Question

I need to automate a process whereby attachments are automatically downloaded from messages in a POP3 mailbox, and once complete, the messages get deleted. The attachments need to get output to some sort of folder which my PHP script can look at. I’m trying to avoid using PHP for download attachments, so I’m looking into using a linux program.

I’ve seen a program ‘mpop’ that could maybe do at least part of the job, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

Answer 1

How about Ruby and the mail gem?

require 'mail'

save_dir = '/tmp/attachments/'

Mail.defaults do
  retriever_method :pop3, :address    => "pop.gmail.com",
                          :port       => 995,
                          :user_name  => '<username>',
                          :password   => '<password>',
                          :enable_ssl => true
end

Mail.all.each do |m|
  m.attachments.each do |a|
    begin
      File.open(save_dir + a.filename, "w+b", 0644) {|f| f.write a.body.decoded}
    rescue Exception => e
      puts "Unable to save data for #{a.filename} because #{e.message}"
    end
  end
end