4.8.1.3. Bulk transfers

Responses to certain commands (such as LIST or RETR) contain a long data stream. This is transferred as a series of lines, terminated by a "CRLF '.' CRLF" sequence, just like in SMTP.

Example 4.14. POP3 protocol sample
+OK POP3 server ready
USER account
+OK User name is ok
PASS password
+OK Authentication successful
LIST
+OK Listing follows
1 5758
2 232323
3 3434
.
RETR 1
+OK Mail body follows
From: sender@sender.com
To: account@receiver.com
Subject: sample mail

This is a sample mail message. Lines beginning with
..are escaped, another '.' character is perpended which
is removed when the mail is stored by the client.
.
DELE 1
+OK Mail deleted
QUIT
+OK Good bye