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List:       imap
Subject:    Re: MAILBOX and BBOARD replies
From:       John Gardiner Myers <jgm+ () cmu ! edu>
Date:       1993-07-12 21:42:04
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Chris and I have been looking at c-client code and have discovered
that when given MAILBOX and BBOARD replies with names that do not
conform to the syntax of atoms, different versions of c-client break
in different ways.

The c-client that comes with Pine 3.0 will always use a literal for
SELECT, but for COPY will parrot back whatever it got as if it were an
atom.

Version 3.0 of c-client gets COPY right (it will use a literal if
necessary), but will parrot back whatever it got when doing SELECT.

I think this shows that trying to get the old clients to do the right
thing for non-atom mailbox names by changing the IMAP grammar is
leading down the path of insanity.

I think the spec should stay more-or-less the way it is, except that
QUOTED-STRING should be loosened to at least allow imbedded "{"
characters.  This loosening should not break any clients.

The c-client imapd should then return mailbox names like

{host.do.main}INBOX

as 

* MAILBOX "{host.do.main}INBOX"

If the client is the type that parrots back the name it got,
everything will work as it should.  If the client is the type that
sends it back as a literal, the imapd could have the compatibility
rule "if a mailbox/bboard name both starts and ends with a double
quote, strip the quotes".

The spec does need to be changed to disallow atoms-as-strings in
unsolicited FETCH replies.

-- 
_.John G. Myers		Internet: jgm+@CMU.EDU
			LoseNet:  ...!seismo!ihnp4!wiscvm.wisc.edu!give!up

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