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-Network Working Group M. Gahrns
-Request for Comments: 2342 Microsoft
-Category: Standards Track C. Newman
- Innosoft
- May 1998
-
-
- IMAP4 Namespace
-
-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.
-
-Copyright Notice
-
- Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
-
-1. Abstract
-
- IMAP4 [RFC-2060] does not define a default server namespace. As a
- result, two common namespace models have evolved:
-
- The "Personal Mailbox" model, in which the default namespace that is
- presented consists of only the user's personal mailboxes. To access
- shared mailboxes, the user must use an escape mechanism to reach
- another namespace.
-
- The "Complete Hierarchy" model, in which the default namespace that
- is presented includes the user's personal mailboxes along with any
- other mailboxes they have access to.
-
- These two models, create difficulties for certain client operations.
- This document defines a NAMESPACE command that allows a client to
- discover the prefixes of namespaces used by a server for personal
- mailboxes, other users' mailboxes, and shared mailboxes. This allows
- a client to avoid much of the manual user configuration that is now
- necessary when mixing and matching IMAP4 clients and servers.
-
-2. Conventions used in this document
-
- In examples, "C:" and "S:" indicate lines sent by the client and
- server respectively. If such lines are wrapped without a new "C:" or
- "S:" label, then the wrapping is for editorial clarity and is not
- part of the command.
-
-
-
-Gahrns & Newman Standards Track [Page 1]
-
-RFC 2342 IMAP4 Namespace May 1998
-
-
- Personal Namespace: A namespace that the server considers within the
- personal scope of the authenticated user on a particular connection.
- Typically, only the authenticated user has access to mailboxes in
- their Personal Namespace. It is the part of the namespace that
- belongs to the user that is allocated for mailboxes. If an INBOX
- exists for a user, it MUST appear within the user's personal
- namespace. In the typical case, there SHOULD be only one Personal
- Namespace on a server.
-
- Other Users' Namespace: A namespace that consists of mailboxes from
- the Personal Namespaces of other users. To access mailboxes in the
- Other Users' Namespace, the currently authenticated user MUST be
- explicitly granted access rights. For example, it is common for a
- manager to grant to their secretary access rights to their mailbox.
- In the typical case, there SHOULD be only one Other Users' Namespace
- on a server.
-
- Shared Namespace: A namespace that consists of mailboxes that are
- intended to be shared amongst users and do not exist within a user's
- Personal Namespace.
-
- The namespaces a server uses MAY differ on a per-user basis.
-
- 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 [RFC-2119].
-
-3. Introduction and Overview
-
- Clients often attempt to create mailboxes for such purposes as
- maintaining a record of sent messages (e.g. "Sent Mail") or
- temporarily saving messages being composed (e.g. "Drafts"). For
- these clients to inter-operate correctly with the variety of IMAP4
- servers available, the user must enter the prefix of the Personal
- Namespace used by the server. Using the NAMESPACE command, a client
- is able to automatically discover this prefix without manual user
- configuration.
-
- In addition, users are often required to manually enter the prefixes
- of various namespaces in order to view the mailboxes located there.
- For example, they might be required to enter the prefix of #shared to
- view the shared mailboxes namespace. The NAMESPACE command allows a
- client to automatically discover the namespaces that are available on
- a server. This allows a client to present the available namespaces to
- the user in what ever manner it deems appropriate. For example, a
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Gahrns & Newman Standards Track [Page 2]
-
-RFC 2342 IMAP4 Namespace May 1998
-
-
- client could choose to initially display only personal mailboxes, or
- it may choose to display the complete list of mailboxes available,
- and initially position the user at the root of their Personal
- Namespace.
-
- A server MAY choose to make available to the NAMESPACE command only a
- subset of the complete set of namespaces the server supports. To
- provide the ability to access these namespaces, a client SHOULD allow
- the user the ability to manually enter a namespace prefix.
-
-4. Requirements
-
- IMAP4 servers that support this extension MUST list the keyword
- NAMESPACE in their CAPABILITY response.
-
- The NAMESPACE command is valid in the Authenticated and Selected
- state.
-
-5. NAMESPACE Command
-
- Arguments: none
-
- Response: an untagged NAMESPACE response that contains the prefix
- and hierarchy delimiter to the server's Personal
- Namespace(s), Other Users' Namespace(s), and Shared
- Namespace(s) that the server wishes to expose. The
- response will contain a NIL for any namespace class
- that is not available. Namespace_Response_Extensions
- MAY be included in the response.
- Namespace_Response_Extensions which are not on the IETF
- standards track, MUST be prefixed with an "X-".
-
- Result: OK - Command completed
- NO - Error: Can't complete command
- BAD - argument invalid
-
- Example 5.1:
- ===========
-
- < A server that supports a single personal namespace. No leading
- prefix is used on personal mailboxes and "/" is the hierarchy
- delimiter.>
-
- C: A001 NAMESPACE
- S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) NIL NIL
- S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed
-
-
-
-
-
-Gahrns & Newman Standards Track [Page 3]
-
-RFC 2342 IMAP4 Namespace May 1998
-
-
- Example 5.2:
- ===========
-
- < A user logged on anonymously to a server. No personal mailboxes
- are associated with the anonymous user and the user does not have
- access to the Other Users' Namespace. No prefix is required to
- access shared mailboxes and the hierarchy delimiter is "." >
-
- C: A001 NAMESPACE
- S: * NAMESPACE NIL NIL (("" "."))
- S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed
-
- Example 5.3:
- ===========
-
- < A server that contains a Personal Namespace and a single Shared
- Namespace. >
-
- C: A001 NAMESPACE
- S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) NIL (("Public Folders/" "/"))
- S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed
-
- Example 5.4:
- ===========
-
- < A server that contains a Personal Namespace, Other Users'
- Namespace and multiple Shared Namespaces. Note that the hierarchy
- delimiter used within each namespace can be different. >
-
- C: A001 NAMESPACE
- S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) (("~" "/")) (("#shared/" "/")
- ("#public/" "/")("#ftp/" "/")("#news." "."))
- S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed
-
- The prefix string allows a client to do things such as automatically
- creating personal mailboxes or LISTing all available mailboxes within
- a namespace.
-
- Example 5.5:
- ===========
-
- < A server that supports only the Personal Namespace, with a
- leading prefix of INBOX to personal mailboxes and a hierarchy
- delimiter of ".">
-
- C: A001 NAMESPACE
- S: * NAMESPACE (("INBOX." ".")) NIL NIL
- S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed
-
-
-
-Gahrns & Newman Standards Track [Page 4]
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-RFC 2342 IMAP4 Namespace May 1998
-
-
- < Automatically create a mailbox to store sent items.>
-
- C: A002 CREATE "INBOX.Sent Mail"
- S: A002 OK CREATE command completed
-
- Although typically a server will support only a single Personal
- Namespace, and a single Other User's Namespace, circumstances exist
- where there MAY be multiples of these, and a client MUST be prepared
- for them. If a client is configured such that it is required to
- create a certain mailbox, there can be circumstances where it is
- unclear which Personal Namespaces it should create the mailbox in.
- In these situations a client SHOULD let the user select which
- namespaces to create the mailbox in.
-
- Example 5.6:
- ===========
-
- < In this example, a server supports 2 Personal Namespaces. In
- addition to the regular Personal Namespace, the user has an
- additional personal namespace to allow access to mailboxes in an
- MH format mailstore. >
-
- < The client is configured to save a copy of all mail sent by the
- user into a mailbox called 'Sent Mail'. Furthermore, after a
- message is deleted from a mailbox, the client is configured to
- move that message to a mailbox called 'Deleted Items'.>
-
- < Note that this example demonstrates how some extension flags can
- be passed to further describe the #mh namespace. >
-
- C: A001 NAMESPACE
- S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")("#mh/" "/" "X-PARAM" ("FLAG1" "FLAG2")))
- NIL NIL
- S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed
-
- < It is desired to keep only one copy of sent mail. It is unclear
- which Personal Namespace the client should use to create the 'Sent
- Mail' mailbox. The user is prompted to select a namespace and
- only one 'Sent Mail' mailbox is created. >
-
- C: A002 CREATE "Sent Mail"
- S: A002 OK CREATE command completed
-
- < The client is designed so that it keeps two 'Deleted Items'
- mailboxes, one for each namespace. >
-
- C: A003 CREATE "Delete Items"
- S: A003 OK CREATE command completed
-
-
-
-Gahrns & Newman Standards Track [Page 5]
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-RFC 2342 IMAP4 Namespace May 1998
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-
- C: A004 CREATE "#mh/Deleted Items"
- S: A004 OK CREATE command completed
-
- The next level of hierarchy following the Other Users' Namespace
- prefix SHOULD consist of <username>, where <username> is a user name
- as per the IMAP4 LOGIN or AUTHENTICATE command.
-
- A client can construct a LIST command by appending a "%" to the Other
- Users' Namespace prefix to discover the Personal Namespaces of other
- users that are available to the currently authenticated user.
-
- In response to such a LIST command, a server SHOULD NOT return user
- names that have not granted access to their personal mailboxes to the
- user in question.
-
- A server MAY return a LIST response containing only the names of
- users that have explicitly granted access to the user in question.
-
- Alternatively, a server MAY return NO to such a LIST command,
- requiring that a user name be included with the Other Users'
- Namespace prefix before listing any other user's mailboxes.
-
- Example 5.7:
- ===========
-
- < A server that supports providing a list of other user's
- mailboxes that are accessible to the currently logged on user. >
-
- C: A001 NAMESPACE
- S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) (("Other Users/" "/")) NIL
- S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed
-
- C: A002 LIST "" "Other Users/%"
- S: * LIST () "/" "Other Users/Mike"
- S: * LIST () "/" "Other Users/Karen"
- S: * LIST () "/" "Other Users/Matthew"
- S: * LIST () "/" "Other Users/Tesa"
- S: A002 OK LIST command completed
-
- Example 5.8:
- ===========
-
- < A server that does not support providing a list of other user's
- mailboxes that are accessible to the currently logged on user.
- The mailboxes are listable if the client includes the name of the
- other user with the Other Users' Namespace prefix. >
-
-
-
-
-
-Gahrns & Newman Standards Track [Page 6]
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-RFC 2342 IMAP4 Namespace May 1998
-
-
- C: A001 NAMESPACE
- S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) (("#Users/" "/")) NIL
- S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed
-
- < In this example, the currently logged on user has access to the
- Personal Namespace of user Mike, but the server chose to suppress
- this information in the LIST response. However, by appending the
- user name Mike (received through user input) to the Other Users'
- Namespace prefix, the client is able to get a listing of the
- personal mailboxes of user Mike. >
-
- C: A002 LIST "" "#Users/%"
- S: A002 NO The requested item could not be found.
-
- C: A003 LIST "" "#Users/Mike/%"
- S: * LIST () "/" "#Users/Mike/INBOX"
- S: * LIST () "/" "#Users/Mike/Foo"
- S: A003 OK LIST command completed.
-
- A prefix string might not contain a hierarchy delimiter, because
- in some cases it is not needed as part of the prefix.
-
- Example 5.9:
- ===========
-
- < A server that allows access to the Other Users' Namespace by
- prefixing the others' mailboxes with a '~' followed by <username>,
- where <username> is a user name as per the IMAP4 LOGIN or
- AUTHENTICATE command.>
-
- C: A001 NAMESPACE
- S: * NAMESPACE (("" "/")) (("~" "/")) NIL
- S: A001 OK NAMESPACE command completed
-
- < List the mailboxes for user mark >
-
- C: A002 LIST "" "~mark/%"
- S: * LIST () "/" "~mark/INBOX"
- S: * LIST () "/" "~mark/foo"
- S: A002 OK LIST command completed
-
- Historical convention has been to start all namespaces with the "#"
- character. Namespaces that include the "#" character are not IMAP
- URL [IMAP-URL] friendly requiring the "#" character to be represented
- as %23 when within URLs. As such, server implementers MAY instead
- consider using namespace prefixes that do not contain the "#"
- character.
-
-
-
-
-Gahrns & Newman Standards Track [Page 7]
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-RFC 2342 IMAP4 Namespace May 1998
-
-
-6. Formal Syntax
-
- The following syntax specification uses the augmented Backus-Naur
- Form (BNF) as described in [ABNF].
-
- atom = <atom>
- ; <atom> as defined in [RFC-2060]
-
- Namespace = nil / "(" 1*( "(" string SP (<"> QUOTED_CHAR <"> /
- nil) *(Namespace_Response_Extension) ")" ) ")"
-
- Namespace_Command = "NAMESPACE"
-
- Namespace_Response_Extension = SP string SP "(" string *(SP string)
- ")"
-
- Namespace_Response = "*" SP "NAMESPACE" SP Namespace SP Namespace SP
- Namespace
-
- ; The first Namespace is the Personal Namespace(s)
- ; The second Namespace is the Other Users' Namespace(s)
- ; The third Namespace is the Shared Namespace(s)
-
- nil = <nil>
- ; <nil> as defined in [RFC-2060]
-
- QUOTED_CHAR = <QUOTED_CHAR>
- ; <QUOTED_CHAR> as defined in [RFC-2060]
-
- string = <string>
- ; <string> as defined in [RFC-2060]
- ; Note that the namespace prefix is to a mailbox and following
- ; IMAP4 convention, any international string in the NAMESPACE
- ; response MUST be of modified UTF-7 format as described in
- ; [RFC-2060].
-
-7. Security Considerations
-
- In response to a LIST command containing an argument of the Other
- Users' Namespace prefix, a server SHOULD NOT list users that have not
- granted list access to their personal mailboxes to the currently
- authenticated user. Providing such a list, could compromise security
- by potentially disclosing confidential information of who is located
- on the server, or providing a starting point of a list of user
- accounts to attack.
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-8. References
-
- [RFC-2060], Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol Version
- 4rev1", RFC 2060, December 1996.
-
- [RFC-2119], Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
- Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
-
- [ABNF] Crocker, D., Editor, and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
- Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
-
- [IMAP-URL], Newman, C., "IMAP URL Scheme", RFC 2192, September 1997.
-
-9. Acknowledgments
-
- Many people have participated in the discussion of IMAP namespaces on
- the IMAP mailing list. In particular, the authors would like to
- thank Mark Crispin for many of the concepts relating to the Personal
- Namespace and accessing the Personal Namespace of other users, Steve
- Hole for summarizing the two namespace models, John Myers and Jack De
- Winter for their work in a preceding effort trying to define a
- standardized personal namespace, and Larry Osterman for his review
- and collaboration on this document.
-
-11. Authors' Addresses
-
- Mike Gahrns
- Microsoft
- One Microsoft Way
- Redmond, WA, 98072, USA
-
- Phone: (425) 936-9833
- EMail: mikega@microsoft.com
-
-
- Chris Newman
- Innosoft International, Inc.
- 1050 East Garvey Ave. South
- West Covina, CA, 91790, USA
-
- EMail: chris.newman@innosoft.com
-
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-12. Full Copyright Statement
-
- Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
-
- This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
- others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
- or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
- and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
- kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
- included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
- document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
- the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
- Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
- developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
- copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
- followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
- English.
-
- The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
- revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
-
- This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
- "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
- TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS 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.
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