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imaplib — IMAP4 protocol client
Source code: Lib/imaplib.py
This module defines three classes, IMAP4
, IMAP4_SSL
and IMAP4_stream
, which encapsulate a connection to an IMAP4 server and implement a large subset of the IMAP4rev1 client protocol as defined in RFC 2060 . It is backward compatible with IMAP4 (RFC 1730 ) servers, but note that the STATUS
command is not supported in IMAP4.
Three classes are provided by the imaplib
module, IMAP4
is the base class:
- class
imaplib.
IMAP4
( host='', port=IMAP4_PORT ) -
This class implements the actual IMAP4 protocol. The connection is created and protocol version (IMAP4 or IMAP4rev1) is determined when the instance is initialized. If host is not specified,
''
(the local host) is used. If port is omitted, the standard IMAP4 port (143) is used.The
IMAP4
class supports thewith
statement. When used like this, the IMAP4LOGOUT
command is issued automatically when thewith
statement exits. E.g.:>>> from imaplib import IMAP4 >>> with IMAP4("domain.org") as M: ... M.noop() ... ('OK', [b'Nothing Accomplished. d25if65hy903weo.87'])
Changed in version 3.5: Support for the
with
statement was added.
Three exceptions are defined as attributes of the IMAP4
class:
- exception
IMAP4.
error
-
Exception raised on any errors. The reason for the exception is passed to the constructor as a string.
- exception
IMAP4.
abort
-
IMAP4 server errors cause this exception to be raised. This is a sub-class of
IMAP4.error
. Note that closing the instance and instantiating a new one will usually allow recovery from this exception.
- exception
IMAP4.
readonly
-
This exception is raised when a writable mailbox has its status changed by the server. This is a sub-class of
IMAP4.error
. Some other client now has write permission, and the mailbox will need to be re-opened to re-obtain write permission.
There’s also a subclass for secure connections:
- class
imaplib.
IMAP4_SSL
( host='', port=IMAP4_SSL_PORT, keyfile=None, certfile=None, ssl_context=None ) -
This is a subclass derived from
IMAP4
that connects over an SSL encrypted socket (to use this class you need a socket module that was compiled with SSL support). If host is not specified,''
(the local host) is used. If port is omitted, the standard IMAP4-over-SSL port (993) is used. ssl_context is assl.SSLContext
object which allows bundling SSL configuration options, certificates and private keys into a single (potentially long-lived) structure. Please read Security considerations for best practices.keyfile and certfile are a legacy alternative to ssl_context - they can point to PEM-formatted private key and certificate chain files for the SSL connection. Note that the keyfile/certfile parameters are mutually exclusive with ssl_context, a
ValueError
is raised if keyfile/certfile is provided along with ssl_context.Changed in version 3.3: ssl_context parameter added.
Changed in version 3.4: The class now supports hostname check with
ssl.SSLContext.check_hostname
and Server Name Indication (seessl.HAS_SNI
).Deprecated since version 3.6: keyfile and certfile are deprecated in favor of ssl_context. Please use
ssl.SSLContext.load_cert_chain()
instead, or letssl.create_default_context()
select the system’s trusted CA certificates for you.
The second subclass allows for connections created by a child process:
- class
imaplib.
IMAP4_stream
( command ) -
This is a subclass derived from
IMAP4
that connects to thestdin/stdout
file descriptors created by passing command tosubprocess.Popen()
.
The following utility functions are defined:
imaplib.
Internaldate2tuple
( datestr )-
Parse an IMAP4
INTERNALDATE
string and return corresponding local time. The return value is atime.struct_time
tuple orNone
if the string has wrong format.
imaplib.
Int2AP
( num )-
Converts an integer into a string representation using characters from the set [
A
..P
].
imaplib.
Time2Internaldate
( date_time )-
Convert date_time to an IMAP4
INTERNALDATE
representation. The return value is a string in the form:"DD-Mmm-YYYY HH:MM:SS +HHMM"
(including double-quotes). The date_time argument can be a number (int or float) representing seconds since epoch (as returned bytime.time()
), a 9-tuple representing local time an instance oftime.struct_time
(as returned bytime.localtime()
), an aware instance ofdatetime.datetime
, or a double-quoted string. In the last case, it is assumed to already be in the correct format.
Note that IMAP4 message numbers change as the mailbox changes; in particular, after an EXPUNGE
command performs deletions the remaining messages are renumbered. So it is highly advisable to use UIDs instead, with the UID command.
At the end of the module, there is a test section that contains a more extensive example of usage.
See also
Documents describing the protocol, and sources and binaries for servers implementing it, can all be found at the University of Washington’s IMAP Information Center (https://www.washington.edu/imap/ ).
IMAP4 Objects
All IMAP4rev1 commands are represented by methods of the same name, either upper-case or lower-case.
All arguments to commands are converted to strings, except for AUTHENTICATE
, and the last argument to APPEND
which is passed as an IMAP4 literal. If necessary (the string contains IMAP4 protocol-sensitive characters and isn’t enclosed with either parentheses or double quotes) each string is quoted. However, the password argument to the LOGIN
command is always quoted. If you want to avoid having an argument string quoted (eg: the flags argument to STORE
) then enclose the string in parentheses (eg: r'(\Deleted)'
).
Each command returns a tuple: (type, [data, ...])
where type is usually 'OK'
or 'NO'
, and data is either the text from the command response, or mandated results from the command. Each data is either a string, or a tuple. If a tuple, then the first part is the header of the response, and the second part contains the data (ie: ‘literal’ value).
The message_set options to commands below is a string specifying one or more messages to be acted upon. It may be a simple message number ('1'
), a range of message numbers ('2:4'
), or a group of non-contiguous ranges separated by commas ('1:3,6:9'
). A range can contain an asterisk to indicate an infinite upper bound ('3:*'
).
An IMAP4
instance has the following methods:
IMAP4.
authenticate
( mechanism, authobject )-
Authenticate command — requires response processing.
mechanism specifies which authentication mechanism is to be used - it should appear in the instance variable
capabilities
in the formAUTH=mechanism
.authobject must be a callable object:
data = authobject(response)
It will be called to process server continuation responses; the response argument it is passed will be
bytes
. It should returnbytes
data that will be base64 encoded and sent to the server. It should returnNone
if the client abort response*
should be sent instead.Changed in version 3.5: string usernames and passwords are now encoded to
utf-8
instead of being limited to ASCII.
IMAP4.
close
( )-
Close currently selected mailbox. Deleted messages are removed from writable mailbox. This is the recommended command before
LOGOUT
.
IMAP4.
enable
( capability )-
Enable capability (see RFC 5161 ). Most capabilities do not need to be enabled. Currently only the
UTF8=ACCEPT
capability is supported (see RFC 6855 ).
IMAP4.
expunge
( )-
Permanently remove deleted items from selected mailbox. Generates an
EXPUNGE
response for each deleted message. Returned data contains a list ofEXPUNGE
message numbers in order received.
IMAP4.
fetch
( message_set, message_parts )-
Fetch (parts of) messages. message_parts should be a string of message part names enclosed within parentheses, eg:
"(UID BODY[TEXT])"
. Returned data are tuples of message part envelope and data.
IMAP4.
getacl
( mailbox )-
Get the
ACL
s for mailbox. The method is non-standard, but is supported by theCyrus
server.
IMAP4.
getannotation
( mailbox, entry, attribute )-
Retrieve the specified
ANNOTATION
s for mailbox. The method is non-standard, but is supported by theCyrus
server.
IMAP4.
getquota
( root )-
Get the
quota
root’s resource usage and limits. This method is part of the IMAP4 QUOTA extension defined in rfc2087.
IMAP4.
getquotaroot
( mailbox )-
Get the list of
quota
roots
for the named mailbox. This method is part of the IMAP4 QUOTA extension defined in rfc2087.
IMAP4.
list
( [ directory [, pattern ] ] )-
List mailbox names in directory matching pattern. directory defaults to the top-level mail folder, and pattern defaults to match anything. Returned data contains a list of
LIST
responses.
IMAP4.
login
( user, password )-
Identify the client using a plaintext password. The password will be quoted.
IMAP4.
login_cram_md5
( user, password )-
Force use of
CRAM-MD5
authentication when identifying the client to protect the password. Will only work if the serverCAPABILITY
response includes the phraseAUTH=CRAM-MD5
.
IMAP4.
logout
( )-
Shutdown connection to server. Returns server
BYE
response.Changed in version 3.8: The method no longer ignores silently arbitrary exceptions.
IMAP4.
lsub
( directory='""', pattern='*' )-
List subscribed mailbox names in directory matching pattern. directory defaults to the top level directory and pattern defaults to match any mailbox. Returned data are tuples of message part envelope and data.
IMAP4.
namespace
( )-
Returns IMAP namespaces as defined in RFC 2342 .
IMAP4.
open
( host, port )-
Opens socket to port at host. This method is implicitly called by the
IMAP4
constructor. The connection objects established by this method will be used in theIMAP4.read()
,IMAP4.readline()
,IMAP4.send()
, andIMAP4.shutdown()
methods. You may override this method.Raises an auditing event
imaplib.open
with argumentsself
,host
,port
.
IMAP4.
partial
( message_num, message_part, start, length )-
Fetch truncated part of a message. Returned data is a tuple of message part envelope and data.
IMAP4.
proxyauth
( user )-
Assume authentication as user. Allows an authorised administrator to proxy into any user’s mailbox.
IMAP4.
recent
( )-
Prompt server for an update. Returned data is
None
if no new messages, else value ofRECENT
response.
IMAP4.
response
( code )-
Return data for response code if received, or
None
. Returns the given code, instead of the usual type.
IMAP4.
search
( charset, criterion [, ... ] )-
Search mailbox for matching messages. charset may be
None
, in which case noCHARSET
will be specified in the request to the server. The IMAP protocol requires that at least one criterion be specified; an exception will be raised when the server returns an error. charset must beNone
if theUTF8=ACCEPT
capability was enabled using theenable()
command.Example:
# M is a connected IMAP4 instance... typ, msgnums = M.search(None, 'FROM', '"LDJ"') # or: typ, msgnums = M.search(None, '(FROM "LDJ")')
IMAP4.
select
( mailbox='INBOX', readonly=False )-
Select a mailbox. Returned data is the count of messages in mailbox (
EXISTS
response). The default mailbox is'INBOX'
. If the readonly flag is set, modifications to the mailbox are not allowed.
IMAP4.
send
( data )-
Sends
data
to the remote server. You may override this method.Raises an auditing event
imaplib.send
with argumentsself
,data
.
IMAP4.
setacl
( mailbox, who, what )-
Set an
ACL
for mailbox. The method is non-standard, but is supported by theCyrus
server.
IMAP4.
setannotation
( mailbox, entry, attribute [, ... ] )-
Set
ANNOTATION
s for mailbox. The method is non-standard, but is supported by theCyrus
server.
IMAP4.
setquota
( root, limits )-
Set the
quota
root’s resource limits. This method is part of the IMAP4 QUOTA extension defined in rfc2087.
IMAP4.
shutdown
( )-
Close connection established in
open
. This method is implicitly called byIMAP4.logout()
. You may override this method.
IMAP4.
sort
( sort_criteria, charset, search_criterion [, ... ] )-
The
sort
command is a variant ofsearch
with sorting semantics for the results. Returned data contains a space separated list of matching message numbers.Sort has two arguments before the search_criterion argument(s); a parenthesized list of sort_criteria, and the searching charset. Note that unlike
search
, the searching charset argument is mandatory. There is also auid sort
command which corresponds tosort
the way thatuid search
corresponds tosearch
. Thesort
command first searches the mailbox for messages that match the given searching criteria using the charset argument for the interpretation of strings in the searching criteria. It then returns the numbers of matching messages.This is an
IMAP4rev1
extension command.
IMAP4.
starttls
( ssl_context=None )-
Send a
STARTTLS
command. The ssl_context argument is optional and should be assl.SSLContext
object. This will enable encryption on the IMAP connection. Please read Security considerations for best practices.New in version 3.2.
Changed in version 3.4: The method now supports hostname check with
ssl.SSLContext.check_hostname
and Server Name Indication (seessl.HAS_SNI
).
IMAP4.
store
( message_set, command, flag_list )-
Alters flag dispositions for messages in mailbox. command is specified by section 6.4.6 of RFC 2060 as being one of “FLAGS”, “+FLAGS”, or “-FLAGS”, optionally with a suffix of “.SILENT”.
For example, to set the delete flag on all messages:
typ, data = M.search(None, 'ALL') for num in data[0].split(): M.store(num, '+FLAGS', '\\Deleted') M.expunge()
Note
Creating flags containing ‘]’ (for example: “[test]”) violates RFC 3501 (the IMAP protocol). However, imaplib has historically allowed creation of such tags, and popular IMAP servers, such as Gmail, accept and produce such flags. There are non-Python programs which also create such tags. Although it is an RFC violation and IMAP clients and servers are supposed to be strict, imaplib nonetheless continues to allow such tags to be created for backward compatibility reasons, and as of Python 3.6, handles them if they are sent from the server, since this improves real-world compatibility.
IMAP4.
thread
( threading_algorithm, charset, search_criterion [, ... ] )-
The
thread
command is a variant ofsearch
with threading semantics for the results. Returned data contains a space separated list of thread members.Thread members consist of zero or more messages numbers, delimited by spaces, indicating successive parent and child.
Thread has two arguments before the search_criterion argument(s); a threading_algorithm, and the searching charset. Note that unlike
search
, the searching charset argument is mandatory. There is also auid thread
command which corresponds tothread
the way thatuid search
corresponds tosearch
. Thethread
command first searches the mailbox for messages that match the given searching criteria using the charset argument for the interpretation of strings in the searching criteria. It then returns the matching messages threaded according to the specified threading algorithm.This is an
IMAP4rev1
extension command.
IMAP4.
uid
( command, arg [, ... ] )-
Execute command args with messages identified by UID, rather than message number. Returns response appropriate to command. At least one argument must be supplied; if none are provided, the server will return an error and an exception will be raised.
IMAP4.
xatom
( name [, ... ] )-
Allow simple extension commands notified by server in
CAPABILITY
response.
The following attributes are defined on instances of IMAP4
:
IMAP4.
PROTOCOL_VERSION
-
The most recent supported protocol in the
CAPABILITY
response from the server.
IMAP4.
debug
-
Integer value to control debugging output. The initialize value is taken from the module variable
Debug
. Values greater than three trace each command.
IMAP4.
utf8_enabled
-
Boolean value that is normally
False
, but is set toTrue
if anenable()
command is successfully issued for theUTF8=ACCEPT
capability.New in version 3.5.
IMAP4 Example
Here is a minimal example (without error checking) that opens a mailbox and retrieves and prints all messages:
import getpass, imaplib
M = imaplib.IMAP4()
M.login(getpass.getuser(), getpass.getpass())
M.select()
typ, data = M.search(None, 'ALL')
for num in data[0].split():
typ, data = M.fetch(num, '(RFC822)')
print('Message %s\n%s\n' % (num, data[0][1]))
M.close()
M.logout()