NAME¶
pop3browser -- small perl script to access POP3 mail accounts
DESCRIPTION¶
pop3browser is a perl script that uses libnet-perl to give access to POP3
mail accounts without fetching the messages.
pop3browser can be used to delete unwanted mails (SPAM), especially when they
come with large attachments, before downloading them over low-bandwidth
connections. The --limit option of
fetchmail is very useful to filter
such large mails which can then be inspected with pop3browser.
The program supports normal POP3 authentication and APOP.
USAGE¶
pop3browser welcomes you with a short copyright note and a command line prompt.
The settings for a mailbox (host, password etc.) have to be specified in a
configuration file (similar to fetchmail). pop3browser understands the
following commands:
- hosts
- list available hosts specified in .pop3browserrc
- login n
- log into host no. n, use 'hosts' to get a list of available
hosts
- o(pen) n
- same as login
- apop n
- same as login but uses APOP
- c(lose)
- delete messages marked for deletion and close current
connection
- list
- list sizes and message numbers of the mails on the
account
- s(how) n
- show header and some body lines of mail number n
- m(ailbox)
-
list message number, size, sender and subject for each mail
- d(elete) n
- delete mail number n
- undel(ete) n
- undelete mail number n
- k(ill) expr
- delete mails matching expr in header
- u(nkill) expr
- undelete mails matching expr in header
- q(uit)
- delete messages marked for deletion and quit program
- exit
- same as quit
- help
- print a command summary
CONFIG FILE¶
The definitions for a mailbox are specified in
~/.pop3browserrc. One line
per mailbox. Lines starting with # are ignored. Each definition must be in the
following form:.br hostname <tab or space> userid <tab or space>
password <tab or space> protocol (optional)
For example:
#definition for bar@pop.foo.com
#pop-server UID passwd protocol
pop.foo.com bar s3cr3t apop
#end of definition
Recognised options for the
protocol are
pop3 and
apop. If
no protocol is specified the command
login/open assumes
pop3.
The command
apop ignores the protocol option.
To override the default header-filter of the
show command you can specify
a custom set of keywords in
~/.pop3browserrc. Lines starting with
"@headpattern" or "@bodylines" are parsed by pop3browser.
Settings for the header-filter must be in the following form:
@headpattern <tab or space> = <tab or space>
"<keyword1>","<keyword2>",....
The filter keywords are matched against the start of a header line.
Settings for the number of body lines to show, have to be in the following form:
@bodylines <tab or space> = <tab or space> <Number>
Example:
@headpatterns =
"From:","To:","Subject:","Date:","CC"
@bodylines = 10
The file
~/.pop3browserrc must only be readable for the owning user.
pop3browser corrects other file modes automatically.
SEE ALSO¶
fetchmail(1)
AUTHOR¶
Christoph Baumann <cgb@debian.org>
THANKS¶
Jorrit 'J"o' Fahlke, for his overhaul of the config file parser
Takeshi Hamasaki, for the headpattern patch