.. This module does not use cog because of the IMAP server requirements.
#####################################
imaplib - IMAP4 client library
#####################################
.. module:: imaplib
:synopsis: IMAP4 client library
:Purpose: Client library for IMAP4 communication.
:Python Version: 1.5.2 and later
:mod:`imaplib` implements a client for communicating with Internet
Message Access Protocol (IMAP) version 4 servers. The IMAP protocol
defines a set of *commands* sent to the server and the responses
delivered back to the client. Most of the commands are available as
methods of the :class:`IMAP4` object used to communicate with the
server.
These examples discuss part of the IMAP protocol, but are by no means
complete. Refer to :rfc:`3501` for complete details.
Variations
==========
There are 3 client classes for communicating with servers using
various mechanisms. The first, :class:`IMAP4`, uses clear text
sockets; :class:`IMAP4_SSL` uses encrypted communication over SSL
sockets; and :class:`IMAP4_stream` uses the standard input and
standard output of an external command. All of the examples below
will use :class:`IMAP4_SSL`.
Connecting to a Server
======================
There are two steps for establishing a connection with an IMAP server.
First, set up the socket connection itself. Second, authenticate as a
user with an account on the server. The following example code will
read server and user information from a configuration file.
.. warning::
You probably do not want to store email passwords in clear text,
but handling encryption will distract from the rest of the examples.
.. include:: imaplib_connect.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
When run, :func:`open_connection()` reads the configuration
information from a file in your home directory, then opens the
:class:`IMAP4_SSL` connection and authenticates.
::
$ python imaplib_connect.py
Connecting to mail.example.com
Logging in as example
<imaplib.IMAP4_SSL instance at 0x928cb0>
.. note::
The other examples below will reuse this module, to avoid duplicating the code.
Authentication Failure
----------------------
If the connection is established but authentication fails, an
exception is raised.
.. include:: imaplib_connect_fail.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
::
$ python imaplib_connect_fail.py
Connecting to mail.example.com
Logging in as example
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/dhellmann/Documents/PyMOTW/in_progress/imaplib/PyMOTW/imaplib/imaplib_connect_fail.py", line 29, in <module>
connection.login(username, password)
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/imaplib.py", line 501, in login
raise self.error(dat[-1])
imaplib.error: Authentication failed.
Example Configuration
=====================
The example account has 4 mailboxes, ``INBOX``, ``Apple Mail To Do``,
``Archive``, and ``2008`` (a sub-folder of ``Archive``). The mailbox
hierarchy looks like:
- INBOX
- Apple Mail To Do
- Archive
- 2008
There is one unread message in the ``INBOX`` folder, and one read
message in ``Archive/2008``.
Listing Mailboxes
=================
To retrieve the mailboxes available for an account, use the
:meth:`list()` method.
.. include:: imaplib_list.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
The return value is a tuple with a response code and the data returned
by the server. The response code is ``OK``, unless there has been an
error. The data for :meth:`list()` is a sequence of strings
containing *flags*, the *hierarchy delimiter*, and *mailbox name* for
each mailbox.
::
$ python imaplib_list.py
Response code: OK
Response:
['(\\HasNoChildren) "." INBOX',
'(\\HasNoChildren) "." "Apple Mail To Do"',
'(\\HasChildren) "." "Archive"',
'(\\HasNoChildren) "." "Archive.2008"']
Each response string can be split into 3 parts using :mod:`re` or
:mod:`csv` (see `IMAP Backup Script`_ for an example using
:mod:`csv`).
.. include:: imaplib_list_parse.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
Notice that the server quotes the mailbox name if it includes spaces,
but we need to strip those quotes to use the mailbox name in other
calls back to the server later.
::
$ python imaplib_list_parse.py
Response code: OK
Server response: (\HasNoChildren) "." INBOX
Parsed response: ('\\HasNoChildren', '.', 'INBOX')
Server response: (\HasNoChildren) "." "Apple Mail To Do"
Parsed response: ('\\HasNoChildren', '.', 'Apple Mail To Do')
Server response: (\HasChildren) "." "Archive"
Parsed response: ('\\HasChildren', '.', 'Archive')
Server response: (\HasNoChildren) "." "Archive.2008"
Parsed response: ('\\HasNoChildren', '.', 'Archive.2008')
:meth:`list()` takes arguments to let you ask for mailboxes in part of
the hierarchy. For example, to list sub-folders of ``Archive``, you
can pass a value as the *directory* argument:
.. include:: imaplib_list_subfolders.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
Only the single subfolder is returned:
::
$ python imaplib_list_subfolders.py
Response code: OK
Server response: (\HasNoChildren) "." "Archive.2008"
Alternately, to list folders matching a pattern you can pass the
*pattern* argument:
.. include:: imaplib_list_pattern.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
In this case, both ``Archive`` and ``Archive.2008`` are included in
the response.
::
$ python imaplib_list_pattern.py
Response code: OK
Server response: (\HasChildren) "." "Archive"
Server response: (\HasNoChildren) "." "Archive.2008"
Mailbox Status
==============
Use :meth:`status()` to ask for aggregated information about the
contents. The standard defines these *status conditions*:
MESSAGES
The number of messages in the mailbox.
RECENT
The number of messages with the \Recent flag set.
UIDNEXT
The next unique identifier value of the mailbox.
UIDVALIDITY
The unique identifier validity value of the mailbox.
UNSEEN
The number of messages which do not have the \Seen flag set.
The status conditions must be formatted as a space separated string
enclosed in parentheses, the encoding for a "list" in the IMAP4
specification.
.. include:: imaplib_status.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
The return value is the usual tuple containing a response code and a
list of information from the server. In this case, the list contains
a single string formatted with the name of the mailbox in quotes, then
the status conditions and values in parentheses.
::
$ python imaplib_status.py
('OK', ['"INBOX" (MESSAGES 1 RECENT 0 UIDNEXT 3 UIDVALIDITY 1222003700 UNSEEN 1)'])
('OK', ['"Apple Mail To Do" (MESSAGES 0 RECENT 0 UIDNEXT 1 UIDVALIDITY 1222003706 UNSEEN 0)'])
('OK', ['"Archive" (MESSAGES 0 RECENT 0 UIDNEXT 1 UIDVALIDITY 1222003809 UNSEEN 0)'])
('OK', ['"Archive.2008" (MESSAGES 1 RECENT 0 UIDNEXT 2 UIDVALIDITY 1222003831 UNSEEN 0)'])
Selecting a Mailbox
===================
The basic mode of operation, once the client is authenticated, is to
*select* a mailbox and then interrogate the server regarding messages
in the mailbox. The connection is stateful, so once a mailbox is
selected all commands operate on messages in that mailbox until a new
mailbox is selected.
.. include:: imaplib_select.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
The response data contains the total number of messages in the
mailbox.
::
$ python imaplib_select.py
OK ['1']
There are 1 messages in INBOX
If an invalid mailbox is specified, the response code is ``NO``.
.. include:: imaplib_select_invalid.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
The data contains an error message describing the problem.
::
$ python imaplib_select_invalid.py
NO ["Mailbox doesn't exist: Does Not Exist"]
Searching for Messages
======================
Once the mailbox is selected, use :meth:`search()` to retrieve the ids
of messages in the mailbox.
.. include:: imaplib_search_all.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
Message ids are assigned by the server, and are implementation
dependent. The IMAP4 protocol makes a distinction between sequential
ids for messages at a given point in time during a transaction and UID
identifiers for messages, but not all servers seem to bother.
::
$ python imaplib_search_all.py
INBOX OK ['1']
Apple Mail To Do OK ['']
Archive OK ['']
Archive.2008 OK ['1']
In this case, ``INBOX`` and ``Archive.2008`` each have a diffrerent
message with id ``1``. The other mailboxes are empty.
Search Criteria
===============
A variety of other search criteria can be used, including looking at
dates for the message, flags, and other headers. Refer to section
6.4.4. of :rfc:`3501` for complete details.
As one example, to look for messages with ``'test message 2'`` in the
subject, the search criteria could be constructed as::
(SUBJECT "test message 2")
This example finds all messages with the title "test message 2" in all
mailboxes:
.. include:: imaplib_search_subject.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
There is only one such message in the account, and it is in the
``INBOX``.
::
$ python imaplib_search_subject.py
INBOX OK ['1']
Apple Mail To Do OK ['']
Archive OK ['']
Archive.2008 OK ['']
Search criteria can also be combined.
.. include:: imaplib_search_from.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
The combination is treated as a logical *and* operation.
::
$ python imaplib_search_from.py
INBOX OK ['1']
Apple Mail To Do OK ['']
Archive OK ['']
Archive.2008 OK ['']
Fetching Messages
=================
The identifiers returned by :meth:`search()` are used to retrieve the
contents, or partial contents, of messages for further processing via
:meth:`fetch()`. :meth:`fetch()` takes 2 arguments, the message ids
to fetch and the portion(s) of the message to retrieve.
The *message_ids* argument is a comma separated list of ids (``"1"``,
``"1,2"``) or id ranges (``1:2``). The *message_parts* argument is an
IMAP list of message segment names. As with search criteria for
:meth:`search()`, the IMAP protocol specifies named message segments
so clients can efficiently retrieve only the parts of the message they
actually need. For example, to print the headers of the messages in a
mailbox, we could :meth:`fetch()` the headers using
``BODY.PEEK[HEADER]``.
.. note::
Another way to fetch the headers would be simply ``BODY[HEADERS]``,
but that form implicitly marks the message as read, which is
undesirable in many cases.
.. include:: imaplib_fetch_raw.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
The return value of :meth:`fetch()` has been partially parsed so it is
somewhat harder to work with than the return value of :meth:`list()`.
If we turn on debugging, we can see the complete interaction between
the client and server to understand why this is so.
::
$ python imaplib_fetch_raw.py
13:12.54 imaplib version 2.58
13:12.54 new IMAP4 connection, tag=CFKH
13:12.54 < * OK dovecot ready.
13:12.54 > CFKH0 CAPABILITY
13:12.54 < * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 SORT THREAD=REFERENCES MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT IDLE CHILDREN LISTEXT LIST-SUBSCRIBED NAMESPACE AUTH=PLAIN
13:12.54 < CFKH0 OK Capability completed.
13:12.54 CAPABILITIES: ('IMAP4REV1', 'SORT', 'THREAD=REFERENCES', 'MULTIAPPEND', 'UNSELECT', 'IDLE', 'CHILDREN', 'LISTEXT', 'LIST-SUBSCRIBED', 'NAMESPACE', 'AUTH=PLAIN')
13:12.54 > CFKH1 LOGIN example "password"
13:13.18 < CFKH1 OK Logged in.
13:13.18 > CFKH2 EXAMINE INBOX
13:13.20 < * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Seen \Draft $NotJunk $Junk)
13:13.20 < * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS ()] Read-only mailbox.
13:13.20 < * 2 EXISTS
13:13.20 < * 1 RECENT
13:13.20 < * OK [UNSEEN 1] First unseen.
13:13.20 < * OK [UIDVALIDITY 1222003700] UIDs valid
13:13.20 < * OK [UIDNEXT 4] Predicted next UID
13:13.20 < CFKH2 OK [READ-ONLY] Select completed.
13:13.20 > CFKH3 FETCH 1 (BODY.PEEK[HEADER] FLAGS)
13:13.20 < * 1 FETCH (FLAGS ($NotJunk) BODY[HEADER] {595}
13:13.20 read literal size 595
13:13.20 < )
13:13.20 < CFKH3 OK Fetch completed.
13:13.20 > CFKH4 CLOSE
13:13.21 < CFKH4 OK Close completed.
13:13.21 > CFKH5 LOGOUT
13:13.21 < * BYE Logging out
13:13.21 BYE response: Logging out
13:13.21 < CFKH5 OK Logout completed.
[('1 (FLAGS ($NotJunk) BODY[HEADER] {595}',
'Return-Path: <dhellmann@example.com>\r\nReceived: from example.com (localhost [127.0.0.1])\r\n\tby example.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id m8LDTGW4018260\r\n\tfor <example@example.com>; Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:29:16 -0400\r\nReceived: (from dhellmann@localhost)\r\n\tby example.com (8.13.4/8.13.4/Submit) id m8LDTGZ5018259\r\n\tfor example@example.com; Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:29:16 -0400\r\nDate: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:29:16 -0400\r\nFrom: Doug Hellmann <dhellmann@example.com>\r\nMessage-Id: <200809211329.m8LDTGZ5018259@example.com>\r\nTo: example@example.com\r\nSubject: test message 2\r\n\r\n'),
')']
The response from the ``FETCH`` command starts with the flags, then
indicates that there are 595 bytes of header data. The client
contructs a tuple with the response for the message, and then closes
the sequence with a single string containing the ``)`` the server
sends at the end of the fetch response. Because of this formatting,
it may be easier to fetch different pieces of information separately,
or to recombine the response and parse it yourself.
.. include:: imaplib_fetch_separately.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
Fetching values separately has the added benefit of making it easy to
use :func:`ParseFlags()` to parse the flags from the response.
::
$ python imaplib_fetch_separately.py
HEADER:
Return-Path: <dhellmann@example.com>
Received: from example.com (localhost [127.0.0.1])
by example.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id m8LDTGW4018260
for <example@example.com>; Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:29:16 -0400
Received: (from dhellmann@localhost)
by example.com (8.13.4/8.13.4/Submit) id m8LDTGZ5018259
for example@example.com; Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:29:16 -0400
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:29:16 -0400
From: Doug Hellmann <dhellmann@example.com>
Message-Id: <200809211329.m8LDTGZ5018259@example.com>
To: example@example.com
Subject: test message 2
BODY TEXT:
second message
FLAGS:
1 (FLAGS ($NotJunk))
('$NotJunk',)
Whole Messages
==============
As illustrated above, the client can ask the server for individual
parts of the message separately. It is also possible to retrieve the
entire message as an :rfc:`2822` formatted mail message and parse it
with classes from the :mod:`email` module.
.. include:: imaplib_fetch_rfc822.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
The parser in the :mod:`email` module make it very easy to access and
manipulate messages. This example prints just a few of the headers
for each message.
::
$ python imaplib_fetch_rfc822.py
SUBJECT : test message 2
TO : example@example.com
FROM : Doug Hellmann <dhellmann@example.com>
Uploading Messages
==================
To add a new message to a mailbox, pass it to the :meth:`append()`
method.
.. include:: imaplib_append.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
::
pymotw
Subject: subject goes here
From: pymotw@example.com
To: example@example.com
This is the body of the message.
1:
Return-Path: <dhellmann@example.com>
Received: from example.com (localhost [127.0.0.1])
by example.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id m8LDTGW4018260
for <example@example.com>; Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:29:16 -0400
Received: (from dhellmann@localhost)
by example.com (8.13.4/8.13.4/Submit) id m8LDTGZ5018259
for example@example.com; Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:29:16 -0400
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:29:16 -0400
From: Doug Hellmann <dhellmann@example.com>
Message-Id: <200809211329.m8LDTGZ5018259@example.com>
To: example@example.com
Subject: test message 2
2:
Return-Path: <doug.hellmann@example.com>
Message-Id: <0D9C3C50-462A-4FD7-9E5A-11EE222D721D@example.com>
From: Doug Hellmann <doug.hellmann@example.com>
To: example@example.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v929.2)
Subject: lorem ipsum
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 12:53:16 -0400
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.929.2)
3:
pymotw
Subject: subject goes here
From: pymotw@example.com
To: example@example.com
Moving and Copying Messages
===========================
Once a message is on the server, it can be moved or copied without
downloading it using :meth:`move()` or :meth:`copy()`. These methods
operate on message id ranges, just as :meth:`fetch()` does.
This example script creates a new mailbox under ``Archive`` and copies
the read messages from ``INBOX`` into it.
.. include:: imaplib_archive_read.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
::
$ python imaplib_archive_read.py
CREATED Archive.Today: ['Create completed.']
COPYING: 1,2
COPIED: 1 2
Running the same script again shows the importance to checking return
codes. Instead of raising an exception, the call to :meth:`create()`
to make the new mailbox reports that the mailbox already exists.
::
$ python imaplib_archive_read.py
CREATED Archive.Today: ['Mailbox exists.']
COPYING: 1,2
COPIED: 1 2 3 4
Deleting Messages
=================
Although most modern mail clients use a "Trash folder" model for
working with deleted messages, the messages are not usually moved into
an actual folder. Instead, their flags are updated to add
``\Deleted``. *Emptying the trash* is implemented through an
``EXPUNGE`` command. This example script finds the archived messages
with "Lorem ipsum" in the subject, sets the deleted flag, then shows
that the messages are still present in the folder by querying the
server again.
.. include:: imaplib_delete_messages.py
:literal:
:start-after: #end_pymotw_header
This example explicitly calls :meth:`expunge()` to remove the
messages, but calling :meth:`close()` has the same effect. The
difference is the client is not notified about the deletions when you
call :meth:`close()`.
::
$ python imaplib_delete_messages.py
Starting messages: 1 2 3 4
Matching messages: 1,3
Flags before: ['1 (FLAGS (\\Seen $NotJunk))', '3 (FLAGS (\\Seen \\Recent $NotJunk))']
Flags after: ['1 (FLAGS (\\Deleted \\Seen $NotJunk))',
'3 (FLAGS (\\Deleted \\Seen \\Recent $NotJunk))']
Expunged: ['1', '2']
Remaining messages: 1 2
.. seealso::
`imaplib <http://docs.python.org/library/imaplib.html>`_
The standard library documentation for this module.
`What is IMAP? <http://www.imap.org/about/whatisIMAP.html>`_
imap.org description of the IMAP protocol
`University of Washington IMAP Information Center <http://www.washington.edu/imap/>`_
Good resource for IMAP information, along with source code.
:rfc:`3501`
Internet Message Access Protocol
:rfc:`2822`
Internet Message Format
`IMAP Backup Script`_
A script to backup email from an IMAP server.
.. _IMAP Backup Script: http://snipplr.com/view/7955/imap-backup-script/
:mod:`rfc822`
The :mod:`rfc822` module includes an :rfc:`822` / :rfc:`2822` parser
:mod:`email`
The :mod:`email` module for parsing email messages.
:mod:`mailbox`
Local mailbox parser.
:mod:`ConfigParser`
Read and write configuration files.
`IMAPClient <http://freshfoo.com/wiki/CodeIndex>`_
A higher-level client for talking to IMAP servers, written by Menno Smits.