[Imap-protocol] how long can APPEND take?

[Mark Crispin]

On Mon, 12 Mar 2007, Bill Janssen wrote:
>> If you're going to replace the message, change its UID as well.
> I think I only need to do this if the underlying changes are visible
> through the IMAP protocol.  The only real difference is that they
> would be returned by BODY or TEXT searches that previously didn't

I fail utterly to resolve your first sentence with the second.  Put 
another way, what you describe in your second sentence sure sounds like a 
"change visible through the IMAP protocol".

> The main reason I'm not using an existing IMAP server is that I can't
> stand the long-running searches, so that doesn't appeal to me.

Which server has "long-running searches"?  Sounds like a poorly-configured 
server installation to me.  UW imapd does a text search through 14,000 
messages in about 3-4 seconds, and that's with all the Unicode conversion 
gubbish that has to be done for a good-quality search.

> Could I just not do APPEND?  What's it used for, anyway?  Drafts,
> copying messages from folders on other mail servers, etc.

APPEND is mandatory to implement.  Besides the uses you list, APPEND is 
the only way that an IMAP client can modify a message on the server (e.g., 
to save a copy of the message with attachments removed).

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.