diff options
author | Thomas Voss <mail@thomasvoss.com> | 2024-11-27 20:54:24 +0100 |
---|---|---|
committer | Thomas Voss <mail@thomasvoss.com> | 2024-11-27 20:54:24 +0100 |
commit | 4bfd864f10b68b71482b35c818559068ef8d5797 (patch) | |
tree | e3989f47a7994642eb325063d46e8f08ffa681dc /doc/rfc/rfc4469.txt | |
parent | ea76e11061bda059ae9f9ad130a9895cc85607db (diff) |
doc: Add RFC documents
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/rfc/rfc4469.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | doc/rfc/rfc4469.txt | 731 |
1 files changed, 731 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/rfc/rfc4469.txt b/doc/rfc/rfc4469.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..da36551 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/rfc/rfc4469.txt @@ -0,0 +1,731 @@ + + + + + + +Network Working Group P. Resnick +Request for Comments: 4469 QUALCOMM Incorporated +Updates: 3501, 3502 April 2006 +Category: Standards Track + + + Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) CATENATE Extension + +Status of This Memo + + This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the + Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for + improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet + Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state + and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. + +Copyright Notice + + Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006). + +Abstract + + The CATENATE extension to the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) + extends the APPEND command to allow clients to create messages on the + IMAP server that may contain a combination of new data along with + parts of (or entire) messages already on the server. Using this + extension, the client can catenate parts of an already existing + message onto a new message without having to first download the data + and then upload it back to the server. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 1] + +RFC 4469 IMAP CATENATE Extension April 2006 + + +1. Introduction + + The CATENATE extension to the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) + [1] allows the client to create a message on the server that can + include the text of messages (or parts of messages) that already + exist on the server without having to FETCH them and APPEND them back + to the server. The CATENATE extension extends the APPEND command so + that, instead of a single message literal, the command can take as + arguments any combination of message literals (as described in IMAP + [1]) and message URLs (as described in the IMAP URL Scheme [2] + specification). The server takes all the pieces and catenates them + into the output message. The CATENATE extension can also coexist + with the MULTIAPPEND extension [3] to APPEND multiple messages in a + single command. + + There are some obvious uses for the CATENATE extension. The + motivating use case was to provide a way for a resource-constrained + client to compose a message for subsequent submission that contains + data that already exists in that client's IMAP store. Because the + client does not have to download and re-upload potentially large + message parts, bandwidth and processing limitations do not have as + much impact. In addition, since the client can create a message in + its own IMAP store, the command also addresses the desire of the + client to archive a copy of a sent message without having to upload + the message twice. (Mechanisms for sending the message are outside + the scope of this document.) + + The extended APPEND command can also be used to copy parts of a + message to another mailbox for archival purposes while getting rid of + undesired parts. In environments where server storage is limited, a + client could get rid of large message parts by copying over only the + necessary parts and then deleting the original message. The + mechanism could also be used to add data to a message (such as + prepending message header fields) or to include other data by making + a copy of the original and catenating the new data. + +2. The CATENATE Capability + + A server that supports this extension returns "CATENATE" as one of + the responses to the CAPABILITY command. + + + + + + + + + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 2] + +RFC 4469 IMAP CATENATE Extension April 2006 + + +3. The APPEND Command + + Arguments: mailbox name + (The following can be repeated in the presence of the + MULTIAPPEND extension [3]) + OPTIONAL flag parenthesized list + OPTIONAL date/time string + a single message literal or one or more message parts to + catenate, specified as: + message literal + or + message (or message part) URL + + Responses: OPTIONAL NO responses: BADURL, TOOBIG + + Result: OK - append completed + NO - append error: can't append to that mailbox, error + in flags or date/time or message text, or can't + fetch that data + BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid + + The APPEND command concatenates all the message parts and appends + them as a new message to the end of the specified mailbox. The + parenthesized flag list and date/time string set the flags and the + internal date, respectively, as described in IMAP [1]. The + subsequent command parameters specify the message parts that are + appended sequentially to the output message. + + If the original form of APPEND is used, a message literal follows the + optional flag list and date/time string, which is appended as + described in IMAP [1]. If the extended form is used, "CATENATE" and + a parenthesized list of message literals and message URLs follows, + each of which is appended to the new message. If a message literal + is specified (indicated by "TEXT"), the octets following the count + are appended. If a message URL is specified (indicated by "URL"), + the octets of the body part pointed to by that URL are appended, as + if the literal returned in a FETCH BODY response were put in place of + the message part specifier. The APPEND command does not cause the + \Seen flag to be set for any catenated body part. The APPEND command + does not change the selected mailbox. + + In the extended APPEND command, the string following "URL" is an IMAP + URL [2] and is interpreted according to the rules of [2]. The + present document only describes the behavior of the command using + IMAP URLs that refer to specific messages or message parts on the + current IMAP server from the current authenticated IMAP session. + Because of that, only relative IMAP message or message part URLs + (i.e., those having no scheme or <iserver>) are used. The base URL + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 3] + +RFC 4469 IMAP CATENATE Extension April 2006 + + + for evaluating the relative URL is considered "imap://user@server/", + where "user" is the user name of the currently authenticated user and + "server" is the domain name of the current server. When in the + selected state, the base URL is considered + "imap://user@server/mailbox", where "mailbox" is the encoded name of + the currently selected mailbox. Additionally, since the APPEND + command is valid in the authenticated state of an IMAP session, no + further LOGIN or AUTHENTICATE command is performed for URLs specified + in the extended APPEND command. + + Note: Use of an absolute IMAP URL or any URL that refers to + anything other than a message or message part from the current + authenticated IMAP session is outside the scope of this document + and would require an extension to this specification, and a server + implementing only this specification would return NO to such a + request. + + The client is responsible for making sure that the catenated message + is in the format of an Internet Message Format (RFC 2822) [4] or + Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) [5] message. In + particular, when a URL is catenated, the server copies octets, + unchanged, from the indicated message or message part to the + catenated message. It does no data conversion (e.g., MIME transfer + encodings) nor any verification that the data is appropriate for the + MIME part of the message into which it is inserted. The client is + also responsible for inserting appropriate MIME boundaries between + body parts, and writing MIME Content-Type and Content-Transfer- + Encoding lines as needed in the appropriate places. + + Responses behave just as the original APPEND command described in + IMAP [1]. If the server implements the IMAP UIDPLUS extension [6], + it will also return an APPENDUID response code in the tagged OK + response. Two response codes are provided in Section 4 that can be + used in the tagged NO response if the APPEND command fails. + +4. Response Codes + + When a APPEND command fails, it may return a response code that + describes a reason for the failure. + +4.1. BADURL Response + + The BADURL response code is returned if the APPEND fails to process + one of the specified URLs. Possible reasons for this are bad URL + syntax, unrecognized URL schema, invalid message UID, or invalid body + part. The BADURL response code contains the first URL specified as a + parameter to the APPEND command that has caused the operation to + fail. + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 4] + +RFC 4469 IMAP CATENATE Extension April 2006 + + +4.2. TOOBIG Response + + The TOOBIG response code is returned if the resulting message will + exceed the 4-GB IMAP message limit. This might happen, for example, + if the client specifies 3 URLs for 2-GB messages. Note that even if + the server doesn't return TOOBIG, it still has to be defensive + against misbehaving or malicious clients that try to construct a + message over the 4-GB limit. The server may also wish to return the + TOOBIG response code if the resulting message exceeds a server- + specific message size limit. + +5. Formal Syntax + + The following syntax specification uses the Augmented Backus-Naur + Form (ABNF) [7] notation. Elements not defined here can be found in + the formal syntax of the ABNF [7], IMAP [1], and IMAP ABNF extensions + [8] specifications. Note that capability and resp-text-code are + extended from the IMAP [1] specification and append-data is extended + from the IMAP ABNF extensions [8] specification. + + append-data =/ "CATENATE" SP "(" cat-part *(SP cat-part) ")" + + cat-part = text-literal / url + + text-literal = "TEXT" SP literal + + url = "URL" SP astring + + resp-text-code =/ toobig-response-code / badurl-response-code + + toobig-response-code = "TOOBIG" + + badurl-response-code = "BADURL" SP url-resp-text + + url-resp-text = 1*(%x01-09 / + %x0B-0C / + %x0E-5B / + %x5D-FE) ; Any TEXT-CHAR except "]" + + capability =/ "CATENATE" + + The astring in the definition of url and the url-resp-text in the + definition of badurl-response-code each contain an imapurl as defined + by [2]. + + + + + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 5] + +RFC 4469 IMAP CATENATE Extension April 2006 + + +6. Acknowledgements + + Thanks to the members of the LEMONADE working group for their input. + Special thanks to Alexey Melnikov for the examples. + +7. Security Considerations + + The CATENATE extension does not raise any security considerations + that are not present for the base protocol or in the use of IMAP + URLs, and these issues are discussed in the IMAP [1] and IMAP URL [2] + documents. + +8. IANA Considerations + + IMAP4 capabilities are registered by publishing a standards track or + IESG approved experimental RFC. The registry is currently located at + <http://www.iana.org/assignments/imap4-capabilities>. This document + defines the CATENATE IMAP capability. The IANA has added this + capability to the registry. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 6] + +RFC 4469 IMAP CATENATE Extension April 2006 + + +Appendix A. Examples + + Lines not starting with "C: " or "S: " are continuations of the + previous lines. + + The original message in examples 1 and 2 below (UID = 20) has the + following structure: + + + multipart/mixed MIME message with two body parts: + + 1. text/plain + + 2. application/x-zip-compressed + + Example 1: The following example demonstrates how a CATENATE client + can replace an attachment in a draft message, without the need to + download it to the client and upload it back. + + C: A003 APPEND Drafts (\Seen \Draft $MDNSent) CATENATE + (URL "/Drafts;UIDVALIDITY=385759045/;UID=20/;section=HEADER" + TEXT {42} + S: + Ready for literal data + C: + C: --------------030308070208000400050907 + C: URL "/Drafts;UIDVALIDITY=385759045/;UID=20/;section=1.MIME" + URL "/Drafts;UIDVALIDITY=385759045/;UID=20/;section=1" TEXT {42} + S: + Ready for literal data + C: + C: --------------030308070208000400050907 + C: URL "/Drafts;UIDVALIDITY=385759045/;UID=30" TEXT {44} + S: + Ready for literal data + C: + C: --------------030308070208000400050907-- + C: ) + S: A003 OK catenate append completed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 7] + +RFC 4469 IMAP CATENATE Extension April 2006 + + + Example 2: The following example demonstrates how the CATENATE + extension can be used to replace edited text in a draft message, as + well as header fields for the top level message part (e.g., Subject + has changed). The previous version of the draft is marked as + \Deleted. Note that the server also supports the UIDPLUS extension, + so the APPENDUID response code is returned in the successful OK + response to the APPEND command. + + C: A003 APPEND Drafts (\Seen \Draft $MDNSent) CATENATE (TEXT {738} + S: + Ready for literal data + C: Return-Path: <bar@example.org> + C: Received: from [127.0.0.2] + C: by rufus.example.org via TCP (internal) with ESMTPA; + C: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 16:57:07 +0000 + C: Message-ID: <419399E1.6000505@example.org> + C: Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2004 16:57:05 +0000 + C: From: Bob Ar <bar@example.org> + C: X-Accept-Language: en-us, en + C: MIME-Version: 1.0 + C: To: foo@example.net + C: Subject: About our holiday trip + C: Content-Type: multipart/mixed; + C: boundary="------------030308070208000400050907" + C: + C: --------------030308070208000400050907 + C: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed + C: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit + C: + C: Our travel agent has sent the updated schedule. + C: + C: Cheers, + C: Bob + C: --------------030308070208000400050907 + C: URL "/Drafts;UIDVALIDITY=385759045/;UID=20/;Section=2.MIME" + URL "/Drafts;UIDVALIDITY=385759045/;UID=20/;Section=2" TEXT {44} + S: + Ready for literal data + C: + C: --------------030308070208000400050907-- + C: ) + S: A003 OK [APPENDUID 385759045 45] append Completed + C: A004 UID STORE 20 +FLAGS.SILENT (\Deleted) + S: A004 OK STORE completed + + + + + + + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 8] + +RFC 4469 IMAP CATENATE Extension April 2006 + + + Example 3: The following example demonstrates how the CATENATE + extension can be used to strip attachments. Below, a PowerPoint + attachment was replaced by a small text part explaining that the + attachment was stripped. + + C: A003 APPEND Drafts (\Seen \Draft $MDNSent) CATENATE + (URL "/Drafts;UIDVALIDITY=385759045/;UID=21/;section=HEADER" + TEXT {42} + S: + Ready for literal data + C: + C: --------------030308070208000400050903 + C: URL "/Drafts;UIDVALIDITY=385759045/;UID=21/;section=1.MIME" + URL "/Drafts;UIDVALIDITY=385759045/;UID=21/;section=1" TEXT {255} + S: + Ready for literal data + C: + C: --------------030308070208000400050903 + C: Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" + C: Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit + C: + C: This body part contained a Power Point presentation that was + C: deleted upon your request. + C: --------------030308070208000400050903-- + C: ) + S: A003 OK append Completed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 9] + +RFC 4469 IMAP CATENATE Extension April 2006 + + + Example 4: The following example demonstrates a failed APPEND + command. The server returns the BADURL response code to indicate + that one of the provided URLs is invalid. This example also + demonstrates how the CATENATE extension can be used to construct a + digest of several messages. + + C: A003 APPEND Sent (\Seen $MDNSent) CATENATE (TEXT {541} + S: + Ready for literal data + C: Return-Path: <foo@example.org> + C: Received: from [127.0.0.2] + C: by rufus.example.org via TCP (internal) with ESMTPA; + C: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 16:57:07 +0000 + C: Message-ID: <419399E1.6000505@example.org> + C: Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2004 16:57:05 +0000 + C: From: Farren Oo <foo@example.org> + C: X-Accept-Language: en-us, en + C: MIME-Version: 1.0 + C: To: bar@example.org + C: Subject: Digest of the mailing list for today + C: Content-Type: multipart/digest; + C: boundary="------------030308070208000400050904" + C: + C: --------------030308070208000400050904 + C: URL "/INBOX;UIDVALIDITY=785799047/;UID=11467" TEXT {42} + S: + Ready for literal data + C: + C: --------------030308070208000400050904 + C: URL "/INBOX;UIDVALIDITY=785799047/;UID=113330/;section=1.5.9" + TEXT {42} + S: + Ready for literal data + C: + C: --------------030308070208000400050904 + C: URL "/INBOX;UIDVALIDITY=785799047/;UID=11916" TEXT {44} + S: + Ready for literal data + C: + C: --------------030308070208000400050904-- + C: ) + S: A003 NO [BADURL "/INBOX;UIDVALIDITY=785799047/;UID=113330; + section=1.5.9"] CATENATE append has failed, one message expunged + + Note that the server could have validated the URLs as they were + received and therefore could have returned the tagged NO response + with BADURL response-code in place of any continuation request after + the URL was received. + + + + + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 10] + +RFC 4469 IMAP CATENATE Extension April 2006 + + +9. Normative References + + [1] Crispin, M., "INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4rev1", + RFC 3501, March 2003. + + [2] Newman, C., "IMAP URL Scheme", RFC 2192, September 1997. + + [3] Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) - + MULTIAPPEND Extension", RFC 3502, March 2003. + + [4] Resnick, P., "Internet Message Format", RFC 2822, April 2001. + + [5] Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail + Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies", + RFC 2045, November 1996. + + [6] Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) - UIDPLUS + extension", RFC 4315, December 2005. + + [7] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax + Specifications: ABNF", RFC 4234, October 2005. + + [8] Melnikov, A. and C. Daboo, "Collected Extensions to IMAP4 ABNF", + RFC 4466, April 2006. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 11] + +RFC 4469 IMAP CATENATE Extension April 2006 + + +Author's Address + + Peter W. Resnick + QUALCOMM Incorporated + 5775 Morehouse Drive + San Diego, CA 92121-1714 + US + + Phone: +1 858 651 4478 + EMail: presnick@qualcomm.com + URI: http://www.qualcomm.com/~presnick/ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 12] + +RFC 4469 IMAP CATENATE Extension April 2006 + + +Full Copyright Statement + + Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006). + + This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions + contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors + retain all their rights. + + This document and the information contained herein are provided on an + "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS + OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET + ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, + INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE + INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED + WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Intellectual Property + + The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any + Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to + pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in + this document or the extent to which any license under such rights + might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has + made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information + on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be + found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. + + Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any + assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an + attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of + such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this + specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at + http://www.ietf.org/ipr. + + The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any + copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary + rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement + this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at + ietf-ipr@ietf.org. + +Acknowledgement + + Funding for the RFC Editor function is provided by the IETF + Administrative Support Activity (IASA). + + + + + + + +Resnick Standards Track [Page 13] + |