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<pre>Network Working Group A. Gulbrandsen, Ed.
Request for Comments: 5161 Oryx Mail Systems GmbH
Category: Standards Track A. Melnikov, Ed.
Isode Limited
March 2008
<span class="h1">The IMAP ENABLE Extension</span>
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.
Abstract
Most IMAP extensions are used by the client when it wants to and the
server supports it. However, a few extensions require the server to
know whether a client supports that extension. The ENABLE extension
allows an IMAP client to say which extensions it supports.
<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-1" href="#section-1">1</a>. Overview</span>
Several IMAP extensions allow the server to return unsolicited
responses specific to these extensions in certain circumstances.
However, servers cannot send those unsolicited responses until they
know that the clients support such extensions and thus won't choke on
the extension response data.
Up until now, extensions have typically stated that a server cannot
send the unsolicited responses until after the client has used a
command with the extension data (i.e., at that point the server knows
the client is aware of the extension). CONDSTORE ([<a href="./rfc4551" title=""IMAP Extension for Conditional STORE Operation or Quick Flag Changes Resynchronization"">RFC4551</a>]),
ANNOTATE ([<a href="#ref-ANNOTATE" title=""IMAP ANNOTATE Extension"">ANNOTATE</a>]), and some extensions under consideration at the
moment use various commands to enable server extensions. For
example, CONDSTORE uses a SELECT or FETCH parameter, and ANNOTATE
uses a side effect of FETCH.
The ENABLE extension provides an explicit indication from the client
that it supports particular extensions. This is done using a new
ENABLE command.
An IMAP server that supports ENABLE advertises this by including the
word ENABLE in its capability list.
<span class="grey">Gulbrandsen & Melnikov Standards Track [Page 1]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-2" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc5161">RFC 5161</a> The IMAP ENABLE Extension March 2008</span>
Most IMAP extensions do not require the client to enable the
extension in any way.
<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-2" href="#section-2">2</a>. Conventions Used in This Document</span>
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [<a href="./rfc2119" title=""Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels"">RFC2119</a>].
Formal syntax is defined by [<a href="./rfc5234" title=""Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF"">RFC5234</a>] and [<a href="./rfc3501" title=""INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4rev1"">RFC3501</a>].
Example lines prefaced by "C:" are sent by the client and ones
prefaced by "S:" by the server. The five characters [...] means that
something has been elided.
<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-3" href="#section-3">3</a>. Protocol Changes</span>
<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.1" href="#section-3.1">3.1</a>. The ENABLE Command</span>
Arguments: capability names
Result: OK: Relevant capabilities enabled
BAD: No arguments, or syntax error in an argument
The ENABLE command takes a list of capability names, and requests the
server to enable the named extensions. Once enabled using ENABLE,
each extension remains active until the IMAP connection is closed.
For each argument, the server does the following:
- If the argument is not an extension known to the server, the server
MUST ignore the argument.
- If the argument is an extension known to the server, and it is not
specifically permitted to be enabled using ENABLE, the server MUST
ignore the argument. (Note that knowing about an extension doesn't
necessarily imply supporting that extension.)
- If the argument is an extension that is supported by the server and
that needs to be enabled, the server MUST enable the extension for
the duration of the connection. At present, this applies only to
CONDSTORE ([<a href="./rfc4551" title=""IMAP Extension for Conditional STORE Operation or Quick Flag Changes Resynchronization"">RFC4551</a>]). Note that once an extension is enabled,
there is no way to disable it.
If the ENABLE command is successful, the server MUST send an untagged
ENABLED response (see <a href="#section-3.2">Section 3.2</a>).
<span class="grey">Gulbrandsen & Melnikov Standards Track [Page 2]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-3" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc5161">RFC 5161</a> The IMAP ENABLE Extension March 2008</span>
Clients SHOULD only include extensions that need to be enabled by the
server. At the time of publication, CONDSTORE is the only such
extension (i.e., ENABLE CONDSTORE is an additional "CONDSTORE
enabling command" as defined in [<a href="./rfc4551" title=""IMAP Extension for Conditional STORE Operation or Quick Flag Changes Resynchronization"">RFC4551</a>]). Future RFCs may add to
this list.
The ENABLE command is only valid in the authenticated state (see
[<a href="./rfc3501" title=""INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4rev1"">RFC3501</a>]), before any mailbox is selected. Clients MUST NOT issue
ENABLE once they SELECT/EXAMINE a mailbox; however, server
implementations don't have to check that no mailbox is selected or
was previously selected during the duration of a connection.
The ENABLE command can be issued multiple times in a session. It is
additive; i.e., "ENABLE a b", followed by "ENABLE c" is the same as a
single command "ENABLE a b c". When multiple ENABLE commands are
issued, each corresponding ENABLED response SHOULD only contain
extensions enabled by the corresponding ENABLE command.
There are no limitations on pipelining ENABLE. For example, it is
possible to send ENABLE and then immediately SELECT, or a LOGIN
immediately followed by ENABLE.
The server MUST NOT change the CAPABILITY list as a result of
executing ENABLE; i.e., a CAPABILITY command issued right after an
ENABLE command MUST list the same capabilities as a CAPABILITY
command issued before the ENABLE command. This is demonstrated in
the following example:
C: t1 CAPABILITY
S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 ID LITERAL+ ENABLE X-GOOD-IDEA
S: t1 OK foo
C: t2 ENABLE CONDSTORE X-GOOD-IDEA
S: * ENABLED X-GOOD-IDEA
S: t2 OK foo
C: t3 CAPABILITY
S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 ID LITERAL+ ENABLE X-GOOD-IDEA
S: t3 OK foo again
In the following example, the client enables CONDSTORE:
C: a1 ENABLE CONDSTORE
S: * ENABLED CONDSTORE
S: a1 OK Conditional Store enabled
<span class="grey">Gulbrandsen & Melnikov Standards Track [Page 3]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-4" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc5161">RFC 5161</a> The IMAP ENABLE Extension March 2008</span>
<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.2" href="#section-3.2">3.2</a>. The ENABLED Response</span>
Contents: capability listing
The ENABLED response occurs as a result of an ENABLE command. The
capability listing contains a space-separated listing of capability
names that the server supports and that were successfully enabled.
The ENABLED response may contain no capabilities, which means that no
extensions listed by the client were successfully enabled.
<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.3" href="#section-3.3">3.3</a>. Note to Designers of Extensions That May Use the ENABLE Command</span>
Designers of IMAP extensions are discouraged from creating extensions
that require ENABLE unless there is no good alternative design.
Specifically, extensions that cause potentially incompatible behavior
changes to deployed server responses (and thus benefit from ENABLE)
have a higher complexity cost than extensions that do not.
<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-4" href="#section-4">4</a>. Formal Syntax</span>
The following syntax specification uses the Augmented Backus-Naur
Form (ABNF) notation as specified in [<a href="./rfc5234" title=""Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF"">RFC5234</a>] including the core
rules in <a href="./rfc3501#appendix-B.1">Appendix B.1. [RFC3501]</a> defines the non-terminals
"capability" and "command-any".
Except as noted otherwise, all alphabetic characters are
case-insensitive. The use of upper or lower case characters to
define token strings is for editorial clarity only. Implementations
MUST accept these strings in a case-insensitive fashion.
capability =/ "ENABLE"
command-any =/ "ENABLE" 1*(SP capability)
response-data =/ "*" SP enable-data CRLF
enable-data = "ENABLED" *(SP capability)
<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-5" href="#section-5">5</a>. Security Considerations</span>
It is believed that this extension doesn't add any security
considerations that are not already present in the base IMAP protocol
[<a href="./rfc3501" title=""INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4rev1"">RFC3501</a>].
<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-6" href="#section-6">6</a>. IANA Considerations</span>
The IANA has added ENABLE to the IMAP4 Capabilities Registry.
<span class="grey">Gulbrandsen & Melnikov Standards Track [Page 4]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-5" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc5161">RFC 5161</a> The IMAP ENABLE Extension March 2008</span>
<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-7" href="#section-7">7</a>. Acknowledgments</span>
The editors would like to thank Randy Gellens, Chris Newman, Peter
Coates, Dave Cridland, Mark Crispin, Ned Freed, Dan Karp, Cyrus
Daboo, Ken Murchison, and Eric Burger for comments and corrections.
However, this doesn't necessarily mean that they endorse this
extension, agree with all details, or are responsible for errors
introduced by the editors.
<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-8" href="#section-8">8</a>. Normative References</span>
[<a id="ref-RFC2119">RFC2119</a>] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/bcp/bcp14">BCP 14</a>, <a href="./rfc2119">RFC 2119</a>, March 1997.
[<a id="ref-RFC3501">RFC3501</a>] Crispin, M., "INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION
4rev1", <a href="./rfc3501">RFC 3501</a>, March 2003.
[<a id="ref-RFC5234">RFC5234</a>] Crocker, D., Ed., and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for
Syntax Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, <a href="./rfc5234">RFC 5234</a>, January
2008.
[<a id="ref-RFC4551">RFC4551</a>] Melnikov, A. and S. Hole, "IMAP Extension for Conditional
STORE Operation or Quick Flag Changes Resynchronization",
<a href="./rfc4551">RFC 4551</a>, June 2006.
<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-9" href="#section-9">9</a>. Informative References</span>
[<a id="ref-ANNOTATE">ANNOTATE</a>] Daboo, C. and R. Gellens, <a style="text-decoration: none" href='https://www.google.com/search?sitesearch=datatracker.ietf.org%2Fdoc%2Fhtml%2F&q=inurl:draft-+%22IMAP+ANNOTATE+Extension%22'>"IMAP ANNOTATE Extension"</a>, Work
in Progress, August 2006.
<span class="grey">Gulbrandsen & Melnikov Standards Track [Page 5]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-6" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc5161">RFC 5161</a> The IMAP ENABLE Extension March 2008</span>
Editors' Addresses
Arnt Gulbrandsen
Oryx Mail Systems GmbH
Schweppermannstr. 8
D-81671 Muenchen
Germany
Fax: +49 89 4502 9758
EMail: arnt@oryx.com
Alexey Melnikov
Isode Ltd
5 Castle Business Village
36 Station Road
Hampton, Middlesex TW12 2BX
UK
EMail: Alexey.Melnikov@isode.com
<span class="grey">Gulbrandsen & Melnikov Standards Track [Page 6]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-7" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc5161">RFC 5161</a> The IMAP ENABLE Extension March 2008</span>
Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2008).
This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
contained in <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/bcp/bcp78">BCP 78</a>, and except as set forth therein, the authors
retain all their rights.
This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY, THE IETF TRUST AND
THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF
THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Intellectual Property
The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
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Gulbrandsen & Melnikov Standards Track [Page 7]
</pre>
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