of a
            disposition type string, followed by a parenthesized list of
            disposition attribute/value pairs as defined in




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            [DISPOSITION].  Servers SHOULD decode parameter value
            continuations as described in [RFC2231].

         body language  A string or parenthesized list giving the body
            language value as defined in [LANGUAGE-TAGS].

         body location  A string giving the body content URI as defined
            in [LOCATION].

         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 header field value as
            defined in Section 7 of [MIME-IMB].

         body description  A string giving the Content-Description
            header field value as defined in Section 8 of [MIME-IMB].

         body encoding  A string giving the content transfer encoding as
            defined in Section 6 of [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,




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         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].

         body location  A string giving the body content URI as defined
            in [LOCATION].

         Any following extension data are not yet defined in this
         version of the protocol, and would be as described above under
         multipart extension data.

   ENVELOPE

         A parenthesized list that describes the envelope structure of a
         message.  This is computed by the server by parsing the
         [RFC-5322] 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.





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         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, obs-route), mailbox name, and host name.

         [RFC-5322] 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.

         If the Date, Subject, In-Reply-To, and Message-ID header lines
         are absent in the [RFC-5322] header, the corresponding member
         of the envelope is NIL; if these header lines are present but
         empty the corresponding member of the envelope is the empty
         string.

            Note: some servers may return a NIL envelope member in the
            "present but empty" case.  Clients SHOULD treat NIL and
            empty string as identical.

            Note: [RFC-5322] requires that all messages have a valid
            Date header.  Therefore, the date member in the envelope can
            not be NIL or the empty string.

            Note: [RFC-5322] requires that the In-Reply-To and Message-
            ID headers, if present, have non-empty content.  Therefore,
            the in-reply-to and message-id members in the envelope can
            not be the empty string.

         If the From, To, Cc, and Bcc header lines are absent in the
         [RFC-5322] header, or are present but empty, the corresponding
         member of the envelope is NIL.

         If the Sender or Reply-To lines are absent in the [RFC-5322]
         header, or are present but empty, the server sets the
         corresponding member of the envelope to be the same value as
         the from member (the client is not expected to know to do
         this).

            Note: [RFC-5322] requires that all messages have a valid
            From header.  Therefore, the from, sender, and reply-to
            members in the envelope can not be NIL.

   FLAGS  A parenthesized list of flags that are set for this message.

   INTERNALDATE  A string representing the internal date of the message.



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   RFC822.SIZE  A number expressing the [RFC-5322] size of the message.

   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 AUTHENTICATE 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
   synchronizing literal.

   The client is not permitted to send the octets of the synchronizing
   literal unless the server indicates that it is expected.  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 IMAP4rev2 connection

   The following is a transcript of an IMAP4rev2 connection.  A long
   line in this sample is broken for editorial clarity.












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S:   * OK IMAP4rev2 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:   * OK [UIDVALIDITY 3857529045] UIDs valid
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)"
      "IMAP4rev2 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" "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] {342}
S:    Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 02:23:25 -0700 (PDT)
S:    From: Terry Gray <gray@cac.washington.edu>
S:    Subject: IMAP4rev2 WG mtg summary and minutes
S:    To: imap@cac.washington.edu
S:    cc: minutes@CNRI.Reston.VA.US, John Klensin <KLENSIN@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 IMAP4rev2 server terminating connection
S:    a006 OK LOGOUT completed

9.  Formal Syntax

   The following syntax specification uses the Augmented Backus-Naur
   Form (ABNF) notation as specified in [ABNF].





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   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" can be parsed
   as a flag-extension.  Some, but not all, instances of this rule are
   noted below.

      Note: [ABNF] rules MUST be followed strictly; in particular:

      (1) 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.

      (2) In all cases, SP refers to exactly one space.  It is NOT
      permitted to substitute TAB, insert additional spaces, or
      otherwise treat SP as being equivalent to LWSP.

      (3) The ASCII NUL character, %x00, MUST NOT be used at any time.

address         = "(" addr-name SP addr-adl SP addr-mailbox SP
                  addr-host ")"

addr-adl        = nstring
                    ; Holds route from [RFC-5322] obs-route if
                    ; non-NIL

addr-host       = nstring
                    ; NIL indicates [RFC-5322] group syntax.
                    ; Otherwise, holds [RFC-5322] domain name

addr-mailbox    = nstring
                    ; NIL indicates end of [RFC-5322] group; if
                    ; non-NIL and addr-host is NIL, holds
                    ; [RFC-5322] group name.
                    ; Otherwise, holds [RFC-5322] local-part
                    ; after removing [RFC-5322] quoting

addr-name       = nstring
                    ; If non-NIL, holds phrase from [RFC-5322]
                    ; mailbox after removing [RFC-5322] quoting

append          = "APPEND" SP mailbox [SP flag-list] [SP date-time] SP
                  literal

append-uid      = uniqueid

astring         = 1*ASTRING-CHAR / string



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ASTRING-CHAR   = ATOM-CHAR / resp-specials

atom            = 1*ATOM-CHAR

ATOM-CHAR       = <any CHAR except atom-specials>

atom-specials   = "(" / ")" / "{" / SP / CTL / list-wildcards /
                  quoted-specials / resp-specials

authenticate    = "AUTHENTICATE" SP auth-type [SP initial-resp]
                  *(CRLF base64)

auth-type       = atom
                    ; Defined by [SASL]

base64          = *(4base64-char) [base64-terminal]

base64-char     = ALPHA / DIGIT / "+" / "/"
                    ; Case-sensitive

base64-terminal = (2base64-char "==") / (3base64-char "=")

body            = "(" (body-type-1part / body-type-mpart) ")"

body-extension  = nstring / number /
                   "(" body-extension *(SP 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 [SP body-fld-dsp [SP body-fld-lang
                  [SP body-fld-loc *(SP body-extension)]]]
                    ; MUST NOT be returned on non-extensible
                    ; "BODY" fetch

body-ext-mpart  = body-fld-param [SP body-fld-dsp [SP body-fld-lang
                  [SP body-fld-loc *(SP body-extension)]]]
                    ; MUST NOT be returned on non-extensible
                    ; "BODY" fetch

body-fields     = body-fld-param SP body-fld-id SP body-fld-desc SP
                  body-fld-enc SP body-fld-octets

body-fld-desc   = nstring




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body-fld-dsp    = "(" string SP body-fld-param ")" / nil

body-fld-enc    = (DQUOTE ("7BIT" / "8BIT" / "BINARY" / "BASE64"/
                  "QUOTED-PRINTABLE") DQUOTE) / string

body-fld-id     = nstring

body-fld-lang   = nstring / "(" string *(SP string) ")"

body-fld-loc    = nstring

body-fld-lines  = number

body-fld-md5    = nstring

body-fld-octets = number

body-fld-param  = "(" string SP string *(SP string SP string) ")" / nil

body-type-1part = (body-type-basic / body-type-msg / body-type-text)
                  [SP body-ext-1part]

body-type-basic = media-basic SP body-fields
                    ; MESSAGE subtype MUST NOT be "RFC822" or "GLOBAL"

body-type-mpart = 1*body SP media-subtype
                  [SP body-ext-mpart]
                    ; MULTIPART body part

body-type-msg   = media-message SP body-fields SP envelope
                  SP body SP body-fld-lines

body-type-text  = media-text SP body-fields SP 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" *(SP capability) SP "IMAP4rev2"
                  *(SP capability)
                    ; Servers MUST implement the STARTTLS, AUTH=PLAIN,
                    ; and LOGINDISABLED capabilities
                    ; Servers which offer RFC 1730 compatibility MUST
                    ; list "IMAP4" as the first capability.

CHAR8           = %x01-ff
                    ; any OCTET except NUL, %x00



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charset         = atom / quoted

childinfo-extended-item =  "CHILDINFO" SP "("
            list-select-base-opt-quoted
            *(SP list-select-base-opt-quoted) ")"
            ; Extended data item (mbox-list-extended-item)
            ; returned when the RECURSIVEMATCH
            ; selection option is specified.
            ; Note 1: the CHILDINFO tag can be returned
            ; with and without surrounding quotes, as per
            ; mbox-list-extended-item-tag production.
            ; Note 2: The selection options are always returned
            ; quoted, unlike their specification in
            ; the extended LIST command.

child-mbox-flag =  "\HasChildren" / "\HasNoChildren"
            ; attributes for CHILDREN return option, at most one
            ; possible per LIST response

command         = tag SP (command-any / command-auth / command-nonauth /
                  command-select) CRLF
                    ; Modal based on state

command-any     = "CAPABILITY" / "LOGOUT" / "NOOP" / enable / x-command
                    ; Valid in all states

command-auth    = append / create / delete / examine / list /
                  Namespace-Command /
                  rename / select / status / subscribe / unsubscribe /
                  idle
                    ; Valid only in Authenticated or Selected state

command-nonauth = login / authenticate / "STARTTLS"
                    ; Valid only when in Not Authenticated state

command-select  = "CLOSE" / "UNSELECT" / "EXPUNGE" / copy /
                   move / fetch / store / search / uid
                    ; Valid only when in Selected state

continue-req    = "+" SP (resp-text / base64) CRLF

copy            = "COPY" SP sequence-set SP mailbox

create          = "CREATE" SP mailbox
                    ; Use of INBOX gives a NO error

date            = date-text / DQUOTE date-text DQUOTE




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date-day        = 1*2DIGIT
                    ; Day of month

date-day-fixed  = (SP 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       = DQUOTE date-day-fixed "-" date-month "-" date-year
                  SP time SP zone DQUOTE

delete          = "DELETE" SP mailbox
                    ; Use of INBOX gives a NO error

digit-nz        = %x31-39
                    ; 1-9

eitem-standard-tag =  atom
            ; a tag for extended list data defined in a Standard
            ; Track or Experimental RFC.

eitem-vendor-tag =  vendor-token "-" atom
            ; a vendor-specific tag for extended list data

enable          = "ENABLE" 1*(SP capability)

enable-data     = "ENABLED" *(SP capability)

envelope        = "(" env-date SP env-subject SP env-from SP
                  env-sender SP env-reply-to SP env-to SP env-cc SP
                  env-bcc SP env-in-reply-to SP 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



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env-reply-to    = "(" 1*address ")" / nil

env-sender      = "(" 1*address ")" / nil

env-subject     = nstring

env-to          = "(" 1*address ")" / nil

esearch-response  = "ESEARCH" [search-correlator] [SP "UID"]
                    *(SP search-return-data)
                  ; ESEARCH response replaces SEARCH response
                  ; from IMAP4rev1.

examine         = "EXAMINE" SP mailbox

fetch           = "FETCH" SP sequence-set SP ("ALL" / "FULL" / "FAST" /
                  fetch-att / "(" fetch-att *(SP fetch-att) ")")

fetch-att       = "ENVELOPE" / "FLAGS" / "INTERNALDATE" /
                  "RFC822.SIZE" /
                  "BODY" ["STRUCTURE"] / "UID" /
                  "BODY" section [partial] /
                  "BODY.PEEK" section [partial] /
                  "BINARY" [".PEEK"] section-binary [partial] /
                  "BINARY.SIZE" section-binary

flag            = "\Answered" / "\Flagged" / "\Deleted" /
                  "\Seen" / "\Draft" / flag-keyword / flag-extension
                    ; Does not include "\Recent"

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.
                    ; "\Recent" was defined in RFC 3501
                    ; and is now deprecated.

flag-fetch      = flag

flag-keyword    = "$MDNSent" / "$Forwarded" / atom

flag-list       = "(" [flag *(SP flag)] ")"

flag-perm       = flag / "\*"




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greeting        = "*" SP (resp-cond-auth / resp-cond-bye) CRLF

header-fld-name = astring

header-list     = "(" header-fld-name *(SP header-fld-name) ")"

idle            = "IDLE" CRLF "DONE"

initial-resp    =  (base64 / "=")
                   ; "initial response" defined in
                   ; Section 5.1 of [RFC4422]

list            = "LIST" [SP list-select-opts] SP mailbox SP mbox-or-pat
                  [SP list-return-opts]


list-mailbox    = 1*list-char / string

list-char       = ATOM-CHAR / list-wildcards / resp-specials

list-return-opts =  "RETURN" SP
            "(" [return-option *(SP return-option)] ")"
            ; list return options, e.g., CHILDREN

list-select-base-opt =  "SUBSCRIBED" / option-extension
            ; options that can be used by themselves

list-select-base-opt-quoted =  DQUOTE list-select-base-opt DQUOTE

list-select-independent-opt =  "REMOTE" / option-extension
            ; options that do not syntactically interact with
            ; other options

list-select-mod-opt =  "RECURSIVEMATCH" / option-extension
            ; options that require a list-select-base-opt
            ; to also be present

list-select-opt =  list-select-base-opt / list-select-independent-opt
                   / list-select-mod-opt
            ; An option registration template is described in
            ; Section 9.3 of this document.

list-select-opts =  "(" [
                   (*(list-select-opt SP) list-select-base-opt
                   *(SP list-select-opt))
                  / (list-select-independent-opt
                   *(SP list-select-independent-opt))
                     ] ")"



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            ; Any number of options may be in any order.
            ; If a list-select-mod-opt appears, then a
            ; list-select-base-opt must also appear.
            ; This allows these:
            ; ()
            ; (REMOTE)
            ; (SUBSCRIBED)
            ; (SUBSCRIBED REMOTE)
            ; (SUBSCRIBED RECURSIVEMATCH)
            ; (SUBSCRIBED REMOTE RECURSIVEMATCH)
            ; But does NOT allow these:
            ; (RECURSIVEMATCH)
            ; (REMOTE RECURSIVEMATCH)

list-wildcards  = "%" / "*"

literal         = "{" number ["+"] "}" CRLF *CHAR8
                    ; <number> represents the number of CHAR8s.
                    ; A non-synchronizing literal is distinguished from
                    ; a synchronizing literal by presence of the "+"
                    ; before the closing "}".
                    ; Non synchronizing literals are not allowed when
                    ; sent from server to the client.

literal8        =  "~{" number "}" CRLF *OCTET
                    ; <number> represents the number of OCTETs
                    ; in the response string.

login           = "LOGIN" SP userid SP password

mailbox         = "INBOX" / astring
                    ; INBOX is case-insensitive.  All case variants of
                    ; INBOX (e.g., "iNbOx") MUST be interpreted as INBOX
                    ; not as an astring.  An astring which consists of
                    ; the case-insensitive sequence "I" "N" "B" "O" "X"
                    ; is considered to be INBOX and not an astring.
                    ;  Refer to section 5.1 for further
                    ; semantic details of mailbox names.

mailbox-data    =  "FLAGS" SP flag-list / "LIST" SP mailbox-list /
                   esearch-response /
                   "STATUS" SP mailbox SP "(" [status-att-list] ")" /
                   number SP "EXISTS" / Namespace-Response

mailbox-list    = "(" [mbx-list-flags] ")" SP
                   (DQUOTE QUOTED-CHAR DQUOTE / nil) SP mailbox
                   [SP mbox-list-extended]
            ; This is the list information pointed to by the ABNF



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            ; item "mailbox-data", which is defined in [IMAP4]

mbox-list-extended =  "(" [mbox-list-extended-item
                      *(SP mbox-list-extended-item)] ")"

mbox-list-extended-item =  mbox-list-extended-item-tag SP
                           tagged-ext-val

mbox-list-extended-item-tag =  astring
               ; The content MUST conform to either "eitem-vendor-tag"
               ; or "eitem-standard-tag" ABNF productions.

mbox-or-pat =  list-mailbox / patterns

mbx-list-flags  = *(mbx-list-oflag SP) mbx-list-sflag
                  *(SP mbx-list-oflag) /
                  mbx-list-oflag *(SP mbx-list-oflag)

mbx-list-oflag  = "\Noinferiors" / child-mbox-flag /
                  "\Subscribed" / "\Remote" / flag-extension
                    ; Other flags; multiple possible per LIST response

mbx-list-sflag  = "\NonExistent" / "\Noselect" / "\Marked" / "\Unmarked"
                    ; Selectability flags; only one per LIST response

media-basic     = ((DQUOTE ("APPLICATION" / "AUDIO" / "IMAGE" /
                  "MESSAGE" / "VIDEO" / "FONT") DQUOTE) / string) SP
                  media-subtype
                    ; Defined in [MIME-IMT].
                    ; FONT defined in RFC YYYY.

media-message   = DQUOTE "MESSAGE" DQUOTE SP
                  DQUOTE ("RFC822" / "GLOBAL") DQUOTE
                    ; Defined in [MIME-IMT]

media-subtype   = string
                    ; Defined in [MIME-IMT]

media-text      = DQUOTE "TEXT" DQUOTE SP media-subtype
                    ; Defined in [MIME-IMT]

message-data    = nz-number SP ("EXPUNGE" / ("FETCH" SP msg-att))

move            = "MOVE" SP sequence-set SP mailbox

msg-att         = "(" (msg-att-dynamic / msg-att-static)
                   *(SP (msg-att-dynamic / msg-att-static)) ")"




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msg-att-dynamic = "FLAGS" SP "(" [flag-fetch *(SP flag-fetch)] ")"
                    ; MAY change for a message

msg-att-static  = "ENVELOPE" SP envelope / "INTERNALDATE" SP date-time /
                  "RFC822.SIZE" SP number /
                  "BODY" ["STRUCTURE"] SP body /
                  "BODY" section ["<" number ">"] SP nstring /
                  "BINARY" section-binary SP (nstring / literal8) /
                  "BINARY.SIZE" section-binary SP number /
                  "UID" SP uniqueid
                    ; MUST NOT change for a message

Namespace         = nil / "(" 1*Namespace-Descr ")"

Namespace-Command = "NAMESPACE"

Namespace-Descr   = "(" string SP
                       (DQUOTE QUOTED-CHAR DQUOTE / nil)
                        [Namespace-Response-Extensions] ")"

Namespace-Response-Extensions = *(Namespace-Response-Extension)

Namespace-Response-Extension = SP string SP
                  "(" string *(SP string) ")"

Namespace-Response = "NAMESPACE" SP Namespace
                      SP Namespace SP Namespace
                    ; The first Namespace is the Personal Namespace(s).
                    ; The second Namespace is the Other Users'
                    ; Namespace(s).
                    ; The third Namespace is the Shared Namespace(s).

nil             = "NIL"

nstring         = string / nil

number          = 1*DIGIT
                    ; Unsigned 32-bit integer
                    ; (0 <= n < 4,294,967,296)

number64    = 1*DIGIT
                    ; Unsigned 63-bit integer
                    ; (0 <= n <= 9,223,372,036,854,775,807)

nz-number       = digit-nz *DIGIT
                    ; Non-zero unsigned 32-bit integer
                    ; (0 < n < 4,294,967,296)




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option-extension = (option-standard-tag / option-vendor-tag)
                   [SP option-value]

option-standard-tag =  atom
               ; an option defined in a Standards Track or
               ; Experimental RFC

option-val-comp =  astring /
                   option-val-comp *(SP option-val-comp) /
                   "(" option-val-comp ")"

option-value =  "(" option-val-comp ")"

option-vendor-tag =  vendor-token "-" atom
               ; a vendor-specific option, non-standard

partial-range    = number ["." nz-number]
                    ; Copied from RFC 5092 (IMAP URL)

partial         = "<" number "." nz-number ">"
                    ; Partial FETCH request. 0-based offset of
                    ; the first octet, followed by the number of octets
                    ; in the fragment.

password        = astring

patterns        = "(" list-mailbox *(SP list-mailbox) ")"

quoted          = DQUOTE *QUOTED-CHAR DQUOTE

QUOTED-CHAR     = <any TEXT-CHAR except quoted-specials> /
                  "\" quoted-specials / UTF8-2 / UTF8-3 / UTF8-4

quoted-specials = DQUOTE / "\"

rename          = "RENAME" SP mailbox SP mailbox
                    ; Use of INBOX as a destination gives a NO error

response        = *(continue-req / response-data) response-done

response-data   = "*" SP (resp-cond-state / resp-cond-bye /
                  mailbox-data / message-data / capability-data /
                  enable-data) CRLF

response-done   = response-tagged / response-fatal

response-fatal  = "*" SP resp-cond-bye CRLF
                    ; Server closes connection immediately



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response-tagged = tag SP resp-cond-state CRLF

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

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

resp-cond-auth  = ("OK" / "PREAUTH") SP resp-text
                    ; Authentication condition

resp-cond-bye   = "BYE" SP resp-text

resp-cond-state = ("OK" / "NO" / "BAD") SP resp-text
                    ; Status condition

resp-specials   = "]"

resp-text       = ["[" resp-text-code "]" SP] [text]

resp-text-code  = "ALERT" /
                  "BADCHARSET" [SP "(" charset *(SP charset) ")" ] /
                  capability-data / "PARSE" /
                  "PERMANENTFLAGS" SP "("
                  [flag-perm *(SP flag-perm)] ")" /
                  "READ-ONLY" / "READ-WRITE" / "TRYCREATE" /
                  "UIDNEXT" SP nz-number / "UIDVALIDITY" SP nz-number /
                  resp-code-apnd / resp-code-copy / "UIDNOTSTICKY" /
                  "UNAVAILABLE" / "AUTHENTICATIONFAILED" /
                  "AUTHORIZATIONFAILED" / "EXPIRED" /
                  "PRIVACYREQUIRED" / "CONTACTADMIN" / "NOPERM" /
                  "INUSE" / "EXPUNGEISSUED" / "CORRUPTION" /
                  "SERVERBUG" / "CLIENTBUG" / "CANNOT" /
                  "LIMIT" / "OVERQUOTA" / "ALREADYEXISTS" /
                  "NONEXISTENT" / "NOTSAVED" /
                  "CLOSED" /
                  "UNKNOWN-CTE" /
                  atom [SP 1*<any TEXT-CHAR except "]">]

return-option   =  "SUBSCRIBED" / "CHILDREN" / status-option /
                   option-extension

search          = "SEARCH" [search-return-opts]
                  SP search-program

search-correlator  = SP "(" "TAG" SP tag-string ")"

search-key      = "ALL" / "ANSWERED" / "BCC" SP astring /
                  "BEFORE" SP date / "BODY" SP astring /
                  "CC" SP astring / "DELETED" / "FLAGGED" /



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                  "FROM" SP astring / "KEYWORD" SP flag-keyword /
                  "ON" SP date / "SEEN" /
                  "SINCE" SP date / "SUBJECT" SP astring /
                  "TEXT" SP astring / "TO" SP astring /
                  "UNANSWERED" / "UNDELETED" / "UNFLAGGED" /
                  "UNKEYWORD" SP flag-keyword / "UNSEEN" /
                    ; Above this line were in [IMAP2]
                  "DRAFT" / "HEADER" SP header-fld-name SP astring /
                  "LARGER" SP number / "NOT" SP search-key /
                  "OR" SP search-key SP search-key /
                  "SENTBEFORE" SP date / "SENTON" SP date /
                  "SENTSINCE" SP date / "SMALLER" SP number /
                  "UID" SP sequence-set / "UNDRAFT" / sequence-set /
                  "(" search-key *(SP search-key) ")"

search-modifier-name = tagged-ext-label

search-mod-params = tagged-ext-val
                  ; This non-terminal shows recommended syntax
                  ; for future extensions.

search-program     = ["CHARSET" SP charset SP]
                    search-key *(SP search-key)
                    ; CHARSET argument to SEARCH MUST be
                    ; registered with IANA.

search-ret-data-ext = search-modifier-name SP search-return-value
                    ; Note that not every SEARCH return option
                    ; is required to have the corresponding
                    ; ESEARCH return data.

search-return-data = "MIN" SP nz-number /
                    "MAX" SP nz-number /
                    "ALL" SP sequence-set /
                    "COUNT" SP number /
                    search-ret-data-ext
                    ; All return data items conform to
                    ; search-ret-data-ext syntax.
                    ; Note that "$" marker is not allowed
                    ; after the ALL return data item.

search-return-opts = SP "RETURN" SP "(" [search-return-opt
                    *(SP search-return-opt)] ")"

search-return-opt  = "MIN" / "MAX" / "ALL" / "COUNT" /
                     "SAVE" /
                     search-ret-opt-ext
                    ; conforms to generic search-ret-opt-ext



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                    ; syntax

search-ret-opt-ext = search-modifier-name [SP search-mod-params]

search-return-value = tagged-ext-val
                    ; Data for the returned search option.
                    ; A single "nz-number"/"number"/"number64" value
                    ; can be returned as an atom (i.e., without
                    ; quoting).  A sequence-set can be returned
                    ; as an atom as well.

section         = "[" [section-spec] "]"

section-binary  = "[" [section-part] "]"

section-msgtext = "HEADER" / "HEADER.FIELDS" [".NOT"] SP header-list /
                  "TEXT"
                    ; top-level or MESSAGE/RFC822 or MESSAGE/GLOBAL part

section-part    = nz-number *("." nz-number)
                    ; body part reference.
                    ; Allows for accessing nested body parts.

section-spec    = section-msgtext / (section-part ["." section-text])

section-text    = section-msgtext / "MIME"
                    ; text other than actual body part (headers, etc.)

select          = "SELECT" SP mailbox

seq-number      = nz-number / "*"
                    ; message sequence number (COPY, FETCH, STORE
                    ; commands) or unique identifier (UID COPY,
                    ; UID FETCH, UID STORE commands).
                    ; * represents the largest number in use.  In
                    ; the case of message sequence numbers, it is
                    ; the number of messages in a non-empty mailbox.
                    ; In the case of unique identifiers, it is the
                    ; unique identifier of the last message in the
                    ; mailbox or, if the mailbox is empty, the
                    ; mailbox's current UIDNEXT value.
                    ; The server should respond with a tagged BAD
                    ; response to a command that uses a message
                    ; sequence number greater than the number of
                    ; messages in the selected mailbox.  This
                    ; includes "*" if the selected mailbox is empty.

seq-range       = seq-number ":" seq-number



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                    ; two seq-number values and all values between
                    ; these two regardless of order.
                    ; Example: 2:4 and 4:2 are equivalent and indicate
                    ; values 2, 3, and 4.
                    ; Example: a unique identifier sequence range of
                    ; 3291:* includes the UID of the last message in
                    ; the mailbox, even if that value is less than 3291.

sequence-set    = (seq-number / seq-range) ["," sequence-set]
                    ; set of seq-number values, regardless of order.
                    ; Servers MAY coalesce overlaps and/or execute the
                    ; sequence in any order.
                    ; Example: a message sequence number set of
                    ; 2,4:7,9,12:* for a mailbox with 15 messages is
                    ; equivalent to 2,4,5,6,7,9,12,13,14,15
                    ; Example: a message sequence number set of *:4,5:7
                    ; for a mailbox with 10 messages is equivalent to
                    ; 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,5,6,7 and MAY be reordered and
                    ; overlap coalesced to be 4,5,6,7,8,9,10.

sequence-set    =/ seq-last-command
                    ; Allow for "result of the last command" indicator.

seq-last-command   = "$"

status          = "STATUS" SP mailbox SP
                  "(" status-att *(SP status-att) ")"

status-att      = "MESSAGES" / "UIDNEXT" / "UIDVALIDITY" /
                  "UNSEEN" / "DELETED" / "SIZE"

status-att-val  = ("MESSAGES" SP number) /
                  ("UIDNEXT" SP nz-number) /
                  ("UIDVALIDITY" SP nz-number) /
                  ("UNSEEN" SP number) /
                  ("DELETED" SP number) /
                  ("SIZE" SP number64)
                    ; Extensions to the STATUS responses
                    ; should extend this production.
                    ; Extensions should use the generic
                    ; syntax defined by tagged-ext.

status-att-list =  status-att-val *(SP status-att-val)

status-option = "STATUS" SP "(" status-att *(SP status-att) ")"
                    ; This ABNF production complies with
                    ; <option-extension> syntax.




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store           = "STORE" SP sequence-set SP store-att-flags

store-att-flags = (["+" / "-"] "FLAGS" [".SILENT"]) SP
                  (flag-list / (flag *(SP flag)))

string          = quoted / literal

subscribe       = "SUBSCRIBE" SP mailbox

tag             = 1*<any ASTRING-CHAR except "+">

tagged-ext-label    = tagged-label-fchar *tagged-label-char
                      ;; Is a valid RFC 3501 "atom".

tagged-label-fchar  = ALPHA / "-" / "_" / "."

tagged-label-char   = tagged-label-fchar / DIGIT / ":"

tagged-ext-comp     = astring /
                      tagged-ext-comp *(SP tagged-ext-comp) /
                      "(" tagged-ext-comp ")"
                      ;; Extensions that follow this general
                      ;; syntax should use nstring instead of
                      ;; astring when appropriate in the context
                      ;; of the extension.
                      ;; Note that a message set or a "number"
                      ;; can always be represented as an "atom".
                      ;; An URL should be represented as
                      ;; a "quoted" string.

tagged-ext-simple   = sequence-set / number / number64

tagged-ext-val      = tagged-ext-simple /
                      "(" [tagged-ext-comp] ")"

text            = 1*TEXT-CHAR

TEXT-CHAR       = <any CHAR except CR and LF>

time            = 2DIGIT ":" 2DIGIT ":" 2DIGIT
                    ; Hours minutes seconds

uid             = "UID" SP
                  (copy / move / fetch / search / store / uid-expunge)
                    ; Unique identifiers used instead of message
                    ; sequence numbers

uid-expunge     = "EXPUNGE" SP sequence-set



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                    ; Unique identifiers used instead of message
                    ; sequence numbers

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

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

uniqueid        = nz-number
                    ; Strictly ascending

unsubscribe     = "UNSUBSCRIBE" SP mailbox

userid          = astring

UTF8-2          = <Defined in Section 4 of RFC 3629>

UTF8-3          = <Defined in Section 4 of RFC 3629>

UTF8-4          = <Defined in Section 4 of RFC 3629>

x-command       = "X" atom <experimental command arguments>

zone            = ("+" / "-") 4DIGIT
                    ; Signed four-digit value of hhmm representing
                    ; hours and minutes east 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 2060,
   RFC 1730, unpublished IMAP2bis.TXT document, RFC 1176, and RFC 1064.

11.  Security Considerations

   IMAP4rev2 protocol transactions, including electronic mail data, are
   sent in the clear over the network unless protection from snooping is
   negotiated.  This can be accomplished either by the use of IMAPS
   service, STARTTLS command, negotiated privacy protection in the
   AUTHENTICATE command, or some other protection mechanism.





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11.1.  STARTTLS Security Considerations

   IMAP client and server implementations MUST comply with relevant TLS
   recommendations from [RFC8314].  Additionally, when using TLS 1.2,
   IMAP implementations MUST implement
   TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 cipher suite, and SHOULD
   implement the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA [TLS] cipher suite.  This
   is important as it assures that any two compliant implementations can
   be configured to interoperate.  Other TLS cipher suites recommended
   in RFC 7525 are RECOMMENDED: TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256,
   TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 and
   TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384.  All other cipher suites are
   OPTIONAL.  Note that this is a change from section 2.1 of [IMAP-TLS].

   During the [TLS] negotiation, the client MUST check its understanding
   of the server hostname against the server's identity as presented in
   the server Certificate message, in order to prevent man-in-the-middle
   attacks.  This procedure is described in [RFC7817].

   Both the client and server MUST check the result of the STARTTLS
   command and subsequent [TLS] negotiation to see whether acceptable
   authentication and/or privacy was achieved.

11.2.  COPYUID and APPENDUID response codes

   The COPYUID and APPENDUID response codes return information about the
   mailbox, which may be considered sensitive if the mailbox has
   permissions set that permit the client to COPY or APPEND to the
   mailbox, but not SELECT or EXAMINE it.

   Consequently, these response codes SHOULD NOT be issued if the client
   does not have access to SELECT or EXAMINE the mailbox.

11.3.  LIST command and Other Users' namespace

   In response to a LIST command containing an argument of the Other
   Users' Namespace prefix, a server SHOULD NOT list users that have not
   granted list access to their personal mailboxes to the currently
   authenticated user.  Providing such a list, could compromise security
   by potentially disclosing confidential information of who is located
   on the server, or providing a starting point of a list of user
   accounts to attack.

11.4.  Other Security Considerations

   A server error message for an AUTHENTICATE command which fails due to
   invalid credentials SHOULD NOT detail why the credentials are
   invalid.



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   Use of the LOGIN command sends passwords in the clear.  This can be
   avoided by using the AUTHENTICATE command with a [SASL] mechanism
   that does not use plaintext passwords, by first negotiating
   encryption via STARTTLS or some other protection mechanism.

   A server implementation MUST implement a configuration that, at the
   time of authentication, requires:
   (1) The STARTTLS command has been negotiated.
   OR
   (2) Some other mechanism that protects the session from password
   snooping has been provided.
   OR
   (3) The following measures are in place:
   (a) The LOGINDISABLED capability is advertised, and [SASL] mechanisms
   (such as PLAIN) using plaintext passwords are NOT advertised in the
   CAPABILITY list.
   AND
   (b) The LOGIN command returns an error even if the password is
   correct.
   AND
   (c) The AUTHENTICATE command returns an error with all [SASL]
   mechanisms that use plaintext passwords, even if the password is
   correct.

   A server error message for a failing LOGIN command SHOULD NOT specify
   that the user name, as opposed to the password, is invalid.

   A server SHOULD have mechanisms in place to limit or delay failed
   AUTHENTICATE/LOGIN attempts.

   Additional security considerations are discussed in the section
   discussing the AUTHENTICATE and LOGIN commands.

12.  IANA Considerations

   IANA is requested to update "Service Names and Transport Protocol
   Port Numbers" registry as follows:

   1.  Registration for TCP "imap" port 143 should be updated to point
       to this document and RFC 3501.

   2.  Registration for TCP "imaps" port 993 should be updated to point
       to this document, RFC 8314 and RFC 3501.

   3.  Both UDP port 143 and UDP port 993 should be marked as "Reserved"
       in the registry.

   Additional IANA actions are specified in subsection of this section.



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12.1.  Updates to IMAP4 Capabilities registry

   IMAP4 capabilities are registered by publishing a standards track or
   IESG approved informational or experimental RFC.  The registry is
   currently located at: http://www.iana.org/assignments/
   imap4-capabilities

   As this specification revises the STARTTLS and LOGINDISABLED
   extensions previously defined in [IMAP-TLS], IANA is requested to
   update registry entries for these 2 extensions to point to this
   document.

12.2.  GSSAPI/SASL service name

   GSSAPI/Kerberos/SASL service names are registered by publishing a
   standards track or IESG approved experimental RFC.  The registry is
   currently located at: http://www.iana.org/assignments/gssapi-service-
   names

   IANA is requested to update the "imap" service name previously
   registered in RFC 3501, to point to this document.

13.  References

13.1.  Normative References

   [ABNF]     Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
              Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, January 2008,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5234>.

   [ANONYMOUS]
              Zeilenga, K., "Anonymous Simple Authentication and
              Security Layer (SASL) Mechanism", RFC 4505, June 2006,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4505>.

   [CHARSET]  Freed, N. and J. Postel, "IANA Charset Registration
              Procedures", BCP 19, RFC 2978, October 2000,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2978>.

   [SCRAM-SHA-256]
              Hansen, T., "SCRAM-SHA-256 and SCRAM-SHA-256-PLUS Simple
              Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) Mechanisms",
              RFC 7677, DOI 10.17487/RFC7677, November 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7677>.







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   [DISPOSITION]
              Troost, R., Dorner, S., and K. Moore, Ed., "Communicating
              Presentation Information in Internet Messages: The
              Content-Disposition Header Field", RFC 2183, August 1997,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2183>.

   [PLAIN]    Zeilenga, K., Ed., "The PLAIN Simple Authentication and
              Security Layer (SASL) Mechanism", RFC 4616, August 2006,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4616>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [LANGUAGE-TAGS]
              Alvestrand, H., "Content Language Headers", RFC 3282, May
              2002, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3282>.

   [LOCATION]
              Palme, J., Hopmann, A., and N. Shelness, "MIME
              Encapsulation of Aggregate Documents, such as HTML
              (MHTML)", RFC 2557, March 1999,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2557>.

   [MD5]      Myers, J. and M. Rose, "The Content-MD5 Header Field",
              RFC 1864, October 1995,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1864>.

   [MIME-HDRS]
              Moore, K., "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
              Part Three: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text",
              RFC 2047, November 1996,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2047>.

   [MIME-IMB]
              Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail
              Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message
              Bodies", RFC 2045, November 1996,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2045>.







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   [MIME-IMT]
              Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail
              Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046,
              November 1996, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2046>.

   [RFC2231]  Freed, N. and K. Moore, "MIME Parameter Value and Encoded
              Word Extensions: Character Sets, Languages, and
              Continuations", RFC 2231, DOI 10.17487/RFC2231, November
              1997, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2231>.

   [RFC-5322]
              Resnick, P., Ed., "Internet Message Format", RFC 5322,
              October 2008, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5322>.

   [SASL]     Melnikov, A., Ed. and K. Zeilenga, Ed., "Simple
              Authentication and Security Layer (SASL)", RFC 4422, June
              2006, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4422>.

   [TLS]      Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security
              (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246, August 2008,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5246>.

   [UTF-7]    Goldsmith, D. and M. Davis, "UTF-7 A Mail-Safe
              Transformation Format of Unicode", RFC 2152, May 1997,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2152>.

   [UTF-8]    Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
              10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, DOI 10.17487/RFC3629, November
              2003, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3629>.

   [MULTIAPPEND]
              Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) -
              MULTIAPPEND Extension", RFC 3502, March 2003,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3502>.

   [NET-UNICODE]
              Klensin, J. and M. Padlipsky, "Unicode Format for Network
              Interchange", RFC 5198, DOI 10.17487/RFC5198, March 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5198>.

   [I18N-HDRS]
              Yang, A., Steele, S., and N. Freed, "Internationalized
              Email Headers", RFC 6532, DOI 10.17487/RFC6532, February
              2012, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6532>.

   [RFC4648]  Josefsson, S., "The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data
              Encodings", RFC 4648, DOI 10.17487/RFC4648, October 2006,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4648>.



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   [RFC7817]  Melnikov, A., "Updated Transport Layer Security (TLS)
              Server Identity Check Procedure for Email-Related
              Protocols", RFC 7817, DOI 10.17487/RFC7817, March 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7817>.

   [RFC8098]  Hansen, T., Ed. and A. Melnikov, Ed., "Message Disposition
              Notification", STD 85, RFC 8098, DOI 10.17487/RFC8098,
              February 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8098>.

   [RFC8314]  Moore, K. and C. Newman, "Cleartext Considered Obsolete:
              Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for Email Submission
              and Access", RFC 8314, DOI 10.17487/RFC8314, January 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8314>.

   [IMAP-IMPLEMENTATION]
              Leiba, B., "IMAP4 Implementation Recommendations",
              RFC 2683, September 1999,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2683>.

   [IMAP-MULTIACCESS]
              Gahrns, M., "IMAP4 Multi-Accessed Mailbox Practice",
              RFC 2180, July 1997,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2180>.

13.2.  Informative References (related protocols)

   [RFC5256]  Crispin, M. and K. Murchison, "Internet Message Access
              Protocol - SORT and THREAD Extensions", RFC 5256,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5256, June 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5256>.

   [RFC5258]  Leiba, B. and A. Melnikov, "Internet Message Access
              Protocol version 4 - LIST Command Extensions", RFC 5258,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5258, June 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5258>.

   [RFC2193]  Gahrns, M., "IMAP4 Mailbox Referrals", RFC 2193,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2193, September 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2193>.

   [RFC3348]  Gahrns, M. and R. Cheng, "The Internet Message Action
              Protocol (IMAP4) Child Mailbox Extension", RFC 3348,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3348, July 2002,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3348>.

   [RFC7888]  Melnikov, A., Ed., "IMAP4 Non-synchronizing Literals",
              RFC 7888, DOI 10.17487/RFC7888, May 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7888>.



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   [IMAP-DISC]
              Melnikov, A., Ed., "Synchronization Operations for
              Disconnected IMAP4 Clients", RFC 4549, June 2006,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4549>.

   [IMAP-I18N]
              Newman, C., Gulbrandsen, A., and A. Melnikov, "Internet
              Message Access Protocol Internationalization", RFC 5255,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5255, June 2008,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5255>.

   [IMAP-MODEL]
              Crispin, M., "Distributed Electronic Mail Models in
              IMAP4", RFC 1733, December 1994,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1733>.

   [IMAP-UTF-8]
              Resnick, P., Ed., Newman, C., Ed., and S. Shen, Ed., "IMAP
              Support for UTF-8", RFC 6855, DOI 10.17487/RFC6855, March
              2013, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6855>.

   [SMTP]     Klensin, J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", RFC 5321,
              October 2008, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5321>.

   [RFC3516]  Nerenberg, L., "IMAP4 Binary Content Extension", RFC 3516,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3516, April 2003,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3516>.

   [RFC4314]  Melnikov, A., "IMAP4 Access Control List (ACL) Extension",
              RFC 4314, December 2005,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4314>.

   [RFC2087]  Myers, J., "IMAP4 QUOTA extension", RFC 2087, January
              1997, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2087>.

   [IMAP-URL]
              Melnikov, A., Ed. and C. Newman, "IMAP URL Scheme",
              RFC 5092, DOI 10.17487/RFC5092, November 2007,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5092>.

13.3.  Informative References (historical aspects of IMAP and related
       protocols)

   [IMAP-COMPAT]
              Crispin, M., "IMAP4 Compatibility with IMAP2bis",
              RFC 2061, December 1996,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2061>.




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   [IMAP-HISTORICAL]
              Crispin, M., "IMAP4 Compatibility with IMAP2 and
              IMAP2bis", RFC 1732, December 1994,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1732>.

   [IMAP-OBSOLETE]
              Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol - Obsolete
              Syntax", RFC 2062, December 1996,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2062>.

   [IMAP2]    Crispin, M., "Interactive Mail Access Protocol: Version
              2", RFC 1176, August 1990,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1176>.

   [RFC-822]  Crocker, D., "STANDARD FOR THE FORMAT OF ARPA INTERNET
              TEXT MESSAGES", STD 11, RFC 822, August 1982,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc822>.

   [IMAP-TLS]
              Newman, C., "Using TLS with IMAP, POP3 and ACAP",
              RFC 2595, June 1999,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2595>.

Appendix A.  Backward compatibility with IMAP4rev1

   An implementation that wants to remain compatible with IMAP4rev1 can
   advertise both IMAP4rev1 and IMAP4rev2 in its CAPABILITY response/
   response code.  While some IMAP4rev1 responses were removed in
   IMAP4rev2, their presence will not break IMAP4rev2-only clients.

   If both IMAP4rev1 and IMAP4rev2 are advertised, an IMAP client that
   wants to use IMAP4rev2 MUST issue an "ENABLE IMAP4rev2" command.

   Servers advertising both IMAP4rev1 and IMAP4rev2 SHOULD NOT generate
   UTF-8 quoted strings unless the client has issued "ENABLE IMAP4rev2".
   Consider implementation of mechanisms described or referenced in
   [IMAP-UTF-8] to achieve this goal.

   Servers advertising both IMAP4rev1 and IMAP4rev2, and clients
   intending to be compatible with IMAP4rev1 servers MUST be compatible
   with the international mailbox naming convention described in the
   following subsection.









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A.1.  Mailbox International Naming Convention for compatibility with
      IMAP4rev1

   Support for the Mailbox International Naming Convention described in
   this section is not required for IMAP4rev2-only clients and servers.

   By convention, international mailbox names in IMAP4rev1 are specified
   using a modified version of the UTF-7 encoding described in [UTF-7].
   Modified UTF-7 may also be usable in servers that implement an
   earlier version of this protocol.

   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 and 0x7f-0xff) 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.  Only characters inside the modified BASE64 alphabet are
   permitted in modified BASE64 text.

   "&" is used to shift to modified BASE64 and "-" to shift back to US-
   ASCII.  There is no implicit shift from BASE64 to US-ASCII, and null
   shifts ("-&" while in BASE64; note that "&-" while in US-ASCII means
   "&") are not permitted.  However, all names start in US-ASCII, and
   MUST end in US-ASCII; that is, a name that ends with a non-ASCII
   ISO-10646 character MUST end with a "-").

   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.






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   5.  UTF-7 permits multiple alternate forms to represent the same
       string; in particular, printable US-ASCII characters can be
       represented in encoded form.

   Although modified UTF-7 is a convention, it establishes certain
   requirements on server handling of any mailbox name with an embedded
   "&" character.  In particular, server implementations MUST preserve
   the exact form of the modified BASE64 portion of a modified UTF-7
   name and treat that text as case-sensitive, even if names are
   otherwise case-insensitive or case-folded.

   Server implementations SHOULD verify that any mailbox name with an
   embedded "&" character, used as an argument to CREATE, is: in the
   correctly modified UTF-7 syntax, has no superfluous shifts, and has
   no encoding in modified BASE64 of any printing US-ASCII character
   which can represent itself.  However, client implementations MUST NOT
   depend upon the server doing this, and SHOULD NOT attempt to create a
   mailbox name with an embedded "&" character unless it complies with
   the modified UTF-7 syntax.

   Server implementations which export a mail store that does not follow
   the modified UTF-7 convention MUST convert to modified UTF-7 any
   mailbox name that contains either non-ASCII characters or the "&"
   character.

      For example, here is a mailbox name which mixes English, Chinese,
      and Japanese text: ~peter/mail/&U,BTFw-/&ZeVnLIqe-

      For example, the string "&Jjo!" is not a valid mailbox name
      because it does not contain a shift to US-ASCII before the "!".
      The correct form is "&Jjo-!".  The string "&U,BTFw-&ZeVnLIqe-" is
      not permitted because it contains a superfluous shift.  The
      correct form is "&U,BTF2XlZyyKng-".

Appendix B.  Backward compatibility with BINARY extension

   IMAP4rev2 is incorporates subset of functionality provided by the
   BINARY extension [RFC3516], in particular it includes additional
   FETCH items (BINARY, BINARY.PEEK and BINARY.SIZE), but not extensions
   to the APPEND command.  IMAP4rev2 implementations that supports full
   RFC 3516 functionality need to also advertise the BINARY token in the
   CAPABILITY response.

Appendix C.  Changes from RFC 3501 / IMAP4rev1

   The following is the plan for remaining changes.  The plan might
   change over time.




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   1.   Fold in the following extensions/RFC: RFC 5530 (IMAP Response
        Codes, done), UIDPLUS (done), ENABLE (done), ESEARCH (done),
        SPECIAL-USE (list of new mailbox attributes is done), LITERAL-
        (done), NAMESPACE (done), SASL-IR (done), IDLE (done), MOVE
        (done).

   2.   Add CLOSED response code (from CONDSTORE) - done

   3.   Add support for $MDNSent and $Forwarded IMAP keywords - done.
        Add more examples showing their use?  Also add other keywords
        like $Phishing, $Junk, $NonJunk?

   4.   Require all unsolicited FETCH updates to include UID - done.

   5.   Update recommendations on TLS ciphers to match UTA WG work (as
        per RFC 8314, RFC 7525 and RFC 7817) - done.

   6.   Possibly fold in the following extensions/RFC: Base LIST-
        EXTENDED syntax plus deprecate LSUB (replace it with LIST
        \Subscribed) minus the requirement to support multiple list
        patterns - done, STATUS-in-LIST - done, SEARCHRES, BINARY (only
        the FETCH changes on leaf body part and make APPEND related ones
        optional.  See the mailing list discussion) - done.

   7.   Add STATUS SIZE (total mailbox size) - done.  Add STATUS DELETED
        (number of messages with \Deleted flag set) - done.

   8.   Drop UTF-7, all mailboxes are always in UTF-8 - done.

   9.   Revise IANA registration of IMAP extensions and give advice on
        use of "X-" convention.

   10.  Allow word-based searching (as per Chris Newman)?  Need to
        discuss header field search, where exact/substring match is
        still required for interoperability.

   The following changes since RFC 3501 were done so far:

   1.   Folded in IMAP UNSELECT (RFC 3691), UIDPLUS (RFC 4315), ESEARCH
        (RFC 4731), ENABLE (RFC 5161), IDLE (RFC 2177), SASL-IR (RFC
        4959), LIST-STATUS (RFC 5819) and MOVE (RFC 6851) extensions.
        Also folded RFC 5530 and FETCH side of the BINARY extension (RFC
        3516).

   2.   Clarified that server should decode parameter value
        continuations as described in [RFC2231].  This requirement was
        hidden in RFC 2231 itself.




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   3.   SEARCH command now requires to return ESEARCH response (SEARCH
        response is now deprecated).

   4.   Added CLOSED response code from RFC 7162.  SELECT/EXAMINE when a
        mailbox is already selected now require for the CLOSED response
        code to be returned.

   5.   Updated to use modern TLS-related recommendations as per RFC
        8314, RFC 7817, RFC 7525.

   6.   For future extensibility extended ABNF for tagged-ext-simple to
        allow for bare number64.

   7.   Added SHOULD level requirement on IMAP servers to support
        $MDNSent and $Forwarded keywords.

   8.   Added STATUS SIZE and STATUS DELETED.

   9.   Mailbox names and message headers now allow for UTF-8.  Support
        for Modified UTF-7 in mailbox names is not required, unless
        compatibility with IMAP4rev1 is desired.

   10.  UNSEEN response code on SELECT/EXAMINE is now deprecated.

   11.  RECENT response on SELECT/EXAMINE, \Recent flag, RECENT STATUS,
        SEARCH NEW items are now deprecated.

   12.  Clarified that the server doesn't need to send a new
        PERMANENTFLAGS response code when a new keyword was successfully
        added and the server advertised \* earlier for the same mailbox.

   13.  Removed the CHECK command.  Clients should use NOOP instead.

   14.  RFC822, RFC822.HEADER and RFC822.TEXT FETCH data items were
        deprecated.  Clients should use the corresponding BODY[]
        variants instead.

   15.  Replaced DIGEST-MD5 SASL mechanism with SCRAM-SHA-256.  DIGEST-
        MD5 was deprecated.

   16.  LSUB command was deprecated.  Clients should use LIST
        (SUBSCRIBED) instead.

   17.  resp-text ABNF non terminal was updated to allow for empty text.

   18.  IDLE command can now return updates not related to the currently
        selected mailbox state.




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Appendix D.  Acknowledgement

   Earlier versions of this document were edited by Mark Crispin.
   Sadly, he is no longer available to help with this work.  Editors of
   this revisions are hoping that Mark would have approved.

   Chris Newman has contributed text on I18N and use of UTF-8 in
   messages and mailbox names.

   Thank you to Tony Hansen for helping with the index generation.
   Thank you to Timo Sirainen, Bron Gondwana and Arnt Gulbrandsen for
   extensive feedback.

   This document incorporate text from RFC 4315 (by Mark Crispin), RFC
   4466 (by Cyrus Daboo), RFC 4731 (by Dave Cridland), RFC 5161 (by Arnt
   Gulbrandsen), RFC 5530 (by Arnt Gulbrandsen), RFC 5819 (by Timo
   Sirainen), RFC 6154 (by Jamie Nicolson) so work done by authors/
   editors of these documents is appreciated.  Note that editors of this
   document were redacted from the above list.

Index

   $
      $Forwarded (predefined flag)  12
      $MDNSent (predefined flag)  12

   +
      +FLAGS <flag list>  90
      +FLAGS.SILENT <flag list>  90

   -
      -FLAGS <flag list>  90
      -FLAGS.SILENT <flag list>  90

   A
      ALERT (response code)  97
      ALL (fetch item)  86
      ALL (search key)  76
      ALL (search result option)  74
      ALREADYEXISTS (response code)  97
      ANSWERED (search key)  76
      APPEND (command)  66
      APPENDUID (response code)  97
      AUTHENTICATE (command)  28
      AUTHENTICATIONFAILED (response code)  98
      AUTHORIZATIONFAILED (response code)  98

   B



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      BAD (response)  106
      BADCHARSET (response code)  99
      BCC <string> (search key)  76
      BEFORE <date> (search key)  76
      BINARY.PEEK[<section-binary>]<<partial>> (fetch item)  86
      BINARY.SIZE[<section-binary>] (fetch item)  86
      BINARY.SIZE[<section-binary>] (fetch result)  116
      BINARY[<section-binary>]<<number>> (fetch result)  115
      BINARY[<section-binary>]<<partial>> (fetch item)  86
      BODY (fetch item)  87
      BODY (fetch result)  116
      BODY <string> (search key)  76
      BODY.PEEK[<section>]<<partial>> (fetch item)  89
      BODYSTRUCTURE (fetch item)  89
      BODYSTRUCTURE (fetch result)  117
      BODY[<section>]<<origin octet>> (fetch result)  116
      BODY[<section>]<<partial>> (fetch item)  87
      BYE (response)  106
      Body Structure (message attribute)  13

   C
      CANNOT (response code)  99
      CAPABILITY (command)  24
      CAPABILITY (response code)  99
      CAPABILITY (response)  107
      CC <string> (search key)  76
      CLIENTBUG (response code)  99
      CLOSE (command)  71
      CLOSED (response code)  99
      CONTACTADMIN (response code)  100
      COPY (command)  90
      COPYUID (response code)  100
      CORRUPTION (response code)  100
      COUNT (search result option)  74
      CREATE (command)  37

   D
      DELETE (command)  38
      DELETED (search key)  76
      DELETED (status item)  66
      DRAFT (search key)  76

   E
      ENABLE (command)  32
      ENVELOPE (fetch item)  89
      ENVELOPE (fetch result)  119
      ESEARCH (response)  113
      EXAMINE (command)  36



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      EXPIRED (response code)  101
      EXPUNGE (command)  72
      EXPUNGE (response)  114
      EXPUNGEISSUED (response code)  101
      Envelope Structure (message attribute)  13

   F
      FAST (fetch item)  86
      FETCH (command)  85
      FETCH (response)  115
      FLAGGED (search key)  76
      FLAGS (fetch item)  89
      FLAGS (fetch result)  120
      FLAGS (response)  113
      FLAGS <flag list> (store command data item)  90
      FLAGS.SILENT <flag list> (store command data item)  90
      FROM <string> (search key)  76
      FULL (fetch item)  86
      Flags (message attribute)  11

   H
      HEADER (part specifier)  87
      HEADER <field-name> <string> (search key)  76
      HEADER.FIELDS (part specifier)  87
      HEADER.FIELDS.NOT (part specifier)  87

   I
      IDLE (command)  69
      INTERNALDATE (fetch item)  89
      INTERNALDATE (fetch result)  120
      INUSE (response code)  101
      Internal Date (message attribute)  12

   K
      KEYWORD <flag> (search key)  77
      Keyword (type of flag)  12

   L
      LARGER <n> (search key)  77
      LIMIT (response code)  101
      LIST (command)  42
      LIST (response)  108
      LOGOUT (command)  26

   M
      MAX (search result option)  74
      MAY (specification requirement term)  5
      MESSAGES (status item)  66



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      MIME (part specifier)  88
      MIN (search result option)  74
      MOVE (command)  91
      MUST (specification requirement term)  5
      MUST NOT (specification requirement term)  5
      Message Sequence Number (message attribute)  11

   N
      NAMESPACE (command)  60
      NAMESPACE (response)  112
      NO (response)  105
      NONEXISTENT (response code)  102
      NOOP (command)  25
      NOPERM (response code)  102
      NOT <search-key> (search key)  77
      NOT RECOMMENDED (specification requirement term)  5

   O
      OK (response)  105
      ON <date> (search key)  77
      OPTIONAL (specification requirement term)  5
      OR <search-key1> <search-key2> (search key)  77
      OVERQUOTA (response code)  102

   P
      PARSE (response code)  102
      PERMANENTFLAGS (response code)  102
      PREAUTH (response)  106
      PRIVACYREQUIRED (response code)  103
      Permanent Flag (class of flag)  12
      Predefined keywords  12

   R
      READ-ONLY (response code)  103
      READ-WRITE (response code)  103
      RECOMMENDED (specification requirement term)  5
      RENAME (command)  39
      REQUIRED (specification requirement term)  5
      RFC822.SIZE (fetch item)  89
      RFC822.SIZE (fetch result)  121

   S
      SAVE (search result option)  74
      SEARCH (command)  73
      SEEN (search key)  77
      SELECT (command)  34
      SENTBEFORE <date> (search key)  77
      SENTON <date> (search key)  77



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      SENTSINCE <date> (search key)  77
      SERVERBUG (response code)  103
      SHOULD (specification requirement term)  5
      SHOULD NOT (specification requirement term)  5
      SINCE <date> (search key)  77
      SIZE (status item)  66
      SMALLER <n> (search key)  77
      STARTTLS (command)  27
      STATUS (command)  65
      STATUS (response)  112
      STORE (command)  89
      SUBJECT <string> (search key)  77
      SUBSCRIBE (command)  41
      Session Flag (class of flag)  12
      System Flag (type of flag)  11

   T
      TEXT (part specifier)  87
      TEXT <string> (search key)  77
      TO <string> (search key)  77
      TRYCREATE (response code)  103

   U
      UID (command)  93
      UID (fetch item)  89
      UID (fetch result)  121
      UID <sequence set> (search key)  78
      UIDNEXT (response code)  104
      UIDNEXT (status item)  66
      UIDNOTSTICKY (response code)  104
      UIDVALIDITY (response code)  104
      UIDVALIDITY (status item)  66
      UNANSWERED (search key)  78
      UNAVAILABLE (response code)  104
      UNDELETED (search key)  78
      UNDRAFT (search key)  78
      UNFLAGGED (search key)  78
      UNKEYWORD <flag> (search key)  78
      UNKNOWN-CTE (response code)  104
      UNSEEN (search key)  78
      UNSEEN (status item)  66
      UNSELECT (command)  72
      UNSUBSCRIBE (command)  42
      Unique Identifier (UID) (message attribute)  9

   X
      X<atom> (command)  95




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   [
      [RFC-5322] Size (message attribute)  13

   \
      \All (mailbox name attribute)  110
      \Answered (system flag)  11
      \Archive (mailbox name attribute)  110
      \Deleted (system flag)  11
      \Draft (system flag)  12
      \Drafts (mailbox name attribute)  110
      \Flagged (mailbox name attribute)  111
      \Flagged (system flag)  11
      \HasChildren (mailbox name attribute)  109
      \HasNoChildren (mailbox name attribute)  109
      \Junk (mailbox name attribute)  111
      \Marked (mailbox name attribute)  110
      \Noinferiors (mailbox name attribute)  109
      \NonExistent (mailbox name attribute)  109
      \Noselect (mailbox name attribute)  109
      \Recent (system flag)  12
      \Remote (mailbox name attribute)  110
      \Seen (system flag)  11
      \Sent (mailbox name attribute)  111
      \Subscribed (mailbox name attribute)  110
      \Trash (mailbox name attribute)  111
      \Unmarked (mailbox name attribute)  110

Authors' Addresses

   Alexey Melnikov (editor)
   Isode Ltd
   14 Castle Mews
   Hampton, Middlesex  TW12 2NP
   UK

   Email: Alexey.Melnikov@isode.com


   Barry Leiba (editor)
   Huawei Technologies

   Phone: +1 646 827 0648
   Email: barryleiba@computer.org
   URI:   http://internetmessagingtechnology.org/







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