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<h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">mailbox – Access and manipulate email archives</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#mbox">mbox</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#creating-an-mbox-mailbox">Creating an mbox mailbox</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#reading-an-mbox-mailbox">Reading an mbox Mailbox</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#removing-messages-from-an-mbox-mailbox">Removing Messages from an mbox Mailbox</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#maildir">Maildir</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#creating-a-maildir-mailbox">Creating a Maildir Mailbox</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#reading-a-maildir-mailbox">Reading a Maildir Mailbox</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#removing-messages-from-a-maildir-mailbox">Removing Messages from a Maildir Mailbox</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#maildir-folders">Maildir folders</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#other-formats">Other Formats</a></li>
</ul>
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<div class="section" id="module-mailbox">
<span id="mailbox-access-and-manipulate-email-archives"></span><h1>mailbox – Access and manipulate email archives<a class="headerlink" href="#module-mailbox" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
<col class="field-name" />
<col class="field-body" />
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Purpose:</th><td class="field-body">Work with email messages in various local file formats.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Python Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.4 and later</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-mailbox" title="mailbox: Access and manipulate email archives."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">mailbox</span></tt></a> module defines a common API for accessing email
messages stored in local disk formats, including:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Maildir</li>
<li>mbox</li>
<li>MH</li>
<li>Babyl</li>
<li>MMDF</li>
</ul>
<p>There are base classes for <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Mailbox</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt>, and
each mailbox format includes a corresponding pair of subclasses to
implement the details for that format.</p>
<div class="section" id="mbox">
<h2>mbox<a class="headerlink" href="#mbox" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The mbox format is the simplest to illustrate in documentation, since
it is entirely plain text. Each mailbox is stored as a single file,
with all of the messages concatenated together. Each time a line
starting with “From ” (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">From</span></tt> followed by a single space) is
encountered it is treated as the beginning of a new message. Any time
those characters appear at the beginning of a line in the message
body, they are escaped by prefixing the line with “<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">></span></tt>”.</p>
<div class="section" id="creating-an-mbox-mailbox">
<h3>Creating an mbox mailbox<a class="headerlink" href="#creating-an-mbox-mailbox" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Instantiate the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mbox</span></tt> class by passing the filename to the
constructor. If the file does not exist, it is created when you add
messages to it using <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">add()</span></tt>.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">mailbox</span>
<span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">email.utils</span>
<span class="n">from_addr</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">email</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">utils</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">formataddr</span><span class="p">((</span><span class="s">'Author'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'author@example.com'</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">to_addr</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">email</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">utils</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">formataddr</span><span class="p">((</span><span class="s">'Recipient'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'recipient@example.com'</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mailbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mbox</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'example.mbox'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">lock</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">msg</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mailbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mboxMessage</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_unixfrom</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'author Sat Feb 7 01:05:34 2009'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'From'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">from_addr</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'To'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">to_addr</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'Subject'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">'Sample message 1'</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_payload</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'This is the body.</span><span class="se">\n</span><span class="s">From (should be escaped).</span><span class="se">\n</span><span class="s">There are 3 lines.</span><span class="se">\n</span><span class="s">'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">flush</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">msg</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mailbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mboxMessage</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_unixfrom</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'author'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'From'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">from_addr</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'To'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">to_addr</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'Subject'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">'Sample message 2'</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_payload</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'This is the second body.</span><span class="se">\n</span><span class="s">'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">flush</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">finally</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unlock</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'example.mbox'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'r'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The result of this script is a new mailbox file with 2 email messages.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>$ python mailbox_mbox_create.py
From MAILER-DAEMON Sun Oct 24 12:53:43 2010
From: Author <author@example.com>
To: Recipient <recipient@example.com>
Subject: Sample message 1
This is the body.
>From (should be escaped).
There are 3 lines.
From MAILER-DAEMON Sun Oct 24 12:53:43 2010
From: Author <author@example.com>
To: Recipient <recipient@example.com>
Subject: Sample message 2
This is the second body.</pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="reading-an-mbox-mailbox">
<h3>Reading an mbox Mailbox<a class="headerlink" href="#reading-an-mbox-mailbox" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>To read an existing mailbox, open it and treat the mbox object like a
dictionary. They keys are arbitrary values defined by the mailbox
instance and are not necessary meaningful other than as internal
identifiers for message objects.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">mailbox</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mailbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mbox</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'example.mbox'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">message</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">mbox</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="n">message</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'subject'</span><span class="p">]</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>You can iterate over the open mailbox but notice that, unlike with
dictionaries, the default iterator for a mailbox works on the <em>values</em>
instead of the <em>keys</em>.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>$ python mailbox_mbox_read.py
Sample message 1
Sample message 2</pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="removing-messages-from-an-mbox-mailbox">
<h3>Removing Messages from an mbox Mailbox<a class="headerlink" href="#removing-messages-from-an-mbox-mailbox" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>To remove an existing message from an mbox file, use its key with
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">remove()</span></tt> or use <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">del</span></tt>.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">mailbox</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mailbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mbox</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'example.mbox'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">to_remove</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[]</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">key</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">msg</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">iteritems</span><span class="p">():</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="s">'2'</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'subject'</span><span class="p">]:</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'Removing:'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">key</span>
<span class="n">to_remove</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">append</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">key</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">lock</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">key</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">to_remove</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">remove</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">key</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">finally</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">flush</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">close</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'example.mbox'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'r'</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Notice the use of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">lock()</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">unlock()</span></tt> to prevent issues from
simultaneous access to the file, and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">flush()</span></tt> to force the changes
to be written to disk.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>$ python mailbox_mbox_remove.py
Removing: 1
From MAILER-DAEMON Sun Oct 24 12:53:43 2010
From: Author <author@example.com>
To: Recipient <recipient@example.com>
Subject: Sample message 1
This is the body.
>From (should be escaped).
There are 3 lines.</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="maildir">
<h2>Maildir<a class="headerlink" href="#maildir" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The Maildir format was created to eliminate the problem of concurrent
modification to an mbox file. Instead of using a single file, the
mailbox is organized as directory where each message is contained in
its own file. This also allows mailboxes to be nested, and so the API
for a Maildir mailbox is extended with methods to work with
sub-folders.</p>
<div class="section" id="creating-a-maildir-mailbox">
<h3>Creating a Maildir Mailbox<a class="headerlink" href="#creating-a-maildir-mailbox" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>The only real difference between using a Maildir and mbox is that to
instantiate the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.Maildir</span></tt> object we need to pass the directory
containing the mailbox to the constructor. As before, if it does not
exist, the mailbox is created when you add messages to it using
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">add()</span></tt>.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">mailbox</span>
<span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">email.utils</span>
<span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">os</span>
<span class="n">from_addr</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">email</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">utils</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">formataddr</span><span class="p">((</span><span class="s">'Author'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'author@example.com'</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">to_addr</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">email</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">utils</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">formataddr</span><span class="p">((</span><span class="s">'Recipient'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'recipient@example.com'</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mailbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Maildir</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Example'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">lock</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">msg</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mailbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mboxMessage</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_unixfrom</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'author Sat Feb 7 01:05:34 2009'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'From'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">from_addr</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'To'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">to_addr</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'Subject'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">'Sample message 1'</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_payload</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'This is the body.</span><span class="se">\n</span><span class="s">From (will not be escaped).</span><span class="se">\n</span><span class="s">There are 3 lines.</span><span class="se">\n</span><span class="s">'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">flush</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">msg</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mailbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">mboxMessage</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_unixfrom</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'author Sat Feb 7 01:05:34 2009'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'From'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">from_addr</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'To'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">to_addr</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'Subject'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">'Sample message 2'</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_payload</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'This is the second body.</span><span class="se">\n</span><span class="s">'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">flush</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">finally</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unlock</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">dirname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">subdirs</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">files</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">walk</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Example'</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="n">dirname</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'</span><span class="se">\t</span><span class="s">Directories:'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">subdirs</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">name</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">files</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">fullname</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">path</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">join</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">dirname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">name</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">print</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'***'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fullname</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">fullname</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'*'</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="mi">20</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Since we have added messages to the mailbox, they go to the “new”
subdirectory. Once they are “read” a client could move them to the
“cur” subdirectory.</p>
<div class="admonition warning">
<p class="first admonition-title">Warning</p>
<p class="last">Although it is safe to write to the same maildir from multiple
processes, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">add()</span></tt> is not thread-safe, so make sure you use a
semaphore or other locking device to prevent simultaneous
modifications to the mailbox from multiple threads of the same
process.</p>
</div>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>$ python mailbox_maildir_create.py
Example
Directories: ['cur', 'new', 'tmp']
Example/cur
Directories: []
Example/new
Directories: []
*** Example/new/1287924823.M754030P13842Q1.177.198.246.10.in-addr.arpa
From: Author <author@example.com>
To: Recipient <recipient@example.com>
Subject: Sample message 1
This is the body.
From (will not be escaped).
There are 3 lines.
********************
*** Example/new/1287924823.M755863P13842Q2.177.198.246.10.in-addr.arpa
From: Author <author@example.com>
To: Recipient <recipient@example.com>
Subject: Sample message 2
This is the second body.
********************
Example/tmp
Directories: []</pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="reading-a-maildir-mailbox">
<h3>Reading a Maildir Mailbox<a class="headerlink" href="#reading-a-maildir-mailbox" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Reading from an existing Maildir mailbox works just like with mbox.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">mailbox</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mailbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Maildir</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Example'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">message</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">mbox</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="n">message</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'subject'</span><span class="p">]</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Notice that the messages are not guaranteed to be read in any
particular order.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>$ python mailbox_maildir_read.py
Sample message 2
Sample message 1</pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="removing-messages-from-a-maildir-mailbox">
<h3>Removing Messages from a Maildir Mailbox<a class="headerlink" href="#removing-messages-from-a-maildir-mailbox" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>To remove an existing message from a Maildir mailbox, use its key with
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">remove()</span></tt> or use <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">del</span></tt>.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">mailbox</span>
<span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">os</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mailbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Maildir</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Example'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">to_remove</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[]</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">key</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">msg</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">iteritems</span><span class="p">():</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="s">'2'</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'subject'</span><span class="p">]:</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'Removing:'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">key</span>
<span class="n">to_remove</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">append</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">key</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">lock</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">key</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">to_remove</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">remove</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">key</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">finally</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">flush</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">close</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">dirname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">subdirs</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">files</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">walk</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Example'</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="n">dirname</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'</span><span class="se">\t</span><span class="s">Directories:'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">subdirs</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">name</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">files</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">fullname</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">path</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">join</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">dirname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">name</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">print</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'***'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fullname</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">fullname</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'*'</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="mi">20</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>$ python mailbox_maildir_remove.py
Removing: 1287924823.M755863P13842Q2.177.198.246.10.in-addr.arpa
Example
Directories: ['cur', 'new', 'tmp']
Example/cur
Directories: []
Example/new
Directories: []
*** Example/new/1287924823.M754030P13842Q1.177.198.246.10.in-addr.arpa
From: Author <author@example.com>
To: Recipient <recipient@example.com>
Subject: Sample message 1
This is the body.
From (will not be escaped).
There are 3 lines.
********************
Example/tmp
Directories: []</pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="maildir-folders">
<h3>Maildir folders<a class="headerlink" href="#maildir-folders" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Subdirectories or <em>folders</em> of a Maildir mailbox can be managed
directly through the methods of the Maildir class. Callers can list,
retrieve, create, and remove sub-folders for a given mailbox.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">mailbox</span>
<span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">os</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">show_maildir</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">system</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'find </span><span class="si">%s</span><span class="s"> -print'</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="n">name</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mailbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">Maildir</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Example'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'Before:'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">list_folders</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">show_maildir</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Example'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">print</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'#'</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="mi">30</span>
<span class="k">print</span>
<span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_folder</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'subfolder'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'subfolder created:'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">list_folders</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">show_maildir</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Example'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">subfolder</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">mbox</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get_folder</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'subfolder'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'subfolder contents:'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">subfolder</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">list_folders</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">print</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'#'</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="mi">30</span>
<span class="k">print</span>
<span class="n">subfolder</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_folder</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'second_level'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'second_level created:'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">subfolder</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">list_folders</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">show_maildir</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Example'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">print</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'#'</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="mi">30</span>
<span class="k">print</span>
<span class="n">subfolder</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">remove_folder</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'second_level'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">'second_level removed:'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">subfolder</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">list_folders</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">show_maildir</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Example'</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The directory name for the folder is constructed by prefixing the
folder name with <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.</span></tt>.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>$ python mailbox_maildir_folders.py
Example
Example/cur
Example/new
Example/new/1287924823.M754030P13842Q1.177.198.246.10.in-addr.arpa
Example/tmp
Example
Example/.subfolder
Example/.subfolder/cur
Example/.subfolder/maildirfolder
Example/.subfolder/new
Example/.subfolder/tmp
Example/cur
Example/new
Example/new/1287924823.M754030P13842Q1.177.198.246.10.in-addr.arpa
Example/tmp
Example
Example/.subfolder
Example/.subfolder/.second_level
Example/.subfolder/.second_level/cur
Example/.subfolder/.second_level/maildirfolder
Example/.subfolder/.second_level/new
Example/.subfolder/.second_level/tmp
Example/.subfolder/cur
Example/.subfolder/maildirfolder
Example/.subfolder/new
Example/.subfolder/tmp
Example/cur
Example/new
Example/new/1287924823.M754030P13842Q1.177.198.246.10.in-addr.arpa
Example/tmp
Example
Example/.subfolder
Example/.subfolder/cur
Example/.subfolder/maildirfolder
Example/.subfolder/new
Example/.subfolder/tmp
Example/cur
Example/new
Example/new/1287924823.M754030P13842Q1.177.198.246.10.in-addr.arpa
Example/tmp
Before: []
##############################
subfolder created: ['subfolder']
subfolder contents: []
##############################
second_level created: ['second_level']
##############################
second_level removed: []</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="other-formats">
<h2>Other Formats<a class="headerlink" href="#other-formats" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>MH is another multi-file mailbox format used by some mail handlers.
Babyl and MMDF are single-file formats with different message
separators than mbox. None seem to be as popular as mbox or Maildir.
The single-file formats support the same API as mbox, and MH includes
the folder-related methods found in the Maildir class.</p>
<div class="admonition-see-also admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="last docutils">
<dt><a class="reference external" href="http://docs.python.org/library/mailbox.html">mailbox</a></dt>
<dd>The standard library documentation for this module.</dd>
<dt>mbox manpage from qmail</dt>
<dd><a class="reference external" href="http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/mbox.html">http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/mbox.html</a></dd>
<dt>maildir manpage from qmail</dt>
<dd><a class="reference external" href="http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/maildir.html">http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/maildir.html</a></dd>
<dt><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The email module.</dd>
<dt><a class="reference internal" href="../mhlib/index.html#module-mhlib" title="mhlib: Work with MH mailboxes"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">mhlib</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>The mhlib module.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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</div>
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