CTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> Cyrus IMAP Server: Replication Protocol

Cyrus IMAP Server: Replication Protocol

Replication Wire protocol : types

ulong::
  Unsigned long integer 0 <= x <= (2^32)-1

quota_t:: 
  EITHER : Unsigned long integer      :: 0 <= x <= (2^32)-1
      OR : Unsigned long long integer :: 0 <= x <= (2^64)-1

time_t::
  Timestamp (currently 32 bit unsigned integer, offset into Unix epoch)

literal+::
  {count+}\r\n
Arbitrary string of count bytes\r\n

astring::
  Atom or string

qstring::
  Quoted string

flag_list_t
  List of system and user flags of the form: (\Deleted \Answered Hello World)

Return values

Each command sent to the server is a single logical line of arbitrary length (literal encoding may make the single logical line span multiple lines).

Responses follow the IMAP three state module:

OK English text\r\n -- Operation completed okay NO English text\r\n -- Operation failed: reason attached BAD English text\r\n -- replication protocol error.

Unsolicited/Multiline responses

Some commands generate responses which span multiple lines. The final line in the response will start "OK", "NO", or "BAD". Intermediate lines will all start "*". Some commands may generate structured responses (e.g: a list of mailboxes plus all of their contents) where the number of "*" at the start of the line defines the structure of the response.

Replication Wire Protocol : Brief text descriptions

The replication protocol defines 32 verbs at the time of writing.


ADDSUB

  subscription :: astring
Add string to list of subscription on server.

ACTIVATE_SIEVE

  sieve_name :: astring
Activate sieve file of given name for this user.

CREATE

  mailboxname :: astring  -- e.g: user.dpc22.zzz
  uniqueid    :: astring  -- Cyrus UniqueID (currently 64bit hex number)
  acl         :: astring  -- Initial ACL for this mailbox
  mbtype      :: int      
  uidvalidity :: ulong
Create mailbox with given name. UniqueID currently derived from UIDvalidity and mailbox name, but no guarantee that this will always be the case. Special value "NIL" for ACL means that mailbox has come from UW world or some other location without ACL. We construct appropriate default ACL:
     userid    --> "lrswipcda" 
     anonymous --> "0"           (for FUD daemon)

CONTENTS

Dump complete contents of current folder to output screen. Used for downloading messages from Cyrus into UW world. Response is series of lines of the form:
  * [uid] [internaldate] 
    [flags :: flag_list_t]
    [message body :: literal]
followed by final "OK" line. flag_list includes \Seen state for current users, unlike STATUS, USER_ALL and USER_SOME.

DEACTIVATE_SIEVE

Deactivate the active sieve file for this user.

DELETE

  mailbox :: astring.
Delete mailbox with given name.

DELSUB

  mailbox :: astring
Delete subscription with given name

DELETE_SIEVE

  sieve_name :: astring
Delete sieve file with given name.

EXIT

Shut down sync_server

EXPUNGE

  uid0 :: ulong
     . . .
  uidn :: ulong
Remove messages matching given list of UIDS from currently selected folder. Will return single line "OK Expunge Complete" on success.

ENDUSER

Unlock current user and call auth_freestate() to discard current authentication.

GET_SIEVE sieve_name :: astring

Get sieve script with given name. Successful response is of form:
OK {%lu+}\r\n
Sieve script
\r\n

INFO

Get meta information for currently selected folder. Response is single line of the form:
OK
  UIDvalidity :: ulong
  UIDlast     :: ulong
  Flags       :: flag_list_t
"INFO" command is almost certainly historical baggage and should be removed.

LIST

List mail folders for currently selected list. Multiline response of the form:
   * [Uniqueid :: astring] [Name :: astring] [Acl :: astring]
      . . .
   * [Uniqueid :: astring] [Name :: astring] [Acl :: astring]
   OK List complete
List command probably obsolete with advent of USER_ALL and USER_SOME commands.

LSUB

List subscriptions for currently selected user. Multiline response of the form:
   * [Subscription :: astring]
     . . .
   * [Subscription :: astring]
   OK Lsub complete

LIST_SIEVE

List available sieve files for currently selected users. Multiline response of the form:
   * [Sieve_name :: astring]   [*]   <-- "*" for active sieve file
     . . .
   * [Sieve_name :: astring]
   OK List_sieve complete

QUOTA

  quota_root :: astring
Get quota root information. Response is single line of the form:
OK
  Limit                 :: quota_t   (Kbytes)
  Expunged_timeout      :: ulong     (seconds) 
  Expunged_vol_min      :: quota_t   (KBytes)
  Expunged_vol_max      :: quota_t   (KBytes)
  Expunged_vol_overflow :: quota_t   (KBytes)
  Mailbox_limit         :: ulong     (KBytes)

RENAME

  old_name :: astring
  new_name :: astring
Rename mailbox old_name --> new_name

RESET

  account :: astring
Reset named account back to initial state. Wipes all of the following:

RESERVE

  mailbox :: astring
  guid0 :: ulong
     . . .
  guidn :: ulong
Reserves collection of messages matching list of GUIDs in given mailbox. Message data is linked into /var/spool/imap/sync. staging directory so that we can later link the messages into other folders even if the original has been expunged. Multiline response of the form:
  * [GUID :: astring]
    . . .
  * [GUID :: astring]
  OK Reserve complete
so that client knows which reserve operations have been complete and which have failed.

RESTART

sync_client wants to negotiate a restart to clear up. Clears out all staged messages causes by upload and reserve sync_server child process exits cleanly, parent forks off a new child to resolve any memory leaks. Responds:
OK restarting.

SELECT

  mailbox :: astring
Select named mailbox as current folder (calls mailbox_open()).

STATUS

Return complete status of currently selected mailbox. Multiline response:
  * [uid :: ulong] [guid :: astring] [flags :: flag_list]
    . . .
  * [uid :: ulong] [guid :: astring] [flags :: flag_list]
  OK [last_uid :: ulong]
Believe that this command has been obsoleted by USER_ALL and USER_SOME. Occasionally useful for debugging purposes.

SETFLAGS

  [
    uid   :: ulong
    flags :: flag_list_t     e.g: (\Deleted \Flagged Hello World)
  ] +
Set flags for messages with given series of UIDs. SETFLAGS can take an arbitrary number of "uid (flags) " pairs on a single line.

SETSEEN

  user       :: astring
  lastread   :: time_t
  lastuid    :: time_t
  lastchange :: time_t
  seenuid    :: astring
Update seen database for current selected mailbox + nominated userid. seenuid is opaque string used by seendb code. The replication engine doesn't attempt to decompose seenuid strings to work out if anything has changed, it just uses the lastchange timestamp to work out if the seenuid string should be updated. Successful Response:
  OK Setseen Succeeded

SETACL

  mailbox :: astring
  acl :: astring
Set ACL on given mailbox. ACL will typically contain tab characters, so the astring will be the quoted form e.g:
  "dpc22\ttlrswipcda\tanonymous\t0\t"

SETQUOTA

  quotaroot :: astring
  limit     :: quota_t
  expunged_timeout :: ulong
  expunged_vol_min :: ulong
  expunged_vol_max :: ulong
  expunged_vol_overflow :: ulong
  mailbox_limit         :: ulong     (KBytes)
Set limits and overrides for given quota root.

UPLOAD

  newlastuid      :: ulong
  last_appenddate :: time_t
Arbitrary list of messages on single logical line , with three forms:
   SIMPLE                          # Unparsed message that we need to parse
     GUID          :: astring
     UID           :: ulong        # "NIL" => Use GUID 0.
     internaldate  :: time_t
     sentdate      :: time_t
     last_updated  :: time_t
     flags         :: flag_list_t
     message_text  :: literal+

   PARSED                          # Message plus pre-parsed cyrus.cache entry
     GUID          :: astring
     UID           :: ulong
     internaldate  :: time_t
     sentdate      :: time_t
     last_updated  :: time_t
     flags         :: flag_list_t
     message_cache :: literal+
     message_text  :: literal+

   COPY                           # Copy of message which has already
     GUID          :: astring     # been UPLOADED or RESERVED
     UID           :: ulong       # Message body and cache available
     internaldate  :: time_t      # from staging directory
     sentdate      :: time_t
Upload an arbitrary list of messages to the currently selected folder. Will normally only add messages to the end of the mailfolder in current use (and the code has special optimised path for that case). However if message list contains UIDs which belong in the middle of a mailbox, or a given UID exists on both client and server but the GUID values don't match (which normally indicates the two ends have lost sync with each other), the the UPLOAD command will merge in new and replacement messages. Response:
  OK Upload %lu messages okay

UIDLAST

  last_uid        :: ulong
  last_appenddate :: ulong
Update last_uid and last_appenddate timestamps on mailfolder. Typically used when new messages have been arrived and then been expunged between replication runs. Essentially UPLOAD operation with an empty message list.

USER

  user ::astring 
Select given user: locks out concurrent access from other replication runners and calls auth_newstate to authenticate us as the user in question. Response:
  OK Locked [username]

USER_ALL

  user ::astring 
Select given user: locks out concurrent access from other replication runners and calls auth_newstate to authenticate us as the user in question. Response is a complete list of _everything_ in the target account on the replica system in a single round trip. Multi line response, with various kinds of "*" response indicating different objects. Format should be familiar from other commands which examine only a portion of the target account.
**** Sieve script. Single line response of the form:

  **** [name :: astring]       
       [last_update :: time_t] 
       [* - if active Sieve]

*** Subscription. Single line response of the form:

  *** [name :: astring]

** Mailbox. Single line response of the form: 

  ** [uniqueid   :: astring]
     [name       :: astring]
     [acl        :: astring]
     [lastuid    :: ulong]
     [lastchange :: time_t]

* Message within last mailbox listed as a "**" item. Format is the
  same as that generated by STATUS command:

  * [uid :: ulong]
    [guid :: astring]
    [flags :: flag_list_t]
Final line of successful response is used to report QUOTA information in the same format:
OK
  Limit                 :: quota_t   (Kbytes)
  expunged_timeout      :: ulong     (seconds) 
  expunged_vol_min      :: quota_t   (KBytes)
  expunged_vol_max      :: quota_t   (KBytes)
  expunged_vol_overflow :: quota_t   (KBytes)
  mailbox_limit         :: ulong     (KBytes)

USER_SOME

  user     :: astring 
  mailbox1 :: astring
    . . .
  mailboxn :: astring
Similar to USER_ALL command, but only returns mailbox and message lists for given set of mailboxes. Doesn't return sieve or subscription info.

UPLOAD_SIEVE

  sieve_name :: astring
  sieve_file :: literal+
Response on success:
  Upload_sieve completed.