> RFC2177 allows the IDLE command to be issued in the Authenticated state. 
...
> What responses are legal in the Authenticated state? Does anyone 
> know of any servers that actually send responses in the Authenticated 
> state?

AFAIK, there are no IMAP implementations that actually send unsolicited
responses (with or without IDLE) in the Authenticated state.  The IDLE
spec was written as it is to allow for that possibility, though.  For
example, if we define a way for a server to announce changes in the
mailbox list, those might well go out in Authenticated, as well as in
Selected state, and now we wouldn't have to change IDLE to allow that.

> It is also vague regarding exactly what untagged responses are sent on 
> an IDLE connection.

No it's not.  In the IMAP protocol, you MUST be ready to accept ANY
untagged response whenever you send ANY command (except for the one
documented restriction on EXPUNGE responses).  IDLE is no different.
Specifically, when you use the IDLE command, you are saying, "I have
no other command to do, and I am listening for unsolicited responses."
It's sort of like issuing "NOOP" commands over and over, except that
it's a lot less client/server overhead.

That said, what you might usually expect to get are untagged EXPUNGE,
EXISTS, RECENT, and FETCH (for flag updates) messages.

Barry

--
Barry Leiba, Pervasive Computing Technology  ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.research.ibm.com/people/l/leiba

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