reading mails using python

Question

how do i read mails from my mail box using python??

import getpass, imaplib
M = imaplib.IMAP4('IMAP4.gmail.com:993')
M.login(getpass.getuser(), getpass.getpass())
M.select()
typ, data = M.search(None, 'ALL')
for num in data[0].split():
    typ, data = M.fetch(num, '(RFC822)')
    print 'Message %s\n%s\n' % (num, data[0][1])
M.close()
M.logout()

this is my code.. but when i execute this its throwing error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "E:/jagdish/python progs/readmail.py", line 2, in <module>
    M = imaplib.IMAP4('IMAP4.gmail.com:993')
  File "C:\Python25\lib\imaplib.py", line 163, in __init__
    self.open(host, port)
  File "C:\Python25\lib\imaplib.py", line 230, in open
    self.sock.connect((host, port))
  File "<string>", line 1, in connect
gaierror: (11001, 'getaddrinfo failed')

can anyone help me with this???

Answer 1

The error means that the host is unreachable or does not exist, which you could find out by googling for 'gaierror' (it stands for get address info error).

Try "imap.gmail.com:993" instead, as described here.

Answer 2

Three issues:

1. The hostname is imap.gmail.com, not imap4.gmail.com
2. The IMAP4 constructor takes two parameters: the host and port (not colon-separated)
3. Gmail expects you to be talking SSL

So:

import imaplib
M = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL("imap.gmail.com", 993)