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Network Working Group B. Bressler Request for Comments: 458 BBN-NET NIC: 14378 B. Thomas

                                                             BBN-TENEX
                                                      20 February 1973

                       Mail Retrieval via FTP

 We propose two new FTP commands called ReaDMailFile and ReaDMail.
 These commands are intended to be symmetric with respect to the
 current MLFL and MAIL commands.  They would allow a user to read his
 mail at one or more sites without incurring the overhead of logging
 in and without having to use several different retrieval methods.
 The user might go further and create a program to go around to all
 the server sites and retrieve his mail for him.  The current FTP
 mechanisms provide for password protection, should security be
 required.

 This proposal brings into focus, once again, the problems of
 different users with the same ID, and to a lesser extent, one user
 with multiple IDs.  This RFC does not attempt to address these issues
 at this time, as much effort is currently being devoted to them.
 However, we believe that a satisfactory system for network mail
 should include a mechanism to enable each user to have mail for him
 sent to a single repository (ideally, the site of his choice).  We
 further believe that the two commands proposed here would be useful
 in such an environment as well as within the current network
 environment.

 The format of the commands is

 COMMAND    REPLY
            success        fail

 RDMF       200,250,330    433,450,451,454,455,457,500,507
            secondary replies:
            252            452

 RDML       152,330        433,450,451,455,500,507

 The success reply 200 would take the text "NO MAIL NOW".  For the
 RDMF command the mail itself is transferred over the data connection,
 and the FTP replies come over the TELNET connection.

Bressler, et. al. [Page 1]  RFC 458 Mail Retrieval via FTP 20 February 1973

 For the RDML command both the mail and the FTP replies come over the
 TELNET connection.  The reply 152 is a new code meaning "mail text
 follows" the text that follows may be "NO MAIL NOW".

        [This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry]
   [into the online RFC archives by Helene Morin, Via Genie 12/1999]

Bressler, et. al. [Page 2]