offlineIMAP3/docs/rfcs/rfc5162.IMAP4_Extensions_for_Quick_Mailbox_resync.txt

Network Working Group                                        A. Melnikov
Request for Comments: 5162                                   D. Cridland
Category: Standards Track                                      Isode Ltd
                                                               C. Wilson
                                                                   Nokia
                                                              March 2008


          IMAP4 Extensions for Quick Mailbox Resynchronization

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

   This document defines an IMAP4 extension, which gives an IMAP client
   the ability to quickly resynchronize any previously opened mailbox as
   part of the SELECT command, without the need for server-side state or
   additional client round-trips.  This extension also introduces a new
   response that allows for a more compact representation of a list of
   expunged messages (and always includes the Unique Identifiers (UIDs)
   expunged).
























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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction and Overview  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
   2.  Requirements Notation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.  IMAP Protocol Changes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     3.1.  QRESYNC Parameter to SELECT/EXAMINE  . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     3.2.  VANISHED UID FETCH Modifier  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     3.3.  EXPUNGE Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     3.4.  CLOSE Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     3.5.  UID EXPUNGE Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     3.6.  VANISHED Response  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     3.7.  CLOSED Response Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   4.  Server Implementation Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     4.1.  Server Implementations That Don't Store Extra State  . . . 15
     4.2.  Server Implementations Storing Minimal State . . . . . . . 16
     4.3.  Additional State Required on the Server  . . . . . . . . . 16
   5.  Updated Synchronization Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   6.  Formal Syntax  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
   7.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   8.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
   9.  Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
   10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     10.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     10.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

1.  Introduction and Overview

   The [CONDSTORE] extension gives a disconnected client the ability to
   quickly resynchronize IMAP flag changes for previously seen messages.
   This can be done using the CHANGEDSINCE FETCH modifier once a mailbox
   is opened.  In order for the client to discover which messages have
   been expunged, the client still has to issue a UID FETCH or a UID
   SEARCH command.  This document defines an extension to [CONDSTORE]
   that allows a reconnecting client to perform full resynchronization,
   including discovery of expunged messages, in a single round-trip.
   This extension also introduces a new response, VANISHED, that allows
   for a more compact representation of a list of expunged messages.

   This extension can be useful for mobile clients that can experience
   frequent disconnects caused by environmental factors (battery life,
   signal strength, etc.).  Such clients need a way to quickly reconnect
   to the IMAP server, while minimizing delay experienced by the user as
   well as the amount of traffic (and hence the expense) generated by
   resynchronization.







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   By extending the SELECT command to perform the additional
   resynchronization, this also allows clients to reduce concurrent
   connections to the IMAP server held purely for the sake of avoiding
   the resynchronization.

   The quick resync IMAP extension is present if an IMAP4 server returns
   "QRESYNC" as one of the supported capabilities to the CAPABILITY
   command.

   Servers supporting this extension MUST implement and advertise
   support for the [ENABLE] IMAP extension.  Also, the presence of the
   "QRESYNC" capability implies support for the [CONDSTORE] IMAP
   extension even if the CONDSTORE capability isn't advertised.  A
   server compliant with this specification is REQUIREd to support
   "ENABLE QRESYNC" and "ENABLE QRESYNC CONDSTORE" (which are "CONDSTORE
   enabling commands", as defined in [CONDSTORE], and have identical
   results), but there is no requirement for a compliant server to
   support "ENABLE CONDSTORE" by itself.  The "ENABLE QRESYNC"/"ENABLE
   QRESYNC CONDSTORE" command also tells the server that it SHOULD start
   sending VANISHED responses (see Section 3.6) instead of EXPUNGE
   responses.  This change remains in effect until the connection is
   closed.

   For compatibility with clients that only support the [CONDSTORE] IMAP
   extension, servers SHOULD advertise CONDSTORE in the CAPABILITY
   response as well.

   A client making use of this extension MUST issue "ENABLE QRESYNC"
   once it is authenticated.  A server MUST respond with a tagged BAD
   response if the QRESYNC parameter to the SELECT/EXAMINE command or
   the VANISHED UID FETCH modifier is specified and the client hasn't
   issued "ENABLE QRESYNC" in the current connection.

   This document puts additional requirements on a server implementing
   the [CONDSTORE] extension.  Each mailbox that supports persistent
   storage of mod-sequences, i.e., for which the server has sent a
   HIGHESTMODSEQ untagged OK response code on a successful SELECT/
   EXAMINE, MUST increment the per-mailbox mod-sequence when one or more
   messages are expunged due to EXPUNGE, UID EXPUNGE or CLOSE; the
   server MUST associate the incremented mod-sequence with the UIDs of
   the expunged messages.

   A client that supports CONDSTORE but not this extension might
   resynchronize a mailbox and discover that its HIGHESTMODSEQ has
   increased from the value cached by the client.  If the increase is
   only due to messages having been expunged since the client last
   synchronized, the client is likely to send a FETCH ...  CHANGEDSINCE
   command that returns no data.  Thus, a client that supports CONDSTORE



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   but not this extension might incur a penalty of an unneeded round-
   trip when resynchronizing some mailboxes (those that have had
   messages expunged but no flag changes since the last
   synchronization).

   This extra round-trip is only incurred by clients that support
   CONDSTORE but not this extension, and only when a mailbox has had
   messages expunged but no flag changes to non-expunged messages.
   Since CONDSTORE is a relatively new extension, it is thought likely
   that clients that support it will also support this extension.

2.  Requirements Notation

   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 [RFC2119].

   In examples, "C:" and "S:" indicate lines sent by the client and
   server respectively.  If a single "C:" or "S:" label applies to
   multiple lines, then the line breaks between those lines are for
   editorial clarity only and are not part of the actual protocol
   exchange.  The five characters [...] means that something has been
   elided.

   Understanding of the IMAP message sequence numbers and UIDs and the
   EXPUNGE response [RFC3501] is essential when reading this document.

3.  IMAP Protocol Changes

3.1.  QRESYNC Parameter to SELECT/EXAMINE

   The Quick Resynchronization parameter to SELECT/EXAMINE commands has
   four arguments:

   o  the last known UIDVALIDITY,

   o  the last known modification sequence,

   o  the optional set of known UIDs, and

   o  an optional parenthesized list of known sequence ranges and their
      corresponding UIDs.

   A server MUST respond with a tagged BAD response if the Quick
   Resynchronization parameter to SELECT/EXAMINE command is specified
   and the client hasn't issued "ENABLE QRESYNC" in the current
   connection.




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   Before opening the specified mailbox, the server verifies all
   arguments for syntactic validity.  If any parameter is not
   syntactically valid, the server returns the tagged BAD response, and
   the mailbox remains unselected.  Once the check is done, the server
   opens the mailbox as if no SELECT/EXAMINE parameters are specified
   (this is subject to processing of other parameters as defined in
   other extensions).  In particular this means that the server MUST
   send all untagged responses as specified in Sections 6.3.1 and 6.3.2
   of [RFC3501].

   After that, the server checks the UIDVALIDITY value provided by the
   client.  If the provided UIDVALIDITY doesn't match the UIDVALIDITY
   for the mailbox being opened, then the server MUST ignore the
   remaining parameters and behave as if no dynamic message data
   changed.  The client can discover this situation by comparing the
   UIDVALIDITY value returned by the server.  This behavior allows the
   client not to synchronize the mailbox or decide on the best
   synchronization strategy.

   Example: Attempting to resynchronize INBOX, but the provided
            UIDVALIDITY parameter doesn't match the current UIDVALIDITY
            value.

   C: A02 SELECT INBOX (QRESYNC (67890007 20050715194045000
            41,43:211,214:541))
            S: * 464 EXISTS
            S: * 3 RECENT
            S: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 3857529045] UIDVALIDITY
            S: * OK [UIDNEXT 550] Predicted next UID
            S: * OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 90060128194045007]
            S: * OK [UNSEEN 12] Message 12 is first unseen
            S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft \Deleted \Seen)
            S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft
            \Deleted \Seen \*)] Permanent flags
            S: A02 OK [READ-WRITE] Sorry, UIDVALIDITY mismatch

   Modification Sequence and UID Parameters:

   A server that doesn't support the persistent storage of mod-sequences
   for the mailbox MUST send the OK untagged response including the
   NOMODSEQ response code with every successful SELECT or EXAMINE
   command, as described in [CONDSTORE].  Such a server doesn't need to
   remember mod-sequences for expunged messages in the mailbox.  It MUST
   ignore the remaining parameters and behave as if no dynamic message
   data changed.

   If the provided UIDVALIDITY matches that of the selected mailbox, the
   server then checks the last known modification sequence.



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   The server sends the client any pending flag changes (using FETCH
   responses that MUST contain UIDs) and expunges those that have
   occurred in this mailbox since the provided modification sequence.

   If the list of known UIDs was also provided, the server should only
   report flag changes and expunges for the specified messages.  If the
   client did not provide the list of UIDs, the server acts as if the
   client has specified "1:<maxuid>", where <maxuid> is the mailbox's
   UIDNEXT value minus 1.  If the mailbox is empty and never had any
   messages in it, then lack of the list of UIDs is interpreted as an
   empty set of UIDs.

   Thus, the client can process just these pending events and need not
   perform a full resynchronization.  Without the message sequence
   number matching information, the result of this step is semantically
   equivalent to the client issuing:
   tag1 UID FETCH "known-uids" (FLAGS) (CHANGEDSINCE
   "mod-sequence-value" VANISHED)

   Example:
      C: A03 SELECT INBOX (QRESYNC (67890007
         90060115194045000 41,43:211,214:541))
      S: * OK [CLOSED]
      S: * 314 EXISTS
      S: * 15 RECENT
      S: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 67890007] UIDVALIDITY
      S: * OK [UIDNEXT 567] Predicted next UID
      S: * OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 90060115205545359]
      S: * OK [UNSEEN 7] There are some unseen messages in the mailbox
      S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft \Deleted \Seen)
      S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft
         \Deleted \Seen \*)] Permanent flags
      S: * VANISHED (EARLIER) 41,43:116,118,120:211,214:540
      S: * 49 FETCH (UID 117 FLAGS (\Seen \Answered) MODSEQ
         (90060115194045001))
      S: * 50 FETCH (UID 119 FLAGS (\Draft $MDNSent) MODSEQ
         (90060115194045308))
      S: ...
      S: * 100 FETCH (UID 541 FLAGS (\Seen $Forwarded) MODSEQ
         (90060115194045001))
      S: A03 OK [READ-WRITE] mailbox selected

   Message sequence match data:

   A client MAY provide a parenthesized list of a message sequence set
   and the corresponding UID sets.  Both MUST be provided in ascending
   order.  The server uses this data to restrict the range for which it
   provides expunged message information.



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   Conceptually, the client provides a small sample of sequence numbers
   for which it knows the corresponding UIDs.  The server then compares
   each sequence number and UID pair the client provides with the
   current state of the mailbox.  If a pair matches, then the client
   knows of any expunges up to, and including, the message, and thus
   will not include that range in the VANISHED response, even if the
   "mod-sequence-value" provided by the client is too old for the server
   to have data of when those messages were expunged.

   Thus, if the Nth message number in the first set in the list is 4,
   and the Nth UID in the second set in the list is 8, and the mailbox's
   fourth message has UID 8, then no UIDs equal to or less than 8 are
   present in the VANISHED response.  If the (N+1)th message number is
   12, and the (N+1)th UID is 24, and the (N+1)th message in the mailbox
   has UID 25, then the lowest UID included in the VANISHED response
   would be 9.

   In the following two examples, the server is unable to remember
   expunges at all, and only UIDs with messages divisible by three are
   present in the mailbox.  In the first example, the client does not
   use the fourth parameter; in the second, it provides it.  This
   example is somewhat extreme, but shows that judicious usage of the
   sequence match data can save a substantial amount of bandwidth.

   Example:
      C: A04 SELECT INBOX (QRESYNC (67890007
         90060115194045000 1:29997))
      S: * 10003 EXISTS
      S: * 5 RECENT
      S: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 67890007] UIDVALIDITY
      S: * OK [UIDNEXT 30013] Predicted next UID
      S: * OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 90060115205545359]
      S: * OK [UNSEEN 7] There are some unseen messages in the mailbox
      S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft \Deleted \Seen)
      S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft
         \Deleted \Seen \*)] Permanent flags
      S: * VANISHED (EARLIER) 1:2,4:5,7:8,10:11,13:14 [...]
         29998:29999,30001:30002,30004:30005,30007:30008
      S: * 9889 FETCH (UID 29667 FLAGS (\Seen \Answered) MODSEQ
         (90060115194045027))
      S: * 9890 FETCH (UID 29670 FLAGS (\Draft $MDNSent) MODSEQ
         (90060115194045028))
      S: ...
      S: * 9999 FETCH (UID 29997 FLAGS (\Seen $Forwarded) MODSEQ
         (90060115194045031))
      S: A04 OK [READ-WRITE] mailbox selected





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   Example:
      C: B04 SELECT INBOX (QRESYNC (67890007
         90060115194045000 1:29997 (5000,7500,9000,9990:9999 15000,
         22500,27000,29970,29973,29976,29979,29982,29985,29988,29991,
         29994,29997)))
      S: * 10003 EXISTS
      S: * 5 RECENT
      S: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 67890007] UIDVALIDITY
      S: * OK [UIDNEXT 30013] Predicted next UID
      S: * OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 90060115205545359]
      S: * OK [UNSEEN 7] There are some unseen messages in the mailbox
      S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft \Deleted \Seen)
      S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft
         \Deleted \Seen \*)] Permanent flags
      S: * VANISHED (EARLIER) 29998:29999,30001:30002,30004:30005,30007:
         30008
      S: * 9889 FETCH (UID 29667 FLAGS (\Seen \Answered) MODSEQ
         (90060115194045027))
      S: * 9890 FETCH (UID 29670 FLAGS (\Draft $MDNSent) MODSEQ
         (90060115194045028))
      S: ...
      S: * 9999 FETCH (UID 29997 FLAGS (\Seen $Forwarded) MODSEQ
         (90060115194045031))
      S: B04 OK [READ-WRITE] mailbox selected

3.2.  VANISHED UID FETCH Modifier

   [IMAPABNF] has extended the syntax of the FETCH and UID FETCH
   commands to include an optional FETCH modifier.  This document
   defines a new UID FETCH modifier: VANISHED.

   Note, that the VANISHED UID FETCH modifier is NOT allowed with a
   FETCH command.  The server MUST return a tagged BAD response if this
   response is specified as a modifier to the FETCH command.

   A server MUST respond with a tagged BAD response if the VANISHED UID
   FETCH modifier is specified and the client hasn't issued "ENABLE
   QRESYNC" in the current connection.

   The VANISHED UID FETCH modifier MUST only be specified together with
   the CHANGEDSINCE UID FETCH modifier.

   The VANISHED UID FETCH modifier instructs the server to report those
   messages from the UID set parameter that have been expunged and whose
   associated mod-sequence is larger than the specified mod-sequence.
   That is, the client requests to be informed of messages from the
   specified set that were expunged since the specified mod-sequence.
   Note that the mod-sequence(s) associated with these messages were



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   updated when the messages were expunged (as described above).  The
   expunged messages are reported using the VANISHED response as
   described in Section 3.6, which MUST contain the EARLIER tag.  Any
   VANISHED (EARLIER) responses MUST be returned before any FETCH
   responses, as otherwise the client might get confused about how
   message numbers map to UIDs.

   Note: A server that receives a mod-sequence smaller than <minmodseq>,
   where <minmodseq> is the value of the smallest expunged mod-sequence
   it remembers minus one, MUST behave as if it was requested to report
   all expunged messages from the provided UID set parameter.

   Example 1: Without the VANISHED UID FETCH modifier, a CONDSTORE-aware
   client [CONDSTORE] needs to issue separate commands to learn of flag
   changes and expunged messages since the last synchronization:

   C: s100 UID FETCH 300:500 (FLAGS) (CHANGEDSINCE 12345)
   S: * 1 FETCH (UID 404 MODSEQ (65402) FLAGS (\Seen))
   S: * 2 FETCH (UID 406 MODSEQ (75403) FLAGS (\Deleted))
   S: * 4 FETCH (UID 408 MODSEQ (29738) FLAGS ($NoJunk
       $AutoJunk $MDNSent))
   S: s100 OK FETCH completed
   C: s101 UID SEARCH 300:500
   S: * SEARCH 404 406 407 408 410 412
   S: s101 OK search completed

   Where 300 and 500 are the lowest and highest UIDs from client's
   cache.  The second SEARCH response tells the client that the messages
   with UIDs 407, 410, and 412 are still present, but their flags
   haven't changed since the specified modification sequence.

   Using the VANISHED UID FETCH modifier, it is sufficient to issue only
   a single command:

   C: s100 UID FETCH 300:500 (FLAGS) (CHANGEDSINCE 12345
       VANISHED)
   S: * VANISHED (EARLIER) 300:310,405,411
   S: * 1 FETCH (UID 404 MODSEQ (65402) FLAGS (\Seen))
   S: * 2 FETCH (UID 406 MODSEQ (75403) FLAGS (\Deleted))
   S: * 4 FETCH (UID 408 MODSEQ (29738) FLAGS ($NoJunk
       $AutoJunk $MDNSent))
   S: s100 OK FETCH completed









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3.3.  EXPUNGE Command

   Arguments: none

   Responses: untagged responses: EXPUNGE or VANISHED

   Result: OK - expunge completed
           NO - expunge failure: can't expunge (e.g., permission denied)
           BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

   This section updates the definition of the EXPUNGE command described
   in Section 6.4.3 of [RFC3501].

   The EXPUNGE command permanently removes all messages that have the
   \Deleted flag set from the currently selected mailbox.  Before
   returning an OK to the client, those messages that are removed are
   reported using a VANISHED response or EXPUNGE responses.

   If the server is capable of storing modification sequences for the
   selected mailbox, it MUST increment the per-mailbox mod-sequence if
   at least one message was permanently removed due to the execution of
   the EXPUNGE command.  For each permanently removed message, the
   server MUST remember the incremented mod-sequence and corresponding
   UID.  If at least one message got expunged, the server MUST send the
   updated per-mailbox modification sequence using the HIGHESTMODSEQ
   response code (defined in [CONDSTORE]) in the tagged OK response.

      Example:    C: A202 EXPUNGE
                  S: * 3 EXPUNGE
                  S: * 3 EXPUNGE
                  S: * 5 EXPUNGE
                  S: * 8 EXPUNGE
                  S: A202 OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 20010715194045319] expunged

   Note: In this example, messages 3, 4, 7, and 11 had the \Deleted flag
   set.  The first "* 3 EXPUNGE" reports message # 3 as expunged.  The
   second "* 3 EXPUNGE" reports message # 4 as expunged (the message
   number got decremented due to the previous EXPUNGE response).  See
   the description of the EXPUNGE response in [RFC3501] for further
   explanation.

   Note that if the server chooses to always send VANISHED responses
   instead of EXPUNGE responses, the previous example might look like
   this:

      Example:    C: B202 EXPUNGE
                  S: * VANISHED 405,407,410,425
                  S: B202 OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 20010715194045319] expunged



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   Here messages with message numbers 3, 4, 7, and 11 have respective
   UIDs 405, 407, 410, and 425.

3.4.  CLOSE Command

   Arguments: none

   Responses: no specific responses for this command

   Result: OK - close completed, now in authenticated state
           BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

   This section updates the definition of the CLOSE command described in
   Section 6.4.2 of [RFC3501].

   The CLOSE command permanently removes all messages that have the
   \Deleted flag set from the currently selected mailbox, and returns to
   the authenticated state from the selected state.  No untagged EXPUNGE
   (or VANISHED) responses are sent.

   If the server is capable of storing modification sequences for the
   selected mailbox, it MUST increment the per-mailbox mod-sequence if
   at least one message was permanently removed due to the execution of
   the CLOSE command.  For each permanently removed message, the server
   MUST remember the incremented mod-sequence and corresponding UID.  If
   at least one message got expunged, the server MUST send the updated
   per-mailbox modification sequence using the HIGHESTMODSEQ response
   code (defined in [CONDSTORE]) in the tagged OK response.

      Example:    C: A202 CLOSE
                  S: A202 OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 20010715194045319] done

3.5.  UID EXPUNGE Command

   Arguments: message set

   Responses: untagged responses: EXPUNGE or VANISHED

   Result: OK - expunge completed
           NO - expunge failure: can't expunge (e.g., permission denied)
           BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

   This section updates the definition of the UID EXPUNGE command
   described in Section 2.1 of [UIDPLUS].  Servers that implement both
   [UIDPLUS] and QRESYNC extensions must implement UID EXPUNGE as
   described in this section.





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   The UID EXPUNGE command permanently removes from the currently
   selected mailbox all messages that both have the \Deleted flag set
   and have a UID that is included in the specified message set.  If a
   message either does not have the \Deleted flag set or has a UID that
   is not included in the specified message set, it is not affected.

   This command is particularly useful for disconnected mode clients.
   By using UID EXPUNGE instead of EXPUNGE when resynchronizing with the
   server, the client can avoid inadvertently removing any messages that
   have been marked as \Deleted by other clients between the time that
   the client was last connected and the time the client resynchronizes.

   Before returning an OK to the client, those messages that are removed
   are reported using a VANISHED response or EXPUNGE responses.

   If the server is capable of storing modification sequences for the
   selected mailbox, it MUST increment the per-mailbox mod-sequence if
   at least one message was permanently removed due to the execution of
   the UID EXPUNGE command.  For each permanently removed message, the
   server MUST remember the incremented mod-sequence and corresponding
   UID.  If at least one message got expunged, the server MUST send the
   updated per-mailbox modification sequence using the HIGHESTMODSEQ
   response code (defined in [CONDSTORE]) in the tagged OK response.

   Example:    C: . UID EXPUNGE 3000:3002
               S: * 3 EXPUNGE
               S: * 3 EXPUNGE
               S: * 3 EXPUNGE
               S: . OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 20010715194045319] Ok

   Note: In this example, at least messages with message numbers 3, 4,
   and 5 (UIDs 3000 to 3002) had the \Deleted flag set.  The first "* 3
   EXPUNGE" reports message # 3 as expunged.  The second "* 3 EXPUNGE"
   reports message # 4 as expunged (the message number got decremented
   due to the previous EXPUNGE response).  See the description of the
   EXPUNGE response in [RFC3501] for further explanation.

3.6.  VANISHED Response

   Contents:  an optional EARLIER tag

   list of UIDs

   The VANISHED response reports that the specified UIDs have been
   permanently removed from the mailbox.  This response is similar to
   the EXPUNGE response [RFC3501]; however, it can return information
   about multiple messages, and it returns UIDs instead of message




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   numbers.  The first benefit saves bandwidth, while the second is more
   convenient for clients that only use UIDs to access the IMAP server.

   The VANISHED response has the same restrictions on when it can be
   sent as does the EXPUNGE response (see below).

   The VANISHED response has two forms.  The first form contains the
   EARLIER tag, which signifies that the response was caused by a UID
   FETCH (VANISHED) or a SELECT/EXAMINE (QRESYNC) command.  This
   response is sent if the UID set parameter to the UID FETCH (VANISHED)
   command includes UIDs of messages that are no longer in the mailbox.
   When the client sees a VANISHED EARLIER response, it MUST NOT
   decrement message sequence numbers for each successive message in the
   mailbox.

   The second form doesn't contain the EARLIER tag and is described
   below.  Once a client has issued "ENABLE QRESYNC", the server SHOULD
   use the VANISHED response without the EARLIER tag instead of the
   EXPUNGE response.  The server SHOULD continue using VANISHED in lieu
   of EXPUNGE for the duration of the connection.  In particular, this
   affects the EXPUNGE [RFC3501] and UID EXPUNGE [UIDPLUS] commands, as
   well as messages expunged in other connections.  Such a VANISHED
   response MUST NOT contain the EARLIER tag.

   A VANISHED response sent because of an EXPUNGE or UID EXPUNGE command
   or because messages were expunged in other connections (i.e., the
   VANISHED response without the EARLIER tag) also decrements the number
   of messages in the mailbox; it is not necessary for the server to
   send an EXISTS response with the new value.  It also decrements
   message sequence numbers for each successive message in the mailbox
   (see the example at the end of this section).  Note that a VANISHED
   response caused by EXPUNGE, UID EXPUNGE, or messages expunged in
   other connections SHOULD only contain UIDs for messages expunged
   since the last VANISHED/EXPUNGE response sent for the currently
   opened mailbox or since the mailbox was opened.  That is, servers
   SHOULD NOT send UIDs for previously expunged messages, unless
   explicitly requested to do so by the UID FETCH (VANISHED) command.

   Note that client implementors must take care to properly decrement
   the number of messages in the mailbox even if a server violates this
   last SHOULD or repeats the same UID multiple times in the returned
   UID set.  In general, this means that a client using this extension
   should either avoid using message numbers entirely, or have a
   complete mapping of UIDs to message sequence numbers for the selected
   mailbox.






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   Because clients handle the two different forms of the VANISHED
   response differently, servers MUST NOT report UIDs resulting from a
   UID FETCH (VANISHED) or a SELECT/EXAMINE (QRESYNC) in the same
   VANISHED response as UIDs of messages expunged now (i.e., messages
   expunged in other connections).  Instead, the server MUST send
   separate VANISHED responses: one with the EARLIER tag and one
   without.

   A VANISHED response MUST NOT be sent when no command is in progress,
   nor while responding to a FETCH, STORE, or SEARCH command.  This rule
   is necessary to prevent a loss of synchronization of message sequence
   numbers between client and server.  A command is not "in progress"
   until the complete command has been received; in particular, a
   command is not "in progress" during the negotiation of command
   continuation.

   Note: UID FETCH, UID STORE, and UID SEARCH are different commands
   from FETCH, STORE, and SEARCH.  A VANISHED response MAY be sent
   during a UID command.  However, the VANISHED response MUST NOT be
   sent during a UID SEARCH command that contains message numbers in the
   search criteria.

   The update from the VANISHED response MUST be recorded by the client.

   Example: Let's assume that there is the following mapping between
   message numbers and UIDs in the currently selected mailbox (here "X"
   marks messages with the \Deleted flag set, and "x" represents UIDs
   which are not relevant for the example):

   Message numbers:   1    2    3    4    5  6   7  8  9 10  11
   UIDs:              x  504  505  507  508  x 510  x  x  x 625
   \Deleted messages:           X    X           X            X

   In the presence of the extension defined in this document:

   C: A202 EXPUNGE
   S: * VANISHED 505,507,510,625
   S: A202 OK EXPUNGE completed

   Without the QRESYNC extension, the same example might look like:

   C: A202 EXPUNGE
   S: * 3 EXPUNGE
   S: * 3 EXPUNGE
   S: * 5 EXPUNGE
   S: * 8 EXPUNGE
   S: A202 OK EXPUNGE completed




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   (Continuing previous example) If subsequently messages with UIDs 504
   and 508 got marked as \Deleted:

   C: A210 EXPUNGE
   S: * VANISHED 504,508
   S: A210 OK EXPUNGE completed

   i.e., the last VANISHED response only contains UIDs of messages
   expunged since the previous VANISHED response.

3.7.  CLOSED Response Code

   The CLOSED response code has no parameters.  A server implementing
   the extension defined in this document MUST return the CLOSED
   response code when the currently selected mailbox is closed
   implicitly using the SELECT/EXAMINE command on another mailbox.  The
   CLOSED response code serves as a boundary between responses for the
   previously opened mailbox (which was closed) and the newly selected
   mailbox: all responses before the CLOSED response code relate to the
   mailbox that was closed, and all subsequent responses relate to the
   newly opened mailbox.

   There is no need to return the CLOSED response code on completion of
   the CLOSE or the UNSELECT [UNSELECT] command (or similar) whose
   purpose is to close the currently selected mailbox without opening a
   new one.

4.  Server Implementation Considerations

   This section describes a minimalist implementation, a moderate
   implementation, and an example of a full implementation.

4.1.  Server Implementations That Don't Store Extra State

   Strictly speaking, a server implementation that doesn't remember mod-
   sequences associated with expunged messages can be considered
   compliant with this specification.  Such implementations return all
   expunged messages specified in the UID set of the UID FETCH
   (VANISHED) command every time, without paying attention to the
   specified CHANGEDSINCE mod-sequence.  Such implementations are
   discouraged, as they can end up returning VANISHED responses that are
   bigger than the result of a UID SEARCH command for the same UID set.

   Clients that use the message sequence match data can reduce the scope
   of this VANISHED response substantially in the typical case where
   expunges have not happened, or happen only toward the end of the
   mailbox.




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4.2.  Server Implementations Storing Minimal State

   A server that stores the HIGHESTMODSEQ value at the time of the last
   EXPUNGE can omit the VANISHED response when a client provides a
   MODSEQ value that is equal to, or higher than, the current value of
   this datum, that is, when there have been no EXPUNGEs.

   A client providing message sequence match data can reduce the scope
   as above.  In the case where there have been no expunges, the server
   can ignore this data.

4.3.  Additional State Required on the Server

   When compared to the [CONDSTORE] extension, this extension requires
   servers to store additional state associated with expunged messages.
   Note that implementations are not required to store this state in
   persistent storage; however, use of persistent storage is advisable.

   One possible way to correctly implement the extension described in
   this document is to store a queue of <UID set, mod-sequence> pairs.
   <UID set> can be represented as a sequence of <min UID, max UID>
   pairs.

   When messages are expunged, one or more entries are added to the
   queue tail.

   When the server receives a request to return messages expunged since
   a given mod-sequence, it will search the queue from the tail (i.e.,
   going from the highest expunged mod-sequence to the lowest) until it
   sees the first record with a mod-sequence less than or equal to the
   given mod-sequence or it reaches the head of the queue.

   Note that indefinitely storing information about expunged messages
   can cause storage and related problems for an implementation.  In the
   worst case, this could result in almost 64Gb of storage for each IMAP
   mailbox.  For example, consider an implementation that stores <min
   UID, max UID, mod-sequence> triples for each range of messages
   expunged at the same time.  Each triple requires 16 octets: 4 octets
   for each of the two UIDs, and 8 octets for the mod-sequence.  Assume
   that there is a mailbox containing a single message with a UID of
   2**32-1 (the maximum possible UID value), where messages had
   previously existed with UIDs starting at 1, and have been expunged
   one at a time.  For this mailbox alone, storage is required for the
   triples <1, 1, modseq1>, <2, 2, modseq2>, ..., <2**32-2, 2**32-2,
   modseq4294967294>.






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   Hence, implementations are encouraged to adopt strategies to protect
   against such storage problems, such as limiting the size of the queue
   used to store mod-sequences for expunged messages and "expiring"
   older records when this limit is reached.  When the selected
   implementation-specific queue limit is reached, the oldest record(s)
   are deleted from the queue (note that such records are located at the
   queue head).  For all such "expired" records, the server needs to
   store a single mod-sequence, which is the highest mod-sequence for
   all "expired" expunged messages.

   Note that if the client provides the message sequence match data,
   this can heavily reduce the data cost of sending a complete set of
   missing UIDs; thus, reducing the problems for clients if a server is
   unable to persist much of this queue.  If the queue contains data
   back to the requested mod-sequence, this data can be ignored.

   Also, note that if the UIDVALIDITY of the mailbox changes or if the
   mailbox is deleted, then any state associated with expunged messages
   doesn't need to be preserved and SHOULD be deleted.

5.  Updated Synchronization Sequence

   This section updates the description of optimized synchronization in
   Section 6.1 of the [IMAP-DISC].

   An advanced disconnected mail client should use the QRESYNC and
   [CONDSTORE] extensions when they are supported by the server.  The
   client uses the value from the HIGHESTMODSEQ OK response code
   received on mailbox opening to determine if it needs to
   resynchronize.  Once the synchronization is complete, it MUST cache
   the received value (unless the mailbox UIDVALIDITY value has changed;
   see below).  The client MUST update its copy of the HIGHESTMODSEQ
   value whenever the server sends a subsequent HIGHESTMODSEQ OK
   response code.

   After completing a full synchronization, the client MUST also take
   note of any unsolicited MODSEQ FETCH data items received from the
   server.  Whenever the client receives a tagged response to a command,
   it calculates the highest value among all MODSEQ FETCH data items
   received since the last tagged response.  If this value is bigger
   than the client's copy of the HIGHESTMODSEQ value, then the client
   MUST use this value as its new HIGHESTMODSEQ value.

   Note: It is not safe to update the client's copy of the HIGHESTMODSEQ
   value with a MODSEQ FETCH data item value as soon as it is received
   because servers are not required to send MODSEQ FETCH data items in
   increasing modseqence order.  This can lead to the client missing
   some changes in case of connectivity loss.



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   When opening the mailbox for synchronization, the client uses the
   QRESYNC parameter to the SELECT/EXAMINE command.  The QRESYNC
   parameter is followed by the UIDVALIDITY and mailbox HIGHESTMODSEQ
   values, as known to the client.  It can be optionally followed by the
   set of UIDs, for example, if the client is only interested in partial
   synchronization of the mailbox.  The client may also transmit a list
   containing its knowledge of message numbers.

   If the SELECT/EXAMINE command is successful, the client compares
   UIDVALIDITY as described in step d)1) in Section 3 of the
   [IMAP-DISC].  If the cached UIDVALIDITY value matches the one
   returned by the server and the server also returns the HIGHESTMODSEQ
   response code, then the server reports expunged messages and returns
   flag changes for all messages specified by the client in the UID set
   parameter (or for all messages in the mailbox, if the client omitted
   the UID set parameter).  At this point, the client is synchronized,
   except for maybe the new messages.

   If upon a successful SELECT/EXAMINE (QRESYNC) command the client
   receives a NOMODSEQ OK untagged response (instead of the
   HIGHESTMODSEQ response code), it MUST remove the last known
   HIGHESTMODSEQ value from its cache and follow the more general
   instructions in Section 3 of the [IMAP-DISC].

   At this point, the client is in sync with the server regarding old
   messages.  This client can now fetch information about new messages
   (if requested by the user).

   Step d) ("Server-to-client synchronization") in Section 4 of the
   [IMAP-DISC] in the presence of the QRESYNC & CONDSTORE extensions is
   amended as follows:

   d) "Server-to-client synchronization" -- for each mailbox that
      requires synchronization, do the following:

   1a) Check the mailbox UIDVALIDITY (see Section 4.1 of the [IMAP-DISC]
       for more details) after issuing SELECT/EXAMINE (QRESYNC) command.

       If the UIDVALIDITY value returned by the server differs, the
       client MUST

       *   empty the local cache of that mailbox;

       *   "forget" the cached HIGHESTMODSEQ value for the mailbox;







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       *   remove any pending "actions" which refer to UIDs in that
           mailbox.  Note, this doesn't affect actions performed on
           client generated fake UIDs (see Section 5 of the
           [IMAP-DISC]);

   2)  Fetch the current "descriptors";

       I) Discover new messages.

   3)  Fetch the bodies of any "interesting" messages that the client
       doesn't already have.

   Example: The UIDVALIDITY value is the same, but the HIGHESTMODSEQ
            value has changed on the server while the client was
            offline:

    C: A142 SELECT INBOX (QRESYNC (3857529045 20010715194032001 1:198))
    S: * 172 EXISTS
    S: * 1 RECENT
    S: * OK [UNSEEN 12] Message 12 is first unseen
    S: * OK [UIDVALIDITY 3857529045] UIDs valid
    S: * OK [UIDNEXT 201] Predicted next UID
    S: * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft)
    S: * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Deleted \Seen \*)] Limited
    S: * OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 20010715194045007]
    S: * VANISHED (EARLIER) 1:5,7:8,10:15
    S: * 2 FETCH (UID 6 MODSEQ (20010715205008000)
        FLAGS (\Deleted))
    S: * 5 FETCH (UID 9 MODSEQ (20010715195517000)
        FLAGS ($NoJunk $AutoJunk $MDNSent))
       ...
    S: A142 OK [READ-WRITE] SELECT completed

6.  Formal Syntax

   The following syntax specification uses the Augmented Backus-Naur
   Form (ABNF) notation as specified in [ABNF].

   Non-terminals referenced but not defined below are as defined by
   [RFC3501], [CONDSTORE], or [IMAPABNF].

   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.






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   capability          =/ "QRESYNC"

   select-param        =  "QRESYNC" SP "(" uidvalidity SP
                       mod-sequence-value [SP known-uids]
                       [SP seq-match-data] ")"
                       ;; conforms to the generic select-param
                       ;; syntax defined in [IMAPABNF]

   seq-match-data      =  "(" known-sequence-set SP known-uid-set ")"

   uidvalidity         =  nz-number

   known-uids          =  sequence-set
                       ;; sequence of UIDs, "*" is not allowed

   known-sequence-set  =  sequence-set
                       ;; set of message numbers corresponding to
                       ;; the UIDs in known-uid-set, in ascending order.
                       ;; * is not allowed.

   known-uid-set       =  sequence-set
                       ;; set of UIDs corresponding to the messages in
                       ;; known-sequence-set, in ascending order.
                       ;; * is not allowed.

   message-data        =/ expunged-resp

   expunged-resp       =  "VANISHED" [SP "(EARLIER)"] SP known-uids

   rexpunges-fetch-mod =  "VANISHED"
                       ;; VANISHED UID FETCH modifier conforms
                       ;; to the fetch-modifier syntax
                       ;; defined in [IMAPABNF].  It is only
                       ;; allowed in the UID FETCH command.

   resp-text-code      =/ "CLOSED"

7.  Security Considerations

   As always, it is important to thoroughly test clients and servers
   implementing this extension, as it changes how the server reports
   expunged messages to the client.

   Security considerations relevant to [CONDSTORE] are relevant to this
   extension.

   This document doesn't raise any new security concerns not already
   raised by [CONDSTORE] or [RFC3501].



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8.  IANA Considerations

   IMAP4 capabilities are registered by publishing a standards track or
   IESG approved experimental RFC.  The registry is currently located
   at:

      http://www.iana.org/assignments/imap4-capabilities

   This document defines the QRESYNC IMAP capability.  IANA has added
   this capability to the registry.

9.  Acknowledgments

   Thanks to Steve Hole, Cyrus Daboo, and Michael Wener for encouraging
   creation of this document.

   Valuable comments, both in agreement and in dissent, were received
   from Timo Sirainen, Michael Wener, Randall Gellens, Arnt Gulbrandsen,
   Chris Newman, Peter Coates, Mark Crispin, Elwyn Davies, Dan Karp,
   Eric Rescorla, and Mike Zraly.

   This document takes substantial text from [RFC3501] by Mark Crispin.

10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [ABNF]       Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
                Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, January 2008.

   [CONDSTORE]  Melnikov, A. and S. Hole, "IMAP Extension for
                Conditional STORE Operation or Quick Flag Changes
                Resynchronization", RFC 4551, June 2006.

   [ENABLE]     Gulbrandsen, A., Ed. and A. Melnikov, Ed., "The IMAP
                ENABLE Extension", RFC 5161, March 2008.

   [IMAPABNF]   Melnikov, A. and C. Daboo, "Collected Extensions to
                IMAP4 ABNF", RFC 4466, April 2006.

   [RFC2119]    Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
                Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC3501]    Crispin, M., "INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION
                4rev1", RFC 3501, March 2003.

   [UIDPLUS]    Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) -
                UIDPLUS extension", RFC 4315, December 2005.



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10.2.  Informative References

   [IMAP-DISC]  Melnikov, A., Ed., "Synchronization Operations For
                Disconnected Imap4 Clients", RFC 4549, June 2006.

   [UNSELECT]   Melnikov, A., "Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
                UNSELECT command", RFC 3691, February 2004.

Authors' Addresses

   Alexey Melnikov
   Isode Ltd
   5 Castle Business Village
   36 Station Road
   Hampton, Middlesex  TW12 2BX
   UK

   EMail: Alexey.Melnikov@isode.com


   Dave Cridland
   Isode Ltd
   5 Castle Business Village
   36 Station Road
   Hampton, Middlesex  TW12 2BX
   UK

   EMail: dave.cridland@isode.com


   Corby Wilson
   Nokia
   5 Wayside Rd.
   Burlington, MA  01803
   USA

   EMail: corby@computer.org














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Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2008).

   This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
   contained in BCP 78, 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
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   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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   The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
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   this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
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   Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
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   attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
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   specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
   http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
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   this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at
   ietf-ipr@ietf.org.












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