imaplib: is this really so unwieldy?

[boB Stepp]

On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 6:22 PM Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au> wrote:
>
> On 27May2021 18:42, hw <hw at adminart.net> wrote:

> >So it seems that IMAP support through python is virtually non-existent.
>
> This still sureprises me, but I've not tried to use IMAP seriously. I
> read email locally, and collect it with POP instead. With a tool I wrote
> myself in Python, as it happens.

I am out of my league here, but what I found in one of my books might
be helpful.  Al Sweigart wrote a useful book, "Automate the Boring
Stuff in Python".  In chapter 16 he considers email.  In the "IMAP"
section he states:

<quote>
Just as SMTP is the protocol for sending email, the Internet Message
Access Protocol (IMAP) specifies how to communicate with an email
provider’s server to retrieve emails sent to your email address.
Python comes with an imaplib module, but in fact the third-party
imapclient module is easier to use. This chapter provides an
introduction to using IMAPClient; the full documentation is at
http://imapclient.readthedocs.org/.

The imapclient module downloads emails from an IMAP server in a rather
complicated format. Most likely, you’ll want to convert them from this
format into simple string values. The pyzmail module does the hard job
of parsing these email messages for you. You can find the complete
documentation for PyzMail at http://www.magiksys.net/pyzmail/.

Install imapclient and pyzmail from a Terminal window. Appendix A has
steps on how to install third-party modules.
</quote>

In the next little section he shows how to retrieve and delete emails
with IMAP using the two third-party tools mentioned above.  And of
course there is more.  Apparently this book is now in its second
edition.  The first edition is available online for free.  The link to
chapter 16 which discusses email is:
https://automatetheboringstuff.com/chapter16/  Hopefully this will
prove helpful to the OP.

HTH!
boB Stepp