Internet Message Access Protocol


Internet Message Access Protocol

(protocol, messaging)(IMAP) A protocol allowing a clientto access and manipulate electronic mail messages on aserver. It permits manipulation of remote message folders(mailboxes), in a way that is functionally equivalent tolocal mailboxes.

IMAP includes operations for creating, deleting, and renamingmailboxes; checking for new messages; permanently removingmessages; searching; and selective fetching of messageattributes, texts, and portions thereof. It does not specifya means of posting mail; this function is handled by a mailtransfer protocol such as SMTP.

Latest version: 4.

See RFC 2060, RFC 2061, and others.

Compare: POP.