Network Working Group R. Sparks
Internet-Draft Tekelec
Intended status: Informational Mar 26, 2013
Expires: September 27, 2013
IMAP Access to IETF Email List Archives
draft-sparks-genarea-imaparch-05
Abstract
The IETF makes heavy use of email lists to conduct its work. This
often involves accessing the archived history of those email lists.
Participants would like to have the ability to browse and search
those archives using standard IMAP clients. This memo captures the
requirements for providing a service that would allow such browsing
and searching.
Status of this Memo
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provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
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This Internet-Draft will expire on September 27, 2013.
Copyright Notice
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document authors. All rights reserved.
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described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Requirements for IMAP access to archived IETF lists . . . . . . 3
3. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. Changelog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.1. 04 to 05 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.2. 03 to 04 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.3. 02 to 03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.4. 01 to 02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.5. 00 to 01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6.6. 00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
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1. Introduction
The IETF makes heavy use of email lists to conduct its work. This
often involves accessing the archived history of those email lists.
Requirements for improved web-based browsing and searching of these
archives are captured in [RFC6778]. Participants would like to have
the ability to browse and search those archives using standard IMAP
clients. This memo captures the requirements for providing a service
that would allow such browsing and searching.
Discussion of this memo should take place on the ietf@ietf.org
mailing list.
2. Requirements for IMAP access to archived IETF lists
Many participants would prefer to access the list archives using IMAP
[RFC3501]. Providing this access while meeting the following
requirements will likely require an IMAP server with specialized
capabilities.
o The system should expose the archive using an IMAP interface, with
each list represented as a mailbox.
o This interface must work with standard IMAP clients.
o The interface should allow users that have provided credentials to
each have their own read/unread marks for messages. Allowing
other annotation is desirable. The implementation should consider
taking advantage of the IMAP extensions for ANNOTATE [RFC5257] and
METADATA [RFC5464].
o The interface must have server-side searching enabled, and should
support multiple simultaneous extensive searches. The server
should facilitate the enhanced search capabilities described in
[RFC6778]. The implementation should consider taking advantage of
the extensions defined for IMAP SORT and THREAD [RFC5256],
multimailbox search [RFC6237], and fuzzy search [RFC6203].
o When the system requires credentials, it must use the
datatracker's authentication system
- While the vast majority of archived lists have an open access
policy, some archived lists have restricted archives. The
system must make it possible to limit access to a restricted
archive based on login credentials.
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- The system must not require credentials for accessing lists
with open archives. (But it is acceptable for a user to access
such archives while providing credentials).
3. Security Considerations
Allowing IMAP as an interface for browsing and searching the archives
of IETF email lists does not affect the security of the Internet in
any significant fashion.
4. IANA Considerations
This document has no actions for IANA.
5. Acknowledgements
This text was derived directly from an early version of the Internet
Draft that became [RFC6778] which incorporated text suggestions from
Alexey Melnikov, Pete Resnick, and S. Moonesamy. Barry Leiba
suggested several references to IMAP extensions for an implementation
to consider.
6. Changelog
6.1. 04 to 05
o Adapted text from RFC6778 to make it more clear that both
authenticated and unauthenticated access should be supported.
6.2. 03 to 04
o Incorporated suggestions from Pete Resnick and Barry Leiba.
6.3. 02 to 03
o None - expiry refresh
6.4. 01 to 02
o Minor editorial changes
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6.5. 00 to 01
o Added requirements to enable controlled access to restricted
archives based on credentials
o Generalized the requirement to use the datatracker's credentials.
6.6. 00
o Split this set of requirements out from the mailarch doc so that
this project could be pursued separately
7. Informative References
[RFC3501] Crispin, M., "INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION
4rev1", RFC 3501, March 2003.
[RFC5256] Crispin, M. and K. Murchison, "Internet Message Access
Protocol - SORT and THREAD Extensions", RFC 5256,
June 2008.
[RFC5257] Daboo, C. and R. Gellens, "Internet Message Access
Protocol - ANNOTATE Extension", RFC 5257, June 2008.
[RFC5464] Daboo, C., "The IMAP METADATA Extension", RFC 5464,
February 2009.
[RFC6203] Sirainen, T., "IMAP4 Extension for Fuzzy Search",
RFC 6203, March 2011.
[RFC6237] Leiba, B. and A. Melnikov, "IMAP4 Multimailbox SEARCH
Extension", RFC 6237, May 2011.
[RFC6778] Sparks, R., "Requirements for Archiving IETF Email Lists
and for Providing Web-Based Browsing and Searching",
RFC 6778, October 2012.
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Author's Address
Robert Sparks
Tekelec
17210 Campbell Road
Suite 250
Dallas, Texas 75254-4203
USA
Email: rjsparks@nostrum.com
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