> I think the problem here is that the POP3 protocol doesn't support
> sending only a part of an email. I heard there were some
> extensions to get the header only, or something like that, but it
> will not be supported by all servers...
>
> Ciao,
> /Gabriele./
There are quite a lot of optional Pop3 commands (I've added the relavent one
below).
Perhaps what we need is a way to tell the capabilities (like the nntp dialect
allows for news servers). Implementation of the TOP command, would be very
handy to allow checking of headers without grabbing the contents as well.
Anyone want to take a crack at it?
Cheers,
Allen K
POP3 info below
>From RFC 1939 (Post Office Protocol - Version 3)
7. Optional POP3 Commands
The POP3 commands discussed above must be supported by all minimal
implementations of POP3 servers.
The optional POP3 commands described below permit a POP3 client
greater freedom in message handling, while preserving a simple POP3
server implementation.
NOTE: This memo STRONGLY encourages implementations to support
these commands in lieu of developing augmented drop and scan
listings. In short, the philosophy of this memo is to put
intelligence in the part of the POP3 client and not the POP3
server.
TOP msg n
Arguments:
a message-number (required) which may NOT refer to to a
message marked as deleted, and a non-negative number
of lines (required)
Restrictions:
may only be given in the TRANSACTION state
Discussion:
If the POP3 server issues a positive response, then the
response given is multi-line. After the initial +OK, the
POP3 server sends the headers of the message, the blank
line separating the headers from the body, and then the
number of lines of the indicated message's body, being
careful to byte-stuff the termination character (as with
all multi-line responses).
Note that if the number of lines requested by the POP3
client is greater than than the number of lines in the
body, then the POP3 server sends the entire message.
Possible Responses:
+OK top of message follows
-ERR no such message
Examples:
C: TOP 1 10
S: +OK
S: <the POP3 server sends the headers of the
message, a blank line, and the first 10 lines
of the body of the message>
S: .
...
C: TOP 100 3
S: -ERR no such message
