RFC 2449 (rfc2449) - Page 1 of 19

POP3 Extension Mechanism

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Network Working Group                                         R. Gellens
Request for Comments: 2449                                      Qualcomm
Updates: 1939                                                  C. Newman
Category: Standards Track                                       Innosoft
                                                            L. Lundblade
                                                                Qualcomm
                                                           November 1998


                        POP3 Extension Mechanism

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 (1998).  All Rights Reserved.

IESG Note

   This extension to the POP3 protocol is to be used by a server to
   express policy descisions taken by the server administrator.  It is
   not an endorsement of implementations of further POP3 extensions
   generally.  It is the general view that the POP3 protocol should stay
   simple, and for the simple purpose of downloading email from a mail
   server.  If more complicated operations are needed, the IMAP protocol
   [RFC 2060] should be used.  The first paragraph of section 7 should
   be read very carefully.

Table of Contents

    1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
    2.  Conventions Used in this Document . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
    3.  General Command and Response Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
    4.  Parameter and Response Lengths  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
    5.  The CAPA Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
    6.  Initial Set of Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
      6.1.  TOP capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
      6.2.  USER capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
      6.3.  SASL capability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
      6.4.  RESP-CODES capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
      6.5.  LOGIN-DELAY capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
      6.6.  PIPELINING capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9



Gellens, et. al.            Standards Track
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