RFC 1056 (rfc1056) - Page 1 of 38

PCMAIL: A distributed mail system for personal computers

Network Working Group                                         M. Lambert
Request for Comments: 1056                                           MIT
Obsoletes: RFC-993                                             June 1988

        PCMAIL: A Distributed Mail System for Personal Computers


                           Table of Contents

   1. Status of this Document                                      1
   2. Introduction                                                 2
   3. Repository architecture                                      4
        3.1. Management of user mail state                         5
        3.2. Repository-to-RFC-822 name translation                7
   4. Communication between repository and client: DMSP            8
        4.1. DMSP commands                                         8
        4.2. DMSP responses                                        8
        4.3. DMSP sessions                                        11
        4.4. General operations                                   11
        4.5. User operations                                      12
        4.6. Client operations                                    13
        4.7. Mailbox operations                                   14
        4.8. Address operations                                   15
        4.9. Subscription operations                              15
        4.10. Message operations                                  16
   5. Client Architecture                                         18
        5.1. Multiple clients                                     18
        5.2. Synchronization                                      18
        5.3. Batch operation versus interactive operation         20
        5.4. Message summaries                                    20
   6. Typical interactive-style client-repository interaction     21
   7. A current Pcmail implementation                             25
        7.1. IBM PC client code                                   25
        7.2. UNIX client code                                     26
        7.3. Repository code                                      26
   8. Conclusions                                                 26
   I. DMSP Protocol Specification                                 28
   II. Operations by name                                         37
   III. Responses by number                                       38

1. Status of this Memo

   This RFC is a discussion of the Pcmail workstation based distributed
   mail system.  It is identical to the discussion in RFC-993, save that
   a new, much simpler mail transport protocol is described.  The new
   transport protocol is the result of continued research into ease of
   protocol implementation and use issues.  Distribution of this memo is
   unlimited.



Lambert