readmail

Description

BASH eMail client. Only POP and SMTP are supported.

Probably the worlds smallest, simplest, yet full featured eMail client without any dependencies beyond a working GNU environment running BASH.

Use it as a fallback, as a quick & slim alternative or as a tool to read, send and manage messages.

Download

Latest version: readmail

The development version is available on GitHub.
You may easily clone the project by running:

$ git clone git://github.com/markusfisch/readmail

Requirements

A working GNU environment running BASH.

Features

The following commands are available:

$ readmail h q
  p(eek)               peek for new messages
  s(tatus)             request mailbox status
  n(ew)                list new messages only
  t(ail) [N]           list the latest N messages
  l(ist) [N[-N]]...    list messages
  r(ead) [N[-N]]...    read message
  x(tract) N           extract attachments of message N
  f(ile) N[-N]...      file message
  d(elete) N[-N]...    remove message
  a(nswer) N           answer message
  w(rite) ADDRESS      write a message to ADDRESS
  m(ime) FILE          show a message file in MIME format (e.g. *.mbs)
  c(lear)              clear screen (or CTRL+L)
  h(elp)               show this info
  q(uit)               quit (or CTRL+D)

You may invoke the commands directly from the command line, e.g.:

$ readmail s 'f 1' 'r 3-5' q

Or inside the interactive shell.

Examples

Quickly get the size of your mailbox:

$ readmail s q

Show your latest message:

$ readmail r q

Get the number of new messages since the last call:

$ FORMAT="%d\n" readmail p q

Send a message in one line:

$ ATTACHMENTS=' ' SUBJECT='subject' BODY='body' \
	readmail 'w john@example.com doe@example.com' q

Send one or more files:

$ ATTACHMENTS='file1 file2' SUBJECT='subject' BODY='body' \
	readmail 'w john@example.com' q

Installation

1. Download the file above

2. Make it executable:

   $ chmod a+x readmail

3. Place the script somewhere in your path, i.e. for a local install do:

   $ mv readmail ~/bin/readmail

4. Set up your configuration, see below

Configuration

Just run readmail or:

1. Create ".readmailrc" in your home directory:

   $ vi ~/.readmailrc

2. Put the following lines into it (fill in the values in brackets):

   POP_HOST='(your POP3 server)'
   POP_ACCOUNT='(your POP3 account)'
   POP_PASSWORD='(your POP3 password, this is optional)'

   If you don't want to give passwords, readmail will ask you for it.

3. Append this block to configure your SMTP settings:

   SMTP_HOST='(your SMTP server)'
   SMTP_ACCOUNT='(your SMTP account)'
   SMTP_PASSWORD='(your SMTP password, this is optional)'

4. TIP: If you use "@" for the name of the script, you have always quick access and can query your eMails by:

   $ @ n q

   In this case your configuration file must read ".@rc", of course.

License

readmail is Public Domain.