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pop3 - Tcl client for POP3 email protocol
package require Tcl 8.2
package require pop3 ?1.5?
::pop3::open ?-msex 0|1? ?-retr-mode retr|list|slow? host user Ipassword ?port?
::pop3::status chan
::pop3::last chan
::pop3::retrieve chan startIndex ?endIndex?
::pop3::delete chan startIndex ?endIndex?
::pop3::list chan ?msg?
::pop3::top chan msg n
::pop3::uidl chan ?msg?
::pop3::close chan
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The pop3 package provides a simple Tcl-only client library for the POP3 email protocol (RFC1939). It works by opening the standard POP3 socket on the server, transmitting the username and password, then providing a Tcl API to access the POP3 protocol commands. All server errors are returned as Tcl errors (thrown) which must be caught with the Tcl catch command.
::pop3::open ?-msex 0|1? ?-retr-mode retr|list|slow? host
user- name password ?port?
Open a socket connection to the server specified by
host, transmit the username and password as login
information to the server. The default port number
is 110, which can be overridden using the optional
port argument. The return value is a channel used
by all of the other ::pop3 functions.
The command recognizes the options -msex and -retr_mode. The first of them can be used to notify the package of the fact that the server to talk to is an MS Exchange server (which has some oddities we have to work around). The default is 0.
The retrieval mode determines how exactly messages are read from the server. The allowed values are retr, list and slow. The default is retr. See ::pop3::retrieve for more information.
::pop3::status chan
Query the server for the status of the mail spool.
The status is returned as a list containing two
elements, the first is the number of email messages
on the server and the second is the size (in
octets, 8 byte blocks) of the entire mail spool.
::pop3::last chan
Query the server for the last email message read
from the spool. This value includes all messages
read from all clients connecting to the login
account. This command may not be supported by the
email server, in which case the server may return 0
or an error.
::pop3::retrieve chan startIndex ?endIndex? Retrieve a range of messages from the server. If the endIndex is not specified, only one message will be retrieved. The return value is a list containing each message as a separate element. See the startIndex and endIndex descriptions below.
The retrieval mode determines how exactly messages are read from the server. The mode retr assumes that the RETR command delivers the size of the message as part of the command status and uses this to read the message efficiently. In mode list RETR does not deliver the size, but the LIST command does and we use this to retrieve the message size before the actual retrieval, which can then be done efficiently. In the last mode, slow, the system is unable to obtain the size of the message to retrieve in any manner and falls back to reading the message from the server line by line.
It should also be noted that the system checks upon the configured mode and falls back to the slower modes if the above assumptions are not true.
::pop3::delete chan startIndex ?endIndex? Delete a range of messages from the server. If the endIndex is not specified, only one message will be deleted. Note, the indices are not reordered on the server, so if you delete message 1, then the first message in the queue is message 2 (message index 1 is no longer valid). See the startIndex and endIndex descriptions below.
startIndex
The startIndex may be an index of a specific message
starting with the index 1, or it have any of
the following values:
start This is a logical value for the first message in the spool, equivalent to the value 1.
next The message immediately following the last message read, see ::pop3::last.
endIndex
The endIndex is an optional parameter and defaults
to the value -1, which indicates to only retrieve
the one message specified by startIndex. If specified,
it may be an index of a specific message
starting with the index 1, or it have any of the
following values:
last The message is the last message read by a POP3 client, see ::pop3::last.
::pop3::list chan ?msg?
Returns the scan listing of the mailbox. If parameter
msg is given, then the listing only for that
message is returned.
::pop3::top chan msg n
Optional POP3 command, not all servers may support
this. ::pop3::top retrieves headers of a message,
specified by parameter msg, and number of n lines
from the message body.
::pop3::uidl chan ?msg?
Optional POP3 command, not all servers may support
this. ::pop3::uidl returns the uid listing of the
mailbox. If the parameter msg is specified, then
the listing only for that message is returned.
::pop3::close chan
Gracefully close the connect after sending a POP3
QUIT command down the socket.
mail, email, pop, pop3, RFC1939