This is very important to me because obviously my new service (AntiViotic.com)
depends on it, to the degree that IMAP is not widely implemented.
Thus I have some important questions below...
Although it is theoretically possible, using POP (rather than IMAP)
to leave the mail on the server until you pull it again with POP,
many servers appear to clear out the mail after POPing it.
The Client program users LIST and RETR to get the messages than DELE to
remove them. The server/cloud program(s) don't do that. If you/anyone want
to leave mesage a\on a POP3 MTA, selecting a client program (or writing
one) to not DELEte them at your discression is potenetially useful.
A *lot* of POP-using programs have the "Leave Mail On Server" option.
And a lot of people have used "Leave Mail On Server" as a poor man's
1-folder IMAP, leading POP providers to implement mail retaining policies
of the "RETR it once and it's gone, whether you DELEted it or not".
Do you think they also apply this policy to TOP n?
Do you have any idea how prevelant this rather extreme policy might be???
That is a very worrisome revelation for me. I was aware of the aging policy
you mention below from the RFC, but not of the delete after RETR policy you
mention above.
* Enforce a site policy regarding mail retention on the server.
Sites are free to establish local policy regarding the storage and
retention of messages on the server, both read and unread. For
example, a site might delete unread messages from the server after
60 days and delete read messages after 7 days. Such message
deletions are outside the scope of the POP3 protocol and are not
considered a protocol violation.
Note that the RFC does not define what a "read" message is, so I wonder if TOP
n can apply , given that TOP n implies partial inspection (even if the entire
message is returned)?
Thanks,
Shelby Moore
http://AntiViotic.com