How to fetch an email body using imaplib in python?

Question

I\'d like to fetch the whole message from IMAP4 server. In python docs if found this bit of code that works:

>>> t, data = M.fetch(\'1\', \'(RFC822)         


        

Answer 1

No... imaplib is a pretty good library, it's imap that's so unintelligible.

You may wish to check that t == 'OK', but data[0][1] works as expected for as much as I've used it.

Here's a quick example I use to extract signed certificates I've received by email, not bomb-proof, but suits my purposes:

import getpass, os, imaplib, email
from OpenSSL.crypto import load_certificate, FILETYPE_PEM

def getMsgs(servername="myimapserverfqdn"):
  usernm = getpass.getuser()
  passwd = getpass.getpass()
  subject = 'Your SSL Certificate'
  conn = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(servername)
  conn.login(usernm,passwd)
  conn.select('Inbox')
  typ, data = conn.search(None,'(UNSEEN SUBJECT "%s")' % subject)
  for num in data[0].split():
    typ, data = conn.fetch(num,'(RFC822)')
    msg = email.message_from_string(data[0][1])
    typ, data = conn.store(num,'-FLAGS','\\Seen')
    yield msg

def getAttachment(msg,check):
  for part in msg.walk():
    if part.get_content_type() == 'application/octet-stream':
      if check(part.get_filename()):
        return part.get_payload(decode=1)

if __name__ == '__main__':
  for msg in getMsgs():
    payload = getAttachment(msg,lambda x: x.endswith('.pem'))
    if not payload:
      continue
    try:
      cert = load_certificate(FILETYPE_PEM,payload)
    except:
      cert = None
    if cert:
      cn = cert.get_subject().commonName
      filename = "%s.pem" % cn
      if not os.path.exists(filename):
        open(filename,'w').write(payload)
        print "Writing to %s" % filename
      else:
        print "%s already exists" % filename