IMAP4 Multimailbox SEARCH Extension
RFC 6237
| Document | Type |
RFC - Experimental
(May 2011; No errata)
Obsoleted by RFC 7377
Updates RFC 4466
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
| Replaces | draft-melnikov-imapext-multimailbox-search | ||
| Stream | IETF | ||
| Formats | plain text pdf html bibtex | ||
| Reviews | |||
| Stream | WG state | WG Document | |
| Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 6237 (Experimental) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | Peter Saint-Andre | ||
| IESG note | Timo Sirainen <tss@iki.fi> is the Document Shepherd. | ||
| Send notices to | (None) | ||
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) B. Leiba
Request for Comments: 6237 Huawei Technologies
Updates: 4466 A. Melnikov
Category: Experimental Isode Limited
ISSN: 2070-1721 May 2011
IMAP4 Multimailbox SEARCH Extension
Abstract
The IMAP4 specification allows the searching of only the selected
mailbox. A user often wants to search multiple mailboxes, and a
client that wishes to support this must issue a series of SELECT and
SEARCH commands, waiting for each to complete before moving on to the
next. This extension allows a client to search multiple mailboxes
with one command, limiting the round trips and waiting for various
searches to complete, and not requiring disruption of the currently
selected mailbox. This extension also uses MAILBOX and TAG fields in
ESEARCH responses, allowing a client to pipeline the searches if it
chooses. This document updates RFC 4466.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for examination, experimental implementation, and
evaluation.
This document defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
community. This document is a product of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF
community. It has received public review and has been approved for
publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not
all documents approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of
Internet Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6237.
Leiba & Melnikov Experimental [Page 1]
RFC 6237 IMAP4 Multimailbox SEARCH Extension May 2011
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 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
(http://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.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
1.1. Conventions Used in This Document ..........................3
2. New ESEARCH Command .............................................3
2.1. The ESEARCH Response .......................................4
2.2. Source Options: Specifying Mailboxes to Search .............5
3. Examples ........................................................6
4. Formal Syntax ...................................................7
5. Security Considerations .........................................8
6. IANA Considerations .............................................9
7. Acknowledgements ................................................9
8. Normative References ............................................9
1. Introduction
The IMAP4 specification allows the searching of only the selected
mailbox. A user often wants to search multiple mailboxes, and a
client that wishes to support this must issue a series of SELECT and
SEARCH commands, waiting for each to complete before moving on to the
next. The commands can't be pipelined, because the server might run
them in parallel, and the untagged SEARCH responses could not then be
distinguished from each other.
This extension allows a client to search multiple mailboxes with one
command, and includes MAILBOX and TAG fields in the ESEARCH response,
yielding the following advantages:
o A single command limits the number of round trips needed to search
a set of mailboxes.
o A single command eliminates the need to wait for one search to
complete before starting the next.
Leiba & Melnikov Experimental [Page 2]
RFC 6237 IMAP4 Multimailbox SEARCH Extension May 2011
o A single command allows the server to optimize the search, if it
can.
o A command that is not dependent upon the selected mailbox
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