imaplib: Mailbox names are not quoted

[joebauer]

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']

[joebauer]

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

[BreamoreBoy]

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

@david is this within your remit?

[bitdancer]

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

[soltysh]

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):

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.

[soltysh]

Currently working on a patch for this.

[soltysh]

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

[soltysh]

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

[bearbin]

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

[vadmium]

Issue #92835 describes the cause of this bug