RFC 3894 · PROPOSED STANDARD · 2004

Sieve Extension: Copying Without Side Effects

Overview

RFC 3894, “Sieve Extension: Copying Without Side Effects”, is a Proposed Standard document published in October 2004 by J. Degener. The canonical text is published by the RFC Editor.

Abstract

The Sieve scripting language allows users to control handling and disposal of their incoming e-mail. By default, an e-mail message that is processed by a Sieve script is saved in the owner's "inbox". Actions such as "fileinto" and "redirect" cancel this default behavior.

This document defines a new keyword parameter, ":copy", to be used with the Sieve "fileinto" and "redirect" actions. Adding ":copy" to an action suppresses cancellation of the default "inbox" save. It allows users to add commands to an existing script without changing the meaning of the rest of the script. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

Abstract as published in the RFC, via rfc-editor.org.

What “Proposed Standard” means

An entry-level standards-track specification: stable, peer-reviewed and a solid basis for implementation, though it may still evolve before becoming an Internet Standard.

Read this RFC

The canonical text of RFC 3894 is hosted at rfc-editor.org. Available in TXT,HTML.

Other RFCs from 2004

Who Is Online

In total there are 73 users online: 0 registered, 67 guests and 6 bots.

Most users ever online was 1,226 on 13 Jun 2026, 3:56 am.

Bots: AhrefsBot Applebot Googlebot Other Bot Other Crawler SemrushBot

Users active in the past 15 minutes. Total registered members: 354