ABNF question about PERMANENTFLAGS

[David Truckenmiller]

I’m implementing an IMAP server, and have a question about what this fragment of the ABNF means:   resp-text-code  = "PERMANENTFLAGS" SP "("                        [flag-perm *(SP flag-perm)] ")"   ;other bits omitted flag-perm       = flag / "\*" flag            = "\Answered" / "\Flagged" / "\Deleted" /                        "\Seen" / "\Draft" / flag-keyword / flag-extension flag-keyword    = atom flag-extension  = "\" atom atom            = 1*ATOM-CHAR ATOM-CHAR       = <any CHAR except atom-specials>     I have three questions:   1)    What does “\*” mean, and when should I emit it? 2)    Isn’t a response like “* OK [PERMANENTFLAGS ()]” illegal? 3)    How should I tell the client I don’t have any permanent flags?   Thanks in advance, -dave   p.s. I tried searching at http://www.washington.edu/imap/listarch/current/, but I can’t seem to find things like “\*” very easily.