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The pop3 protocol is an email protocol to download messages from the email-server. These messages can be stored in the local machine.
Key Points
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POP is an application layer internet standard protocol.
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Since POP supports offline access to the messages, thus requires less internet usage time.
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POP does not allow search facility.
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In order to access the messaged, it is necessary to download them.
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It allows only one mailbox to be created on server.
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It is not suitable for accessing non mail data.
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POP commands are generally abbreviated into codes of three or four letters. Eg. STAT.
POP Commands
The following table describes some of the POP commands:
| S.N. | Command Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | LOGIN This command opens the connection. |
| 2 | STAT It is used to display number of messages currently in the mailbox. |
| 3 | LIST It is used to get the summary of messages where each message summary is shown. |
| 4 | RETR This command helps to select a mailbox to access the messages. |
| 5 | DELE It is used to delete a message. |
| 6 | RSET It is used to reset the session to its initial state. |
| 7 | QUIT It is used to log off the session. |
Pyhton’s poplib module provides classes named pop() and pop3_SSL() which are used to achieve this requirement. We supply the hostname and port number as argument. In the below example we connect to a gmail server and retrieve the messages after supplying the login credentials.
import poplib
user = ''username''
# Connect to the mail box
Mailbox = poplib.POP3_SSL(''pop.googlemail.com'', ''995'')
Mailbox.user(user)
Mailbox.pass_(''password'')
NumofMessages = len(Mailbox.list()[1])
for i in range(NumofMessages):
for msg in Mailbox.retr(i+1)[1]:
print msg
Mailbox.quit()
The messages are retrieved when the above program is run.
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