# IMAP UID proof **Notations** - $h$: the hash of a message, $\mathbb{H}$ is the set of hashes - $i$: the UID of a message $(i \in \mathbb{N})$ - $f$: a flag attributed to a message (it's a string), we write $\mathbb{F}$ the set of possible flags - if $M$ is a map (aka a dictionnary), if $x$ has no assigned value in $M$ we write $M [x] = \bot$ or equivalently $x \not\in M$. If $x$ has a value in the map we write $x \in M$ and $M [x] \neq \bot$ **State** - A map $I$ such that $I [h]$ is the UID of the message whose hash is $h$ is the mailbox, or $\bot$ if there is no such message - A map $F$ such that $F [h]$ is the set of flags attributed to the message whose hash is $h$ - $v$: the UIDVALIDITY value - $n$: the UIDNEXT value - $s$: an internal sequence number that is mostly equal to UIDNEXT but also grows when mails are deleted **Operations** - MAIL\_ADD$(h, i)$: the value of $i$ that is put in this operation is the value of $s$ in the state resulting of all already known operations, i.e. $s (O_{gen})$ in the notation below where $O_{gen}$ is the set of all operations known at the time when the MAIL\_ADD is generated. Moreover, such an operation can only be generated if $I (O_{gen}) [h] = \bot$, i.e. for a mail $h$ that is not already in the state at $O_{gen}$. - MAIL\_DEL$(h)$ - FLAG\_ADD$(h, f)$ - FLAG\_DEL$(h, f)$ **Algorithms** **apply** MAIL\_ADD$(h, i)$:    *if* $i < s$:      $v \leftarrow v + s - i$    *if* $F [h] = \bot$:      $F [h] \leftarrow F_{initial}$   $I [h] \leftarrow s$   $s \leftarrow s + 1$   $n \leftarrow s$ **apply** MAIL\_DEL$(h)$:    $I [h] \leftarrow \bot$   $F [h] \leftarrow \bot$   $s \leftarrow s + 1$ **apply** FLAG\_ADD$(h, f)$:    *if* $h \in F$:      $F [h] \leftarrow F [h] \cup \{ f \}$ **apply** FLAG\_DEL$(h, f)$:    *if* $h \in F$:      $F [h] \leftarrow F [h] \backslash \{ f \}$ **More notations** - $o$ is an operation such as MAIL\_ADD, MAIL\_DEL, etc. $O$ is a set of operations. Operations embed a timestamp, so a set of operations $O$ can be written as $O = [o_1, o_2, \ldots, o_n]$ by ordering them by timestamp. - if $o \in O$, we write $O_{\leqslant o}$, $O_{< o}$, $O_{\geqslant o}$, $O_{> o}$ the set of items of $O$ that are respectively earlier or equal, strictly earlier, later or equal, or strictly later than $o$. In other words, if we write $O = [o_1, \ldots, o_n]$, where $o$ is a certain $o_i$ in this sequence, then: $$ \begin{aligned} O_{\leqslant o} &= \{ o_1, \ldots, o_i \}\\ O_{< o} &= \{ o_1, \ldots, o_{i - 1} \}\\ O_{\geqslant o} &= \{ o_i, \ldots, o_n \}\\ O_{> o} &= \{ o_{i + 1}, \ldots, o_n \} \end{aligned} $$ - If $O$ is a set of operations, we write $I (O)$, $F (O)$, $n (O), s (O)$, and $v (O)$ the values of $I, F, n, s$ and $v$ in the state that results of applying all of the operations in $O$ in their sorted order. (we thus write $I (O) [h]$ the value of $I [h]$ in this state) **Hypothesis:** An operation $o$ can only be in a set $O$ if it was generated after applying operations of a set $O_{gen}$ such that $O_{gen} \subset O$ (because causality is respected in how we deliver operations). Sets of operations that do not respect this property are excluded from all of the properties, lemmas and proofs below. **Simplification:** We will now exclude FLAG\_ADD and FLAG\_DEL operations, as they do not manipulate $n$, $s$ and $v$, and adding them should have no impact on the properties below. **Small lemma:** If there are no FLAG\_ADD and FLAG\_DEL operations, then $s (O) = | O |$. This is easy to see because the possible operations are only MAIL\_ADD and MAIL\_DEL, and both increment the value of $s$ by 1. **Defnition:** If $o$ is a MAIL\_ADD$(h, i)$ operation, and $O$ is a set of operations such that $o \in O$, then we define the following value: $$ C (o, O) = s (O_{< o}) - i $$ We say that $C (o, O)$ is the *number of conflicts of $o$ in $O$*: it corresponds to the number of operations that were added before $o$ in $O$ that were not in $O_{gen}$. **Property:** We have that: $$ v (O) = \sum_{o \in O} C (o, O) $$ Or in English: $v (O)$ is the sum of the number of conflicts of all of the MAIL\_ADD operations in $O$. This is easy to see because indeed $v$ is incremented by $C (o, O)$ for each operation $o \in O$ that is applied. **Property:** If $O$ and $O'$ are two sets of operations, and $O \subseteq O'$, then: $$ \begin{aligned} \forall o \in O, \qquad C (o, O) \leqslant C (o, O') \end{aligned} $$ This is easy to see because $O_{< o} \subseteq O'_{< o}$ and $C (o, O') - C (o, O) = s (O'_{< o}) - s (O_{< o}) = | O'_{< o} | - | O_{< o} | \geqslant 0$ **Theorem:** If $O$ and $O'$ are two sets of operations: $$ \begin{aligned} O \subseteq O' & \Rightarrow & v (O) \leqslant v (O') \end{aligned} $$ **Proof:** $$ \begin{aligned} v (O') &= \sum_{o \in O'} C (o, O')\\ & \geqslant \sum_{o \in O} C (o, O') \qquad \text{(because $O \subseteq O'$)}\\ & \geqslant \sum_{o \in O} C (o, O) \qquad \text{(because $\forall o \in O, C (o, O) \leqslant C (o, O')$)}\\ & \geqslant v (O) \end{aligned} $$ **Theorem:** If $O$ and $O'$ are two sets of operations, such that $O \subset O'$, and if there are two different mails $h$ and $h'$ $(h \neq h')$ such that $I (O) [h] = I (O') [h']$ then: $$v (O) < v (O')$$ **Proof:** We already know that $v (O) \leqslant v (O')$ because of the previous theorem. We will now look at the sum: $$ v (O') = \sum_{o \in O'} C (o, O') $$ and show that there is at least one term in this sum that is strictly larger than the corresponding term in the other sum: $$ v (O) = \sum_{o \in O} C (o, O) $$ Let $o$ be the last MAIL\_ADD$(h, \_)$ operation in $O$, i.e. the operation that gives its definitive UID to mail $h$ in $O$, and similarly $o'$ be the last MAIL\_ADD($h', \_$) operation in $O'$. Let us write $I = I (O) [h] = I (O') [h']$ $o$ is the operation at position $I$ in $O$, and $o'$ is the operation at position $I$ in $O'$. But $o \neq o'$, so if $o$ is not the operation at position $I$ in $O'$ then it has to be at a later position $I' > I$ in $O'$, because no operations are removed between $O$ and $O'$, the only possibility is that some other operations (including $o'$) are added before $o$. Therefore we have that $C (o, O') > C (o, O)$, i.e. at least one term in the sum above is strictly larger in the first sum than in the second one. Since all other terms are greater or equal, we have $v (O') > v (O)$.