I adapted script from http://tech.franzone.blog/2012/11/24/listing-imap-mailboxes-with-python/ to identify each and every mailbox on my IMAP4 email sever. The following script is designed to backup email messages on the server.
The script below works fine EXCEPT if the mailbox targeted contains the ampersand character (Eg "Here & there"). Any time I run the script on a mailbox containing an ampersand, I get an "ERROR: Unable to open mailbox" message in the log. Note that the mailbox is already surrounded by quotes. Anyway, I tried & in place of & without success. Ideas?
import sys
import imaplib
IMAP_SERVER = '<email server name>'
EMAIL_ACCOUNT = str(sys.argv[1])
EMAIL_FOLDER = "Inbox.Here & there"
OUTPUT_DIRECTORY = '<local directory>' + EMAIL_ACCOUNT + '/' + EMAIL_FOLDER
PASSWORD = str(sys.argv[2])
localtime = time.asctime( time.localtime(time.time()) )
def process_mailbox(M):
"""
Dump all emails in the folder to files in output directory.
"""
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG,
filename="DailyFullEmailBackup.log", filemode="a+", format="%(asctime)-15s, %(levelname)-8s %(message)s")
rv, data = M.search(None, "ALL")
if rv != 'OK':
logging.debug ("No messages found!")
return
for num in data[0].split():
rv, data = M.fetch(num, '(BODY.PEEK[])')
if rv != 'OK':
logging.debug ("ERROR getting message %s", num)
return
logging.debug ("Writing message %s", num)
f = open('%s/%s.eml' %(OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, num), 'wb')
f.write(data[0][1])
f.close()
def main():
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG, filename="debug.log",
filemode="a+", format="%(asctime)-15s, %(levelname)-8s %(message)s")
logging.debug ("Begin.")
M = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(IMAP_SERVER)
M.login(EMAIL_ACCOUNT, PASSWORD)
rv, data = M.select(EMAIL_FOLDER)
if rv == 'OK':
logging.debug ( "Processing mailbox: %s", EMAIL_ACCOUNT)
logging.debug ( "Processing folder: %s", EMAIL_FOLDER)
process_mailbox(M)
M.close()
else:
logging.debug ("ERROR: Unable to open mailbox %s", EMAIL_FOLDER)
M.logout()
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
localtime = time.asctime( time.localtime(time.time()) )
print "Finish time: ", localtime
