RFC 3503 (rfc3503) - Page 2 of 9


Message Disposition Notification (MDN) profile for Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



RFC 3503                  MDN profile for IMAP                March 2003


Table of Contents

   1.  Conventions Used in this Document.............................  2
   2.  Introduction and Overview.....................................  2
   3.  Client behavior...............................................  3
       3.1. Client behavior when receiving a message.................  5
       3.2. Client behavior when copying a message...................  5
       3.3. Client behavior when sending a message...................  5
       3.4. Client behavior when saving a temporary message..........  5
   4.  Server behavior...............................................  5
       4.1. Server that supports arbitrary keywords..................  5
       4.2. Server that supports only $MDNSent keyword...............  5
       4.3. Interaction with IMAP ACL extension......................  6
   5.  Examples......................................................  6
   6.  Security Considerations.......................................  7
   7.  Formal Syntax.................................................  7
   8.  Acknowledgments...............................................  7
   9.  Normative References..........................................  8
   10. Author's Address..............................................  8
   11. Full Copyright Statement......................................  9

1.  Conventions Used in this Document

   "C:" and "S:" in examples show lines sent by the client and server
   respectively.

   The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", and "MAY" in
   this document when typed in uppercase are to be interpreted as
   defined in "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels"
   [KEYWORDS].

2.  Introduction and Overview

   This memo defines an additional [IMAP4] mailbox keyword that allows
   multiple Mail User Agents (MUAs) to know if a requested receipt
   notification was sent.

   Message Disposition Notification [MDN] does not require any special
   support of IMAP in the case where a user has access to the mailstore
   from only one computer and is using a single MUA.  In this case, the
   MUA behaves as described in [MDN], i.e., the MUA performs automatic
   processing and generates corresponding MDNs, it performs requested
   action and, with the user's permission, sends appropriate MDNs.  The
   MUA will not send MDN twice because the MUA keeps track of sent
   notifications in a local configuration.  However, that does not work
   when IMAP is used to access the same mailstore from different
   locations or is using different MUAs.




Melnikov                    Standards Track