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IETF RFC 2342
IMAP4 Namespace
Last modified on Wednesday, May 6th, 1998
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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 © 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
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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
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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
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RFC 2342 IMAP4 Namespace May 1998
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. >
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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
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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RFC 2342 IMAP4 Namespace May 1998
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
Gahrns & Newman Standards Track PAGE 9
RFC 2342 IMAP4 Namespace May 1998
12. Full Copyright Statement
Copyright © 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.
Gahrns & Newman Standards Track PAGE 10
IMAP4 Namespace
RFC TOTAL SIZE: 19489 bytes
PUBLICATION DATE: Wednesday, May 6th, 1998
LEGAL RIGHTS: The IETF Trust (see BCP 78)
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