Subject: [imap5] MSNs vs UIDs

From: Timo Sirainen <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:49:07 -0400

I think that's one of the main things that has to be decided. Having  
several commands deal with both UIDs and MSNs just adds too much  
complexity. I guess most people already have an idea what the protocol  
would look like without MSNs, so here's an alternative mockup on how  
the protocol could look like without UID ranges. The UIDs could  
perhaps just be regular UID numbers, but POP3-like UID strings would  
allow more flexibility to the server so the examples below use them.

If MSNs are kept, I think the "every command checks for mail store  
changes" should change at least somewhat. Clients have had bugs with  
this, some servers don't do this anyway, and figuring out what  
commands can send EXPUNGEs is complex. So at least EXPUNGEs shouldn't  
be sent with anything else than EXPUNGE/NOOP/CHECK/IDLE. For EXISTS  
the same plus any command that is used to add messages (APPEND, COPY).  
Flag changes perhaps shouldn't have any restrictions, or at least  
FETCH/STORE should always return the latest changes.

1 fetch 1:* (uid)
* 1 fetch (uid hello)
* 2 fetch (uid world)
1 ok

2 append inbox {100}
<..>
{100}
<..>
* 4 exists
* 3 fetch (uid newmsg1)
* 4 fetch (uid newmsg2)
* ok [highestmodseq 123]
2 ok [appended 3:4]

3 store 2 +flags \deleted
* 2 fetch (flags (\Deleted) modseq 124)
3 ok

4 expunge
* 2 expunge (uid world)
4 ok [highestmodseq 125]

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---

From: Mark Crispin <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:19:15 -0700

> If MSNs are kept, I think the "every command checks for mail store > changes" should change at least somewhat. 
 
I agree on this.  The problem is command streaming; and we should
redo that.  My recommendation is to have a framework under which
an IMAP5 command has multiple operations.  The parsing is all done
at once.  But at the end of the command all normal mail store change
checks can be done.
 
-- Mark --
 
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