UW IMAP
Encyclopedia
The UW IMAP server is the reference server implementation of the IMAP
protocol. Unlike other server implementations, it is designed to be aggressively compatible with existing legacy mail stores and systems, and to be "plug-and-play" installable without requiring any site-specific configuration.
UW IMAP uses the c-client mail engine that is also used by the Alpine
and Pine
e-mail clients. c-client supports multiple mail store formats including mbox
, MIX
, mbx, MMDF
, tenex, mtx, mh, mx, and Usenet
news spools. c-client also includes support for IMAP
, POP3
, NNTP
, and SMTP
Internet protocols.
Also bundled with UW IMAP are POP2
and POP3 servers, the mailutil utility program, and the dmail and tmail mail delivery agents.
On 4 August 2008 the University of Washington Alpine team announced that they would "shift our effort from direct development into more of a consultation and coordination role to help integrate contributions from the community." in the wake of layoffs at the University of Washington's technology division.
Mark Crispin
, the former developer of UW IMAP, announced a fork called Panda IMAP and that "an open source distribution is under consideration."
Internet Message Access Protocol
Internet message access protocol is one of the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval, the other being the Post Office Protocol...
protocol. Unlike other server implementations, it is designed to be aggressively compatible with existing legacy mail stores and systems, and to be "plug-and-play" installable without requiring any site-specific configuration.
UW IMAP uses the c-client mail engine that is also used by the Alpine
Alpine (e-mail client)
Alpine is a free software email client developed at the University of Washington.Alpine 1.0 was publicly released on December 20, 2007.The name "Alpine" stands for Alternatively Licensed Program for Internet News and Email....
and Pine
Pine (e-mail client)
Pine is a freeware, text-based email client developed at the University of Washington. The first version of this client was written in 1989. Source code was available for only the Unix version under a license written by the University of Washington...
e-mail clients. c-client supports multiple mail store formats including mbox
Mbox
mbox is a generic term for a family of related file formats used for holding collections of electronic mail messages. All messages in an mbox mailbox are concatenated and stored as plain text in a single file...
, MIX
MIX (Email)
MIX is a high-performance, indexed, on-disk email storage system that is designed for use with the IMAP protocol. MIX was designed by Mark Crispin, the author of the IMAP protocol. Server support for it has been included in releases of UW IMAP since 2006, Panda IMAP, and Messaging Architects...
, mbx, MMDF
MMDF
MMDF, the Multichannel Memorandum Distribution Facility, is a message transfer agent , a computer program designed to transmit email.-History:...
, tenex, mtx, mh, mx, and Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
news spools. c-client also includes support for IMAP
Internet Message Access Protocol
Internet message access protocol is one of the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval, the other being the Post Office Protocol...
, POP3
Post Office Protocol
In computing, the Post Office Protocol is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. POP and IMAP are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval. Virtually all modern...
, NNTP
Network News Transfer Protocol
The Network News Transfer Protocol is an Internet application protocol used for transporting Usenet news articles between news servers and for reading and posting articles by end user client applications...
, and SMTP
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an Internet standard for electronic mail transmission across Internet Protocol networks. SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 , and last updated by RFC 5321 which includes the extended SMTP additions, and is the protocol in widespread use today...
Internet protocols.
Also bundled with UW IMAP are POP2
Post Office Protocol
In computing, the Post Office Protocol is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. POP and IMAP are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval. Virtually all modern...
and POP3 servers, the mailutil utility program, and the dmail and tmail mail delivery agents.
Future of UW IMAP
The most recent version of UW IMAP on UW's FTP server is imap-2007f, which has some bug fixes from the previous version.On 4 August 2008 the University of Washington Alpine team announced that they would "shift our effort from direct development into more of a consultation and coordination role to help integrate contributions from the community." in the wake of layoffs at the University of Washington's technology division.
Mark Crispin
Mark Crispin
Mark Crispin is best known as the father of the IMAP protocol, having invented it in 1985 during his time at the Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory. He is the author or co-author of numerous RFCs; and is the principal author of UW IMAP, one of the reference implementations of the IMAP4rev1...
, the former developer of UW IMAP, announced a fork called Panda IMAP and that "an open source distribution is under consideration."