[libEtPan-devel] Returned data we did not explicitly ask for

[Michael L. <le...@le...>]

I just had a look at how libetpan handles data returned by the server we did 
not ask for, referring to IMAP4 spec [rfc3501], 5.2:
   At any time, a server can send data that the client did not request.
   Sometimes, such behavior is REQUIRED. 
Additional data may also be returned by NOOP (eg. if in selected state). The 
way I understand how data is handled is the following:
After sending the commands to the server, parse_response is invoked, which 
parses all of the data, then stores it into session. Each command then grabs 
the data it needs (eg. mailimap_list takes 
session->imap_response_info->rsp_mailbox_list), copies it to its own 
response, then removes it from the session.
Am I right assuming that data not expected by the command we sent is still 
left in the session so it remains accessible? This would actually be a really 
good thing, as when coding a client using the low-level api you could adhere 
to the IMAP specs tightly.

One more thing popped to my mind:
After parsing the data, the low-level function (eg. mailimap_list) copies the 
pointer to the data it needs to its own result, then removes the reference to 
the data from session:
  * result = session->imap_response_info->rsp_mailbox_list;
  session->imap_response_info->rsp_mailbox_list = NULL;

While having the results you really wanted available in result is a good thing 
in my opionion, wouldn't it be good to not to remove the reference in 
session? Leaving it available would enable the client to uniformly query all 
data returned using session and it would be freed automatically (either by 
the subsequent call to mailimap_store or by exiting via mailimap_logout).

Please correct me if I'm getting something wrong. My view on some parts of 
libetpan is still somewhat blurry. :)

Regards,
Michael