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6.3.5 DELETE Command

Arguments: mailbox name

Responses: OPTIONAL untagged response: LIST

Result:

  • OK - delete completed
  • NO - delete failure: can't delete mailbox with that name
  • BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

The DELETE command permanently removes the mailbox with the given name. A tagged OK response is returned only if the mailbox has been deleted. It is an error to attempt to delete INBOX or a mailbox name that does not exist.

The DELETE command MUST NOT remove inferior hierarchical names. For example, if a mailbox "foo" has an inferior "foo.bar" (assuming "." is the hierarchy delimiter character), removing "foo" MUST NOT remove "foo.bar". It is an error to attempt to delete a name that has inferior hierarchical names and also has the \Noselect mailbox name attribute (see the description of the LIST response (Section 7.3.1) for more details).

It is permitted to delete a name that has inferior hierarchical names and does not have the \Noselect mailbox name attribute. If the server implementation does not permit deleting the name while inferior hierarchical names exist, then it SHOULD disallow the DELETE command by returning a tagged NO response. The NO response SHOULD include the HASCHILDREN response code. Alternatively, the server MAY allow the DELETE command, but it sets the \Noselect mailbox name attribute for that name.

If the server returns an OK response, all messages in that mailbox are removed by the DELETE command.

The value of the highest-used unique identifier of the deleted mailbox MUST be preserved so that a new mailbox created with the same name will not reuse the identifiers of the former incarnation, unless the new incarnation has a different unique identifier validity value. See the description of the UID command in Section 6.4.9 for more detail.

If the server decides to convert (normalize) the mailbox name, it SHOULD return an untagged LIST with the "\NonExistent" attribute and OLDNAME extended data item, with the OLDNAME value being the supplied mailbox name and the name parameter being the normalized mailbox name. (See Section 6.3.9.7 for more details.)

Mailboxes deleted in one IMAP session MAY be announced to other IMAP sessions using an unsolicited LIST response, containing the "\NonExistent" attribute.

Example:

C: A682 LIST "" *
S: * LIST () "/" blurdybloop
S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" foo
S: * LIST () "/" foo/bar
S: A682 OK LIST completed
C: A683 DELETE blurdybloop
S: A683 OK DELETE completed
C: A684 DELETE foo
S: A684 NO Name "foo" has inferior hierarchical names
C: A685 DELETE foo/bar
S: A685 OK DELETE Completed
C: A686 LIST "" *
S: * LIST (\Noselect) "/" foo
S: A686 OK LIST completed
C: A687 DELETE foo
S: A687 OK DELETE Completed

Example:

C: A82 LIST "" *
S: * LIST () "." blurdybloop
S: * LIST () "." foo
S: * LIST () "." foo.bar
S: A82 OK LIST completed
C: A83 DELETE blurdybloop
S: A83 OK DELETE completed
C: A84 DELETE foo
S: A84 OK DELETE Completed
C: A85 LIST "" *
S: * LIST () "." foo.bar
S: A85 OK LIST completed
C: A86 LIST "" %
S: * LIST (\Noselect) "." foo
S: A86 OK LIST completed
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