Check IMAP mails

Story

At work we use an outlook external service. I'm working on debian and I tried Thunderbird and Evolution with no success. So, I decided to use a custom made script to notify me when my inboxes are holding new messages. I then check them out on a webmail interface.

How does this work?

It's executing an IMAP telnet with credentials and sends a few STATUS (unseen) commands, the result is a number of unseen mails. Coupled with a bash that calls notify-send it does the trick. To make it work, all you need is some cron:

*/1 * * * * /bin/bash /path/to/mailcheck/notifymail.bash example@example.com:S3Cr#t@webmail.example.com

Command argument is of the format:

user:pass@server:port

• port is optional and defaulted to 143
• user can be an email address

This may not fit your needs

I've done this in a hurry, there is a regexp test rule on the inbox name (checkmail:62):

  regexp {(INBOX\/(?!Informatique).*)} $rec -> inbox

You may want to see the output (set log_user = 1) to get your inboxes and set your own rules.

The bash script is calling notify-send, make sure binaries exists in your $PATH. There is a gnome specific setting to define DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS, you may need to change it notifymail.bash:3

Licence

WTFPL