On Fri, 31 Jan 2003, Ilya Konstantinov wrote: > On Friday 31 January 2003 16:22, you wrote: > > How can they? > > > > In pop3 you can > > > > * get a message > > * delete a message > > > > "keep mail on server" basically means that the client does not order the > > sever to delete those messages. > > The server can delete the messages the user fetched anyway, even if not > directed to by a DELETE command. It might violate some RFC, but real life > (the large number of users who simply mark 'Keep mail on server' without > thinking of the consequences) requires it
this will cause user support problems from the other side - a user connected, started downloading, got disconnected, and lost all their email. (i.e. it is not transaction-based, and handling mail in a non-transactional manner is a bad idea). you might thus say 'we'll delete all messages only if we got the 'quit' command from the client' - but this is not a good idea as well - what if the client only downloaded some of the messages? so you need to keep track of which messages from the mailbox were actually downloaded by the user. > -- otherwise, lots of users' > mailboxes would quickly grow to enormous sizes. The ISP can enforce mailbox > size limits to solve this, but this way they'll hurt legitimate users (who > expect a one-time large delivery or leave for a 2 week vacation) and increase > complaints from the users who lightheartedly enabled the 'Keep mail on > server' option. actually, i don't remember ever seeing a problem with using 'keep mail on server' to-date - except for configuration problems on the users' side. can you name an ISP that added this odd feature to their pop server? or rather, a pop server that supports this feature? i did see 'mail box over quota' messages several times. most ISPs limit the mail box to a given number. if a user goes on vacation, then ask to enlarge their quota (for a fee) for the duration. some ISPs give you different 'soft' and 'hard' quotas, so you can have a larger mail box temporarily. -- guy "For world domination - press 1, or dial 0, and please hold, for the creator." -- nob o. dy ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
