RFC 1939: The text: "The server should never reuse an unique-id in...

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Comment by bht_actrix
Submitted on 11/1/2003
Related RFC: RFC 1939
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The text: "The server should never reuse an unique-id in a given maildrop, for as long as the entity using the unique-id exists." should be changed to: "The server should never reuse an unique-id in a given maildrop." because the original sentence allows two contradicting interpretations of the phrase: "for as long as the entity using the unique-id exists" 1) (positive, desired): Because the server cannot know when the entity (in the universe, most likely in the client) ceases to exist, it must assume that is does exist and therefore the server cannot re-use a UID as long as the maildrop exists. 2) (negative, undesired, catastrophic): Because the server cannot know when the entity (in the universe, most likely in the client) ceases to exist, it refers to its own message pool and re-uses UIDs of previous messages as soon as they are deleted from the maildrop. In case 2), the UID is useless for clients because it does not allow a reconciliation between server content and client content. Any re-used UID can result in a loss of a message (left on server), or, clash in the client if the UID is ignored before the download.

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