RFC 5228: Sieve: An Email Filtering Language
In plain English — editorial summary, not part of the RFC
This document describes a language for filtering email messages at time of final delivery. It is designed to be implementable on either a mail client or mail server. It is meant to be extensible, simple, and independent of access protocol, mail architecture, and operating system. It is suitable for running on a mail server where users may not be allowed to execute arbitrary programs, such as on black box Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) servers, as the base language has no variables, loops, or ability to shell out to external programs. [STANDARDS-TRACK]
Document record
- Document ID
- RFC5228
- Published
- January 2008
- Authors
- P. Guenther; T. Showalter
- Status
- PROPOSED STANDARD
- Stream
- IETF
- Area
- app
- Pages
- 42
- Also known as
- —
- Obsoletes:
- RFC 3028
Standards lineage
This document is one revision in a chain of 3 RFCs, each formally replacing the one before it.
- RFC 3028 (2001)
- RFC 5228 (2008)
- RFC 5429 (2009) ✓
Read the full history of Sieve Email Filtering: Reject and Extended Reject Extensions →
Referenced by
4 later RFCs formally update or obsolete part of this document.
- RFC 5229Sieve Email Filtering: Variables ExtensionUpdated
January 2008
- RFC 5429Sieve Email Filtering: Reject and Extended Reject ExtensionsCurrent
March 2009
- RFC 6785Support for Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) Events in SieveCurrent
November 2012
- RFC 9042Sieve Email Filtering: Delivery by MAILBOXIDCurrent
June 2021
Related documents
Ranked automatically by shared keywords, IETF area and stream — not by editorial selection.
- RFC 5230Sieve Email Filtering: Vacation ExtensionUpdated
January 2008
- RFC 5231Sieve Email Filtering: Relational ExtensionCurrent
January 2008
- RFC 5232Sieve Email Filtering: Imap4flags ExtensionCurrent
January 2008
- RFC 5233Sieve Email Filtering: Subaddress ExtensionCurrent
January 2008
- RFC 5235Sieve Email Filtering: Spamtest and Virustest ExtensionsCurrent
January 2008
- RFC 5255Internet Message Access Protocol InternationalizationCurrent
June 2008
- RFC 5256Internet Message Access Protocol - SORT and THREAD ExtensionsUpdated
June 2008
- RFC 5257Internet Message Access Protocol - ANNOTATE ExtensionCurrent
June 2008
Also filed under
About this page
The document record above — title, authors, date, status, stream, area, relationships, DOI and errata — is imported verbatim from the public RFC Editor index. The “in plain English” section is editorial: written by The metasystema editorial team, not part of the RFC. Where the two differ, the RFC text governs.
Last checked against the RFC Editor index on . RFCs are never revised after publication; changes are issued as new documents.
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