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imap-watch 1.0

19 August 2011

by Phil Christensen

A command-line app to watch IMAP folders. Watch multiple folders across several servers, and optionally issue Growl notifications when new messages are found.


Clone the repo:

git clone git://

Install setuptools git support:

easy_install setuptools_git

If you have a Mac, and want to use Growl notifications, install Growl-py:

easy_install growl_py

Install the package:

python install


To create a sample config file, run imap-watch once at the command line. This will generate an INI-based config file in ~/.imap-watch

host =
port = 143
secure = False
username = joe
password = secret
mailbox = INBOX
growl = False
markseen = False

Create as many sections as you want. All options are required; here's one I use to monitor a folder of Jira notification messages:

host =
port = 993
secure = True
username = phil
password = *********
mailbox = Jira
growl = True
markseen = True

By setting 'markseen' to True, messages will automatically be marked as seen when a notification is displayed.

Once you're properly configured, add the following to your crontab:

*/5 * * * * /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/imap-watch

This will scan the IMAP folder every 5 minutes.


a tool to monitor imap folders from the command-line



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