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Network Working Group M. Crispin
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Request for Comments: 2062 University of Washington
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Category: Informational December 1996
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Internet Message Access Protocol - Obsolete Syntax
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This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
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does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of
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this memo is unlimited.
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This document describes obsolete syntax which may be encountered by
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IMAP4 implementations which deal with older versions of the Internet
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Mail Access Protocol. IMAP4 implementations MAY implement this
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syntax in order to maximize interoperability with older
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This document repeats information from earlier documents, most
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notably RFC 1176 and RFC 1730.
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Obsolete Commands and Fetch Data Items
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The following commands are OBSOLETE. It is NOT required to support
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any of these commands or fetch data items in new server
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implementations. These commands are documented here for the benefit
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of implementors who may wish to support them for compatibility with
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old client implementations.
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The section headings of these commands are intended to correspond
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with where they would be located in the main document if they were
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6.3.OBS.1. FIND ALL.MAILBOXES Command
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Arguments: mailbox name with possible wildcards
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Data: untagged responses: MAILBOX
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Result: OK - find completed
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NO - find failure: can't list that name
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BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
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The FIND ALL.MAILBOXES command returns a subset of names from the
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complete set of all names available to the user. It returns zero
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or more untagged MAILBOX replies. The mailbox argument to FIND
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ALL.MAILBOXES is similar to that for LIST with an empty reference,
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except that the characters "%" and "?" match a single character.
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Example: C: A002 FIND ALL.MAILBOXES *
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S: * MAILBOX blurdybloop
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S: A002 OK FIND ALL.MAILBOXES completed
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6.3.OBS.2. FIND MAILBOXES Command
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Arguments: mailbox name with possible wildcards
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Data: untagged responses: MAILBOX
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Result: OK - find completed
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NO - find failure: can't list that name
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BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
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The FIND MAILBOXES command returns a subset of names from the set
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of names that the user has declared as being "active" or
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"subscribed". It returns zero or more untagged MAILBOX replies.
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The mailbox argument to FIND MAILBOXES is similar to that for LSUB
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with an empty reference, except that the characters "%" and "?"
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match a single character.
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Example: C: A002 FIND MAILBOXES *
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S: * MAILBOX blurdybloop
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S: A002 OK FIND MAILBOXES completed
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6.3.OBS.3. SUBSCRIBE MAILBOX Command
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Arguments: mailbox name
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Data: no specific data for this command
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Result: OK - subscribe completed
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NO - subscribe failure: can't subscribe to that name
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BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
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The SUBSCRIBE MAILBOX command is identical in effect to the
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SUBSCRIBE command. A server which implements this command must be
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able to distinguish between a SUBSCRIBE MAILBOX command and a
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SUBSCRIBE command with a mailbox name argument of "MAILBOX".
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Example: C: A002 SUBSCRIBE MAILBOX #news.comp.mail.mime
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S: A002 OK SUBSCRIBE MAILBOX to #news.comp.mail.mime
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C: A003 SUBSCRIBE MAILBOX
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S: A003 OK SUBSCRIBE to MAILBOX completed
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6.3.OBS.4. UNSUBSCRIBE MAILBOX Command
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Arguments: mailbox name
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Data: no specific data for this command
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Result: OK - unsubscribe completed
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NO - unsubscribe failure: can't unsubscribe that name
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BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
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The UNSUBSCRIBE MAILBOX command is identical in effect to the
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UNSUBSCRIBE command. A server which implements this command must
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be able to distinguish between a UNSUBSCRIBE MAILBOX command and
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an UNSUBSCRIBE command with a mailbox name argument of "MAILBOX".
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Example: C: A002 UNSUBSCRIBE MAILBOX #news.comp.mail.mime
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S: A002 OK UNSUBSCRIBE MAILBOX from #news.comp.mail.mime
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C: A003 UNSUBSCRIBE MAILBOX
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S: A003 OK UNSUBSCRIBE from MAILBOX completed
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6.4.OBS.1 PARTIAL Command
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Arguments: message sequence number
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message data item name
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position of first octet
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Data: untagged responses: FETCH
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Result: OK - partial completed
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NO - partial error: can't fetch that data
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BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid
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The PARTIAL command is equivalent to the associated FETCH command,
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with the added functionality that only the specified number of
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octets, beginning at the specified starting octet, are returned.
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Only a single message can be fetched at a time. The first octet
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of a message, and hence the minimum for the starting octet, is
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The following FETCH items are valid data for PARTIAL: RFC822,
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RFC822.HEADER, RFC822.TEXT, BODY[<section>], as well as any .PEEK
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Any partial fetch that attempts to read beyond the end of the text
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is truncated as appropriate. If the starting octet is beyond the
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end of the text, an empty string is returned.
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The data are returned with the FETCH response. There is no
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indication of the range of the partial data in this response. It
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is not possible to stream multiple PARTIAL commands of the same
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data item without processing and synchronizing at each step, since
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streamed commands may be executed out of order.
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There is no requirement that partial fetches follow any sequence.
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For example, if a partial fetch of octets 1 through 10000 breaks
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in an awkward place for BASE64 decoding, it is permitted to
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continue with a partial fetch of 9987 through 19987, etc.
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The handling of the \Seen flag is the same as in the associated
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Example: C: A005 PARTIAL 4 RFC822 1 1024
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S: * 1 FETCH (RFC822 {1024}
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S: Return-Path: <gray@cac.washington.edu>
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S: ......... FLAGS (\Seen))
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S: A005 OK PARTIAL completed
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6.4.5.OBS.1 Obsolete FETCH Data Items
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The following FETCH data items are obsolete:
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BODY[<...>0] A body part number of 0 is the [RFC-822] header of
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the message. BODY[0] is functionally equivalent to
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BODY[HEADER], differing in the syntax of the
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resulting untagged FETCH data (BODY[0] is
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RFC822.HEADER.LINES <header_list>
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Functionally equivalent to BODY.PEEK[HEADER.LINES
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<header_list>], differing in the syntax of the
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resulting untagged FETCH data (RFC822.HEADER is
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RFC822.HEADER.LINES.NOT <header_list>
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Functionally equivalent to
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BODY.PEEK[HEADER.LINES.NOT <header_list>],
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differing in the syntax of the resulting untagged
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FETCH data (RFC822.HEADER is returned).
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RFC822.PEEK Functionally equivalent to BODY.PEEK[], except for
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the syntax of the resulting untagged FETCH data
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(RFC822 is returned).
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Functionally equivalent to BODY.PEEK[TEXT], except
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for the syntax of the resulting untagged FETCH data
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(RFC822.TEXT is returned).
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The following responses are OBSOLETE. Except as noted below, these
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responses MUST NOT be transmitted by new server implementations.
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Client implementations SHOULD accept these responses.
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The section headings of these responses are intended to correspond
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with where they would be located in the main document if they were
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7.2.OBS.1. MAILBOX Response
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The MAILBOX response MUST NOT be transmitted by server
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implementations except in response to the obsolete FIND MAILBOXES
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and FIND ALL.MAILBOXES commands. Client implementations that do
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not use these commands MAY ignore this response. It is documented
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here for the benefit of implementors who may wish to support it
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for compatibility with old client implementations.
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This response occurs as a result of the FIND MAILBOXES and FIND
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ALL.MAILBOXES commands. It returns a single name that matches the
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FIND specification. There are no attributes or hierarchy
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Example: S: * MAILBOX blurdybloop
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7.3.OBS.1. COPY Response
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The COPY response MUST NOT be transmitted by new server
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implementations. Client implementations MUST ignore the COPY
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response. It is documented here for the benefit of client
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implementors who may encounter this response from old server
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In some experimental versions of this protocol, this response was
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returned in response to a COPY command to indicate on a
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per-message basis that the message was copied successfully.
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Example: S: * 44 COPY
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7.3.OBS.2. STORE Response
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The STORE response MUST NOT be transmitted by new server
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implementations. Client implementations MUST treat the STORE
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response as equivalent to the FETCH response. It is documented
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here for the benefit of client implementors who may encounter this
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response from old server implementations.
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In some experimental versions of this protocol, this response was
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returned instead of FETCH in response to a STORE command to report
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the new value of the flags.
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Example: S: * 69 STORE (FLAGS (\Deleted))
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Formal Syntax of Obsolete Commands and Responses
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Each obsolete syntax rule that is suffixed with "_old" is added to
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the corresponding name in the formal syntax. For example,
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command_auth_old adds the FIND command to command_auth.
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command_auth_old ::= find
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date_year_old ::= 2digit
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date_time_old ::= <"> date_day_fixed "-" date_month "-" date_year
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SPACE time "-" zone_name <">
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find ::= "FIND" SPACE ["ALL."] "MAILBOXES" SPACE
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fetch_att_old ::= "RFC822.HEADER.LINES" [".NOT"] SPACE header_list /
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fetch_text_old ::= "BODY" [".PEEK"] section_old /
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"RFC822" [".HEADER" / ".TEXT" [".PEEK"]]
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msg_data_old ::= "COPY" / ("STORE" SPACE msg_att)
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partial ::= "PARTIAL" SPACE nz_number SPACE fetch_text_old SPACE
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section_old ::= "[" (number ["." number]) "]"
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subscribe_old ::= "SUBSCRIBE" SPACE "MAILBOX" SPACE mailbox
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unsubscribe_old ::= "UNSUBSCRIBE" SPACE "MAILBOX" SPACE mailbox
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zone_name ::= "UT" / "GMT" / "Z" / ;; +0000
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"AST" / "EDT" / ;; -0400
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"EST" / "CDT" / ;; -0500
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"CST" / "MDT" / ;; -0600
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"MST" / "PDT" / ;; -0700
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"PST" / "YDT" / ;; -0800
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"YST" / "HDT" / ;; -0900
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"HST" / "BDT" / ;; -1000
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"A" / "B" / "C" / "D" / "E" / "F" / ;; +1 to +6
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"G" / "H" / "I" / "K" / "L" / "M" / ;; +7 to +12
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"N" / "O" / "P" / "Q" / "R" / "S" / ;; -1 to -6
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"T" / "U" / "V" / "W" / "X" / "Y" ;; -7 to -12
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Security Considerations
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Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
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Networks and Distributed Computing
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University of Washington
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Seattle, WA 98105-4527
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Phone: (206) 543-5762
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EMail: MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU
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imap/docs/rfc/rfc2062.txt
