Subject: I-D ACTION:draft-gellens-pop3ext-09.txt

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 10:22:49 -0400

Note: This revision reflects comments received during the last call period.

A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.

	Title		: POP3 Extension Mechanism
	Author(s)	: R. Gellens, C. Newman, L. Lundblade
	Filename	: draft-gellens-pop3ext-09.txt
	Pages		: 18
	Date		: 22-Oct-98
	
    The Post Office Protocol version 3 [POP3] is very widely used.
    However, while it includes some optional commands (and some useful
    protocol extensions have been published), it lacks a mechanism for
    advertising support for these extensions or for behavior variations.
 
    Currently these optional features and extensions can only be
    detected by probing, if at all.  This is at best inefficient, and
    possibly worse.  As a result, some clients have manual configuration
    options for POP3 server capabilities.
 
    Because one of the most important characteristics of POP3 is its
    simplicity, it is desirable that extensions be few in number (see
    section 7).  However, some extensions are necessary (such as ones
    that provide improved security [POP-AUTH]), while others are very
    desirable in certain situations.  In addition, a means for
    discovering server behavior is needed.
 
    This memo updates RFC 1939 [POP3] to define a mechanism to announce
    support for optional commands, extensions, and unconditional server
    behavior.  Included is an initial set of currently deployed
    capabilities which vary between server implementations, and several
    new capabilities (SASL, RESP-CODES, LOGIN-DELAY, PIPELINING, EXPIRE
    and IMPLEMENTATION).  This document also extends POP3 error messages
    so that machine parsable codes can be provided to the client.  An
    initial set of response codes is included.  In addition, an [ABNF]
    specification of POP3 commands and responses is defined.

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