IMAP4 Multimailbox SEARCH Extension
RFC 7377
| Document | Type |
RFC - Proposed Standard
(October 2014; No errata)
Obsoletes RFC 6237
Updates RFC 4466
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Barry Leiba , Alexey Melnikov | ||
| Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
| Stream | IETF | ||
| Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
| Reviews | |||
| Stream | WG state | Submitted to IESG for Publication | |
| Document shepherd | Murray Kucherawy | ||
| Shepherd write-up | Show (last changed 2014-06-03) | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 7377 (Proposed Standard) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Yes | ||
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | Pete Resnick | ||
| Send notices to | (None) | ||
| IANA | IANA review state | Version Changed - Review Needed | |
| IANA action state | RFC-Ed-Ack | ||
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) B. Leiba
Request for Comments: 7377 Huawei Technologies
Obsoletes: 6237 A. Melnikov
Updates: 4466 Isode Limited
Category: Standards Track October 2014
ISSN: 2070-1721
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 delays caused by many round trips and
not requiring disruption of the currently selected mailbox. This
extension also uses MAILBOX, UIDVALIDITY, and TAG fields in ESEARCH
responses, allowing a client to pipeline the searches if it chooses.
This document updates RFC 4466 and obsoletes RFC 6237.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
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). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in 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/rfc7377.
Leiba & Melnikov Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 7377 IMAP4 Multimailbox SEARCH Extension October 2014
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2014 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
2.3. Strictness in Search Matches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4. Server-Side Limitations on Search Volume . . . . . . . . . 7
3. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Formal Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
7. Changes since RFC 6237 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
8.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
8.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Appendix A. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
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.
Leiba & Melnikov Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 7377 IMAP4 Multimailbox SEARCH Extension October 2014
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.
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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