Net::IMAP

Net::IMAP implements Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) client functionality. The protocol is described in RFC3501, RFC9051 and various extensions.

Installation

Add this line to your application’s Gemfile:

gem 'net-imap'

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install net-imap

Usage

Connect with TLS to port 993

hostname = "mail.example.com"
username = "user@example.com"
password = "correct-horse-battery-staple"

imap = Net::IMAP.new(hostname, ssl: true)
imap.authenticate(:plain, username, password)

To authenticate with an OAuth2 access token:

if imap.auth_capable?(:OAUTHBEARER)
  imap.authenticate(:OAUTHBEARER, username, oauth2_token)
elsif imap.auth_capable?(:XOAUTH2)
  imap.authenticate(:XOAUTH2, username, oauth2_token)
else
  raise "OAuth2 not supported?"
end

List sender and subject of recent messages

imap.examine('INBOX')
search_result = imap.uid_search(["SINCE", Date.today - 7])
imap.uid_fetch(search_result, "ENVELOPE").each do |fetch_data|
  envelope = fetch_data.envelope
  puts "#{envelope.from.first.name}: \t#{envelope.subject}"
end

Move messages between two dates to another mailbox

source      = "Mail/sent-mail"
destination = "Mail/sent-apr03"

# The "BEFORE" and "AFTER" search criteria are not inclusive.
since  = Date.parse("2003-04-01").prev_day
before = Date.parse("2003-05-01")

if imap.list("", destination).empty?
  imap.create(destination)
end
imap.select(source)
search_result = imap.uid_search(["SINCE", since, "BEFORE", before])
if imap.capable?(:MOVE) || imap.capable?(:IMAP4rev2)
  imap.uid_move(search_result, destination)
else
  # Atomic MOVE is not supported.  Copy, delete, and expunge.
  imap.uid_copy(search_result, destination)
  imap.uid_store(search_result, "+FLAGS", [:Deleted])
  if imap.capable?(:UIDPLUS) || imap.capable?(:IMAP4rev2)
    imap.uid_expunge(search_result)
  else
    # NOTE: This may expunge _other_ deleted messages, too.
    imap.expunge
  end
end

Development

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run bin/test to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at github.com/ruby/net-imap.