C: FETCH 4 6-7 FLAGS SIZE
S: * FETCH 4 FLAGS=SEEN,REPLIED SIZE=8341
S: * FETCH 6 FLAGS= SIZE=13862
S: * FETCH 7 FLAGS=SEEN SIZE=11802
S: +OK Ok
FETCH is a versatile command
that retrieves message contents or attributes. FETCH is followed by whitespace-delimited
words that enumerate message numbers whose attributes or
contents the server should retrieve. The list of message
numbers if followed by the list of attributes (or specific
message content) to retrieve. When requesting more than one
attribute, and/or attributes from more than one message, the
server's response may list the messages and attributes in any
order. The server may also list all requested attributes for
each message in one * FETCH reply,
or use a separate * FETCH reply
for each attribute. The following response is also a valid
reply in the previous example:
C: FETCH 4 6-7 FLAGS SIZE
S: * FETCH 7 SIZE=11802
S: * FETCH 6 SIZE=13862
S: * FETCH 4 SIZE=8341
S: * FETCH 4 FLAGS=SEEN,REPLIED
S: * FETCH 6 FLAGS=
S: * FETCH 7 FLAGS=SEEN
S: +OK Ok
The first word in each * FETCH
single line reply is the
message number, the remaining whitespace-delimited words
specify the requested attributes. Each requested attribute is
returned as a single, whitespace-delimited word in the
* FETCH reply. For future
expansion, both servers and clients should ignore attributes
they do not recognize.
The following attributes are defined at this time:
UIDRequest the message's unique identifier. The server assigns a unique identifier word to each message in a folder. The client should not attempt to interpret the unique identifier in any way, and treat it as an opaque text string. The only known property of the unique identifier is that no two messages in the same folder will ever have the same unique identifier. Example:
C: FETCH 9-10 UID
S: * FETCH 9 UID=1043320248/3456
S: * FETCH 10 UID=1043320248/3461
S: +OK FETCH completed
FLAGSEach message has one or more message state flags. The following flags are currently defined:
DELETEDThis message is marked for deletion.
REPLIEDThis message has been replied to.
SEENThe message's contents were previous read by
FETCH CONTENTS at
least once. The server automatically sets this flag
after processing a FETCH
CONTENTS command, but it can also be set or
cleared manually by the STORE
command.
DRAFTThis is a draft message.
MARKEDThis messge is “marked”. “MARKED”
is a generic flag that applications may use for
their own purposes. The SEARCH
command also uses this flag.
The server responds to a *
FETCH by returning “FLAGS=list”,
where list is a
comma-separated list of flags that are set for this
message. A message without any flags set results in an
empty list, or
the absence of the “FLAGS=list”
response altogether.
KEYWORDSThe KEYWORDS attribute is
available when KEYWORDS is
listed as an SMAP1 capability (see “SMAP connection negotiation”).
Each message may have one or more arbitrary tags
associated with it. The SMAP1 server associates no
special meaning to any keyword, except to note that it's
there. The SMAP1 client is free to name keywords in any
useful manner. The name of each keyword may contain any
UTF-8 character except for a comma, or a control
character.
Certain punctuation characters should be avoided if interoperability with IMAP is desired. IMAP prohibits certain characters from appearing in keywords, namely: spaces, parenthesis, quotes, and the following characters: {, %, *, \, ]. Do not use these characters if IMAP interoperability is desired.
SIZEThe server's * FETCH
reply contains “SIZE=bytecount”,
where bytecount
gives the estimated size of the message. This may not
necessarily be an exact byte count. SMAP servers are
permitted to provide a ballpark estimate of the message's
size, if an exact byte count is unavailable.
INTERNALDATEThe server's * FETCH
reply contains “INTERNALDATE=rfcdate”,
where rfcdate
gives the date and time the message was added to the
folder. Note that this is not necessarily the contents of
the message's Date: header.
rfcdate uses
the same RFC 2822 date/time format as the
Date: header. Example:
C: FETCH 4 INTERNALDATE
S: * FETCH 4 "INTERNALDATE=Tue, 21 Jan 2003 20:57:48 -0500"
S: +OK Ok