RMS: A Robust Mail Store and Retrieval System

RMS is a new mail store and retrieval system which is designed for use in a nomadic setting. It supports a number of unique features: • unlimited replication of the mail store’s contents, • disconnected operation on individual replicas, • fully automatic merging of replicas using standard file synchronization tools, • per-message access capabilities for untrusted external readers, • access to messages based on sets of message attributes — no hierarchical structure imposed. We have designed and implemented a single-user prototype of RMS, however, the approach scales to a collaborative setting where many individuals share a common mail store via a server.