RFC 2683 (rfc2683) - Page 1 of 23
IMAP4 Implementation Recommendations
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group B. Leiba
Request for Comments: 2683 IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Category: Informational September 1999
IMAP4 Implementation Recommendations
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved.
1. Abstract
The IMAP4 specification [RFC-2060] describes a rich protocol for use
in building clients and servers for storage, retrieval, and
manipulation of electronic mail. Because the protocol is so rich and
has so many implementation choices, there are often trade-offs that
must be made and issues that must be considered when designing such
clients and servers. This document attempts to outline these issues
and to make recommendations in order to make the end products as
interoperable as possible.
2. Conventions used in this document
In examples, "C:" indicates lines sent by a client that is connected
to a server. "S:" indicates lines sent by the server to the client.
The words "must", "must not", "should", "should not", and "may" are
used with specific meaning in this document; since their meaning is
somewhat different from that specified in RFC 2119, we do not put
them in all caps here. Their meaning is as follows:
must -- This word means that the action described is necessary
to ensure interoperability. The recommendation should
not be ignored.
must not -- This phrase means that the action described will be
almost certain to hurt interoperability. The
recommendation should not be ignored.
Leiba Informational