RFC - 2060

INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4rev1

Original:	ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2060.txt
Authors:	M. Crispin [University of Washington]
Date:	December 1996
Category:	Informational
This specification has been !!! obsoleted !!!

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Obsoleted by:
RFC-3501prop	INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4rev1 (Updated by RFC-4551prop, RFC-4469prop, RFC-4466prop)

Obsoletes:
RFC-1730	Internet Message Access Protocol - Version 4 (Obsoleted by RFC-2060 -> RFC-3501prop, RFC-2061)

Referred by:	49 RFC
Refers to:	13 RFC

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Status

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.

Abstract

The Internet Message Access Protocol, Version 4rev1 (IMAP4rev1) allows a client to access and manipulate electronic mail messages on a server. IMAP4rev1 permits manipulation of remote message folders, called "mailboxes", in a way that is functionally equivalent to local mailboxes. IMAP4rev1 also provides the capability for an offline client to resynchronize with the server (see also [IMAP-DISC]).

IMAP4rev1 includes operations for creating, deleting, and renaming mailboxes; checking for new messages; permanently removing messages; setting and clearing flags; [RFC-822] and [MIME-IMB] parsing; searching; and selective fetching of message attributes, texts, and portions thereof. Messages in IMAP4rev1 are accessed by the use of numbers. These numbers are either message sequence numbers or unique identifiers.

IMAP4rev1 supports a single server. A mechanism for accessing configuration information to support multiple IMAP4rev1 servers is discussed in [ACAP].

IMAP4rev1 does not specify a means of posting mail; this function is handled by a mail transfer protocol such as [SMTP].

IMAP4rev1 is designed to be upwards compatible from the [IMAP2] and unpublished IMAP2bis protocols. In the course of the evolution of IMAP4rev1, some aspects in the earlier protocol have become obsolete. Obsolete commands, responses, and data formats which an IMAP4rev1 implementation may encounter when used with an earlier implementation are described in [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.

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