imaplib: Mailbox names are not quoted

@warsaw

BPO	13940
Nosy	@warsaw, @mcepl, @bitdancer, @soltysh, @bearbin
PRs	bpo-13940: imaplib: All string arguments are now quoted when necessary. #6395
Files	issue13940.patch

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2012-02-04.12:04:57.445>
labels = ['3.7', '3.8', 'type-bug', 'library', 'expert-email']
title = 'imaplib: Mailbox names are not quoted'
updated_at = <Date 2018-04-21.08:57:32.272>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/joebauer'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2018-04-21.08:57:32.272>
actor = 'mcepl'
assignee = 'none'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Library (Lib)', 'email']
creation = <Date 2012-02-04.12:04:57.445>
creator = 'joebauer'
dependencies = []
files = ['41037']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 13940
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 8.0
messages = ['152612', '222160', '222175', '241131', '254418', '254634', '256127', '315084']
nosy_count = 6.0
nosy_names = ['barry', 'mcepl', 'r.david.murray', 'joebauer', 'maciej.szulik', 'bearbin']
pr_nums = ['6395']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'patch review'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue13940'
versions = ['Python 3.4', 'Python 3.5', 'Python 3.6', 'Python 3.7', 'Python 3.8']

imaplib does not qupote mailbox names when it's sending it's query to the server in response to a status request, for example. This will lead to very strange errors if mailboxes are accessed which contain spaces:

i.e.

connection.status("mailbox name", "(MESSAGES)")

will return

  File "/home/joe/test/imaplib.py", line 920, in \_command_complete
    raise self.error('%s command error: %s %s' % (name, typ, data))
imaplib.error: STATUS command error: BAD [b'Error in IMAP command STATUS: Status items must be list.']

which indicates that the error is within the actual flag list. It is not, however:

connection.status("\"mailbox name\"", "(MESSAGES)")

works as expected. This may arguably be or not be a bug -- however it is REALLY confusing to the user. Maybe at least a note should be included somewhere that -- just to be safe -- mailbox names should be quoted.

All the best,
Joe

@joe

@joe sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

@david is this within your remit?

Yes. It will be necessary to check the RFC to figure out what should be done here.

Joe is correct, according to the spec the names containing special chars (atom-specials) require names to be quoted (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3501#section-5.1):

Any character which is one of the atom-specials (see the Formal
Syntax) will require that the mailbox name be represented as a
quoted string or literal.

I'll be working on a patch for that.

Currently working on a patch for this.

From imaplib.IMAP4 class description we're stating to quote parameters if necessary. This patch adds that capability according to https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3501#section-5.1

siemer thx for the comments in the review. I'll try to address them by the end of this week.

Pull Request opened on GH to fix this issue: #6395

Issue #92835 describes the cause of this bug

Argument quoting has been restored in GH-152703. Closing as a duplicate of gh-40038.

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imaplib: Mailbox names are not quoted #58148

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imaplib: Mailbox names are not quoted #58148

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joebauer commented on Feb 4, 2012

BreamoreBoy commented on Jul 3, 2014

bitdancer commented on Jul 3, 2014

soltysh commented on Apr 15, 2015

soltysh commented on Nov 9, 2015

soltysh commented on Nov 13, 2015

soltysh commented on Dec 8, 2015

bearbin commented on Apr 8, 2018

vadmium commented on Apr 18, 2024

serhiy-storchaka commented on Jul 5, 2026

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