Shortest gmail poplib python 2.7

08.02.2022

Gmail works best in SSL mode. Find out the number of emails in your gmail inbox.

Credentials are input from the keyboard, even with an extra example of hiding the password as opposed to placing the credentials in the program (which would be good for crontab scripts)

#!/usr/bin/python
import poplib,getpass

poPserver = poplib.POP3_SSL("pop.gmail.com", 995)
poPuser = raw_input('Username:')
print poPserver.user(poPuser)
print poPserver.pass_(getpass.getpass())
messageCount = len(poPserver.list()[1])
print messageCount, "messages"

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shortest poplib example python 2.7

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Get it at GitHub: https://github.com/weblanta/pytbl-spe

#!/usr/bin/python

from poplib import *

poPserver = POP3('aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd') # ip works better than url
print poPserver.getwelcome() # todo: convert print to debug
print poPserver.user('email@address.com') # todo: chng print to dbg
print poPserver.pass_('EmailPassword') # todo: s/print/debug.validate(
messagesInfo = poPserver.list()[1]
numMessages = len(messagesInfo)

for i in range(numMessages):
  messageIs = poPserver.retr(i+1)[1]
  print "==========================",
  print " message number",i,
  print "=========================="
  for j in messageIs:
    print j
    continue

A longer example puts the login credentials up front and easier to get to here;

#!/usr/bin/python

from poplib import *

popIp='aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd'
popAddr='email@address.com'
popPass='EmailPassword'

popSrvr = POP3(popIp) # ip works better than url
print popSrvr.getwelcome() # todo: convert print to debug
print popSrvr.user(popAddr) # todo: chng print to dbg
print popSrvr.pass_(popPass) # todo: s/print/debug.validate(
messagesInfo = popSrvr.list()[1]
numMessages = len(messagesInfo)

for i in range(numMessages):
  messageIs = popSrvr.retr(i+1)[1]
  print "==========================",
  print " message number",i,
  print "=========================="
  for j in messageIs:
    print j
    continue

and now in this example we split it into a class;

#!/usr/bin/python

from poplib import *

popIp='aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd'
popAddr='email@address.com'
popPass='EmailPassword'

class poppins:

  def __init__(self):
    self.popSrvr = POP3(popIp) # ip works better than url
    print self.popSrvr.getwelcome() # todo: convert print to debug
    print self.popSrvr.user(popAddr) # todo: chng print to dbg
    print self.popSrvr.pass_(popPass) # todo: s/print/debug.validate(
    messagesInfo = self.popSrvr.list()[1]
    self.numMessages = len(messagesInfo)

popJones=poppins()
for i in range(popJones.numMessages):
  messageIs = popJones.popSrvr.retr(i+1)[1]
  print "==========================",
  print " message number",i,
  print "=========================="
  for j in messageIs:
    print j
    continue

finally, we move the credentials and the boiler-plate into a library

# class in the poppins thingamajig
from poplib import *

class poppinsMary:
    def __init__(self):
        popIp='aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd'
        popAddr='email@address.com'
        popPass='EmailPassword'

class poppins:

  def __init__(self):
    x=poppinsMary()
    self.popSrvr = POP3(x.popIp) # ip works better than url
    print self.popSrvr.getwelcome() # todo: convert print to debug
    print self.popSrvr.user(x.popAddr) # todo: chng print to dbg
    print self.popSrvr.pass_(x.popPass) # todo: s/print/debug.validate(
    messagesInfo = self.popSrvr.list()[1]
    self.numMessages = len(messagesInfo)

Which allows us a really short email reading python program here

#!/usr/bin/python

import popCredentials

popJones=popCredentials.poppins()
for i in range(popJones.numMessages):
  messageIs = popJones.popSrvr.retr(i+1)[1]
  print "==========================",
  print " message number",i,
  print "=========================="
  for j in messageIs:
    print j
    continue

Shortest