RFC 9738 · EXPERIMENTAL · 2025

IMAP MESSAGELIMIT Extension

Overview

RFC 9738, “IMAP MESSAGELIMIT Extension”, is an Experimental document published in March 2025 by A. Melnikov, A. P. Achuthan, V. Nagulakonda, L. Alves. The canonical text is published by the RFC Editor.

Abstract

The MESSAGELIMIT extension of the Internet Message Access Protocol (RFCs 3501 and 9051) allows servers to announce a limit on the number of messages that can be processed in a single FETCH, SEARCH, STORE, COPY, or MOVE command (or their UID variants), or in a single APPEND or UID EXPUNGE command. This helps servers to control resource usage when performing various IMAP operations. This helps clients to know the message limit enforced by the corresponding IMAP server and avoid issuing commands that would exceed such limit.

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

What “Experimental” means

Describes a specification that is part of a research or development effort, published so the community can gain experience with it.

Read this RFC

The canonical text of RFC 9738 is hosted at rfc-editor.org. Available in HTML,TXT,PDF,XML.

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