Technical data

protocol as defined in RFC 2060. The supported clients used to access e-mail are
PC clients running Microsoft Outlook or Netscape Communicator.
By default, the IMAP Server is assigned port number 143. All IMAP clients
connect to this port.
The following sections review the IMAP process and describe how the TCP/IP
Services software implements IMAP. If you are not familiar with IMAP, refer to
RFC 2060 or introductory IMAP documentation for more information.
6.3.1 IMAP Server Process
The IMAP Server is installed with SYSPRV, BYPASS, DETACH, SYSLCK,
SYSNAM, NETMBX, and TMPMBX privileges. It runs in the TCPIP$IMAP
account, which receives the correct quotas from the TCPIP$CONFIG procedure.
The IMAP Server is invoked by the auxiliary server.
The IMAP Server uses security features provided in the protocol and in the
OpenVMS operating system, as well as additional security measures. These
methods provide a secure process that minimizes the possibility of inappropriate
access to a user’s mail file on the served system.
You can modify the IMAP Server default characteristics and implement new
characteristics by defining the configuration options described in the TCP/IP
Services release notes.
6.3.2 How OpenVMS Mail Folder Names Map to IMAP Mailbox Names
OpenVMS Mail folders are presented to the IMAP client as IMAP mailboxes. All
mailboxes are presented to the client in lowercase characters, beginning with an
initial capital letter, and with capital letters following each space, at sign (@),
opening parenthesis ( "(" ), underscore (_), and hyphen (-).
The OpenVMS NEWMAIL folder requires special treatment . Because the IMAP
protocol requires a top-level mailbox called Inbox, the NEWMAIL folder is mapped
to Inbox. When the user opens the mailbox called Mail (which maps to file
MAIL.MAI), the NEWMAIL folder is not listed so that the user is not confused
by seeing the same folder listed twice.
OpenVMS Mail folder names are usually in all uppercase characters but can
contain lowercase characters. Any lowercase characters are mapped to an
underscore (_ ) followed by the character’s uppercase equivalent. Underscores
are mapped to double underscores (_ _), and dollar signs are mapped to double
dollar signs ($$).
Table 6–5 shows the effects of folder-name mapping.
Table 6–5: OpenVMS Mail Folder-Name Mapping
OpenVMS Mail Folder Name
IMAP Mailbox Name
HELLO Hello
Hello H_e_l_l_o
HELLO-ALL Hello-All
HELLO_ALL Hello_ _All
HELLO$ALL Hello$$All
Mail Services 6–7