`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 3501. It is backward compatible with IMAP4 (RFC 1730) servers, but note that the STATUS command is not supported in IMAP4.

Availability: not WASI.

This module does not work or is not available on WebAssembly. See WebAssembly platforms for more information.

Three classes are provided by the imaplib module, IMAP4 is the base class:

class imaplib.IMAP4(host='', port=IMAP4_PORT, timeout=None)¶

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 optional timeout parameter specifies a timeout in seconds for the connection attempt. If timeout is not given or is None, the global default socket timeout is used.

The IMAP4 class supports the with statement. When used like this, the IMAP4 LOGOUT command is issued automatically when the with 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.

Changed in version 3.9: The optional timeout parameter 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, *, ssl_context=None, timeout=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 a ssl.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.

Note

With the default ssl_context, the connection is encrypted but the server certificate and hostname are not verified. To verify them, pass a context created by ssl.create_default_context().

The optional timeout parameter specifies a timeout in seconds for the connection attempt. If timeout is not given or is None, the global default socket timeout is used.

Changed in version 3.3: ssl_context parameter was added.

Changed in version 3.4: The class now supports hostname check with ssl.SSLContext.check_hostname and Server Name Indication (see ssl.HAS_SNI).

Changed in version 3.9: The optional timeout parameter was added.

Changed in version 3.12: The deprecated keyfile and certfile parameters have been removed.

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 the stdin/stdout file descriptors created by passing command to subprocess.Popen().

The following utility functions are defined:

imaplib.Internaldate2tuple(resp)¶: Parse a bytes-like object containing an IMAP4 INTERNALDATE response and return the corresponding local time. The return value is a time.struct_time tuple or None if the input has wrong format.

imaplib.Int2AP(num)¶: Converts an integer into a bytes representation using characters from the set [A .. P].

imaplib.ParseFlags(resp)¶: Converts a bytes-like object containing an IMAP4 FLAGS response to a tuple of individual flags as bytes. The return value is an empty tuple if the input has wrong format.

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 by time.time()), a 9-tuple representing local time an instance of time.struct_time (as returned by time.localtime()), an aware instance of datetime.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.

IMAP4 Objects¶

All IMAP4rev1 commands are represented by methods of the same name, either uppercase or lowercase.

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)'). In general, pass arguments unquoted and let the module quote them as needed. An argument that is already enclosed in double quotes is left unchanged, so that code which quotes arguments itself keeps working.

Most commands return 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 bytes, 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.append(mailbox, flags, date_time, message)¶

Append message to named mailbox.

flags may be None or a string of IMAP flag tokens. Multiple flags are separated by spaces, for example r'\Seen \Answered'. If flags is not already enclosed in parentheses, parentheses are added automatically.

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 form AUTH=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 return bytes data that will be base64 encoded and sent to the server. It should return None 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.check()¶: Checkpoint mailbox on server.

IMAP4.close()¶: Close currently selected mailbox. Deleted messages are removed from writable mailbox. This is the recommended command before LOGOUT.

IMAP4.copy(message_set, new_mailbox)¶: Copy message_set messages onto end of new_mailbox.

IMAP4.create(mailbox)¶: Create new mailbox named mailbox.

IMAP4.delete(mailbox)¶: Delete old mailbox named mailbox.

IMAP4.deleteacl(

imaplib — IMAP4 protocol client¶

IMAP4 Objects¶

`imaplib` — IMAP4 protocol client¶