OK, Arnt Gulbransen has pointed me at RFC3348, which covers the
CHILDREN extension (thanks Arnt).
What I want to know now is "why is the Exchange server using this
extension?".
Consider this text from RFC3501 section 7.2.1 (CAPABILITY response,
page 67 in my copy):
-------------------------- Cut here ----------------------------
Other capability names indicate that the server supports an
extension, revision, or amendment to the IMAP4rev1 protocol.
Server responses MUST conform to this document until the client
issues a command that uses the associated capability.
-------------------------- Cut here ----------------------------
Now, I have issued *no* command other than LIST in this session: am I
wrong in thinking that the Exchange server is behaving improperly by
sending LIST responses that contain HasChildren and HasNoChildren
flags in them? Surely I should need to issue the command "CHILDREN"
(or whatever) before this extension is enabled? RFC3348 does not
appear to me to be a formal revision of RFC3501 (or of 2060, for that
matter) - its status is "informational".
I don't want to sound anal about this, but it seems to me that a major
aspect of IMAP has always been ensuring interoperability, and
injudicious use of extensions in this manner is not conducive to that. In
this case it's probably relatively harmless, but I can think of plenty of
situations where it would not be.
Or am I simply misunderstanding this issue? Is it in fact legal for a
server to issue any response it wants in this case?
Cheers!
-- David --
------------------ David Harris -+- Pegasus Mail ----------------------
Box 5451, Dunedin, New Zealand | e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: +64 3 453-6880 | Fax: +64 3 453-6612
Thought for the day:
Erotic (adj): using a feather as a sex aid.
Kinky (adj): using the whole duck.
--
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