imaplib status command cannot handle folder name containing whitespaces

[bjshan]

BPO	23678
Nosy	@bitdancer
Superseder	bpo-917120: imaplib: incorrect quoting in commands

^{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 = <Date 2015-03-16.15:16:36.522>
created_at = <Date 2015-03-16.09:31:53.567>
labels = ['type-bug', 'library']
title = 'imaplib status command cannot handle folder name containing whitespaces'
updated_at = <Date 2015-03-16.15:16:36.520>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/bjshan'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2015-03-16.15:16:36.520>
actor = 'r.david.murray'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2015-03-16.15:16:36.522>
closer = 'r.david.murray'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2015-03-16.09:31:53.567>
creator = 'bjshan'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 23678
keywords = []
message_count = 2.0
messages = ['238188', '238210']
nosy_count = 2.0
nosy_names = ['r.david.murray', 'bjshan']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'duplicate'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = '917120'
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue23678'
versions = ['Python 3.4']

[bjshan]

imaplib status failed if the folder name contains whitespace.
For example,
c = IMAP4_SSL('hostname')
c = login(username, password)
c.status('Drafts', '(MESSAGES)') # would succeed
c.status('Apple Mail To Do', '(MESSAGES)') # would fail, error message is:
imaplib.error: STATUS command error: BAD [b"parse error: wrong character; expected '(' but got 'M'"]

It seems the status method could not properly parse the folder name "Apple Mail To Do", it recognizes only the first word "Apple", then failed when meeting the following word "Mail".

I checked imaplib.py, _command 's definition looks like the cause, but I am not sure:

    def _command(self, name, *args):
         
        ...    
        
        name = bytes(name, 'ASCII')
        data = tag + b' ' + name
        for arg in args:
            if arg is None: continue
            if isinstance(arg, str):
                arg = bytes(arg, "ASCII")
            data = data + b' ' + arg

Work around for this:
Manually add double quote around the folder name, like:
'"' + mailbox_name + '"'

BUT,
while c.status('"Apple Mail To Do"', '(MESSAGES)') worked,
c.status("'Apple Mail To Do'", '(MESSAGES)') failed. Suggesting single and double quote weighs not the same?

[bitdancer]

This is a duplicate of a subset of bpo-917120.