RFC 2088 (rfc2088) - Page 1 of 2
IMAP4 non-synchronizing literals
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group J. Myers
Request for Comments: 2088 Carnegie Mellon
Cateogry: Standards Track January 1997
IMAP4 non-synchronizing literals
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.
1. Abstract
The Internet Message Access Protocol [IMAP4] contains the "literal"
syntactic construct for communicating strings. When sending a
literal from client to server, IMAP4 requires the client to wait for
the server to send a command continuation request between sending the
octet count and the string data. This document specifies an
alternate form of literal which does not require this network round
trip.
2. Conventions Used in this Document
In examples, "C:" and "S:" indicate lines sent by the client and
server respectively.
3. Specification
The non-synchronizing literal is added an alternate form of literal,
and may appear in communication from client to server instead of the
IMAP4 form of literal. The IMAP4 form of literal, used in
communication from client to server, is referred to as a
synchronizing literal.
Non-synchronizing literals may be used with any IMAP4 server
implementation which returns "LITERAL+" as one of the supported
capabilities to the CAPABILITY command. If the server does not
advertise the LITERAL+ capability, the client must use synchronizing
literals instead.
The non-synchronizing literal is distinguished from the original
synchronizing literal by having a plus ('+') between the octet count
and the closing brace ('}'). The server does not generate a command
continuation request in response to a non-synchronizing literal, and
Myers Standards Track