How to Get Started with POPMan (Step‑by‑Step)POPMan is a tool designed to simplify the process of interacting with POP3 servers, managing email retrieval workflows, and automating mailbox tasks. Whether you’re a developer building an email client, a sysadmin automating alerts, or an enthusiast experimenting with email protocols, this step‑by‑step guide will take you from installation to practical usage and troubleshooting.
Who this guide is for
This article is for readers with basic familiarity with email concepts (SMTP, POP3/IMAP) and comfortable using the command line. You’ll learn how to install and configure POPMan, retrieve messages, filter and process mail, and integrate POPMan into automation or applications.
Overview: what you’ll accomplish
- Install POPMan on your platform (Linux, macOS, Windows)
- Configure account settings and connection options
- Retrieve and inspect messages
- Filter, archive, and delete mail programmatically
- Automate tasks and integrate POPMan into scripts
- Troubleshoot common issues and secure your setup
1. Installation
System requirements
- A modern desktop or server OS (Linux, macOS, Windows)
- Network access to the POP3 server
- Optional: Python 3.x (for scripting/integration), package manager (apt, brew, choco)
Installing on Linux (apt)
If POPMan provides a packaged binary or a Python package, installation often looks like:
sudo apt update sudo apt install popman If distributing as a Python package:
pip install popman Installing on macOS (Homebrew)
brew update brew install popman Or via pip:
pip3 install popman Installing on Windows (Chocolatey or pip)
Using Chocolatey:
choco install popman Or with pip (PowerShell):
pip install popman If POPMan is a standalone binary, download the appropriate release from the project site and place it on your PATH. Make the binary executable on Unix-like systems:
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/popman 2. Basic configuration
POPMan needs minimal configuration to connect to a POP3 server: server host, port, username, and password. You can supply these via a config file, environment variables, or command-line flags.
Example config file (YAML):
accounts: - name: personal host: pop.example.com port: 995 ssl: true username: [email protected] password: SECRET_PASSWORD delete_after_fetch: false mailbox_path: ~/popman/mailbox_personal Environment variables (example):
export POPMAN_HOST=pop.example.com export POPMAN_PORT=995 export [email protected] export POPMAN_PASS=SECRET_PASSWORD Command-line example:
popman fetch --host pop.example.com --port 995 --ssl --user [email protected] --password SECRET_PASSWORD Security note: prefer using app-specific passwords, keyring, or environment variables rather than plaintext config files when possible.
3. Connect and fetch messages
Once configured, you can connect to the server and fetch messages.
Basic fetch command:
popman fetch --account personal Typical output shows connection details and a list of retrieved messages with IDs and sizes. POPMan can store retrieved messages as individual files (e.g., mbox or Maildir) or output them to stdout for piping into other tools.
Save to Maildir:
popman fetch --account personal --format maildir --output ~/Maildir Fetch and print headers only:
popman fetch --account personal --headers-only 4. Inspecting and searching messages
After fetching, you’ll want to inspect emails, search by subject/sender, and preview content.
View a single message:
popman show --id 42 --format full Search messages by subject:
popman search --subject "invoice" --account personal Extract attachments:
popman extract-attachments --id 42 --output ~/Downloads 5. Filtering, archiving, and deletion
Common workflows include filtering spam, archiving important mail, and deleting after processing.
Example filter to move invoices to an archive folder:
popman filter --account personal --rule 'subject =~ /invoice/i' --action move --target ~/Archives/Invoices Delete messages after successful processing:
popman fetch --account personal --delete-after-fetch Safe deletion: use –dry-run to preview:
popman delete --account personal --id 42 --dry-run 6. Automating with scripts and cron
POPMan can be embedded in shell scripts, Python scripts, or run periodically via cron/Task Scheduler.
Example shell script (fetch-and-process.sh):
#!/usr/bin/env bash popman fetch --account personal --format maildir --output ~/Maildir/personal python3 ~/scripts/process_maildir.py ~/Maildir/personal popman delete --account personal --delete-processed Make executable and schedule in cron (run every 5 minutes):
chmod +x ~/fetch-and-process.sh crontab -e # add: */5 * * * * /home/you/fetch-and-process.sh >> /var/log/popman.log 2>&1 Windows Task Scheduler: create a basic task to run your script at desired intervals.
7. Integrating into applications
Use POPMan’s API or CLI in your application to fetch mail programmatically.
Example Python usage (if POPMan exposes a library):
from popman import Client client = Client(host='pop.example.com', port=995, ssl=True, user='user', password='SECRET') messages = client.fetch_all() for msg in messages: if 'invoice' in msg.subject.lower(): save_invoice(msg) client.mark_deleted(msg.id) client.commit() # apply deletions For CLI integration, use subprocess to call popman and parse output.
8. Security and best practices
- Use SSL/TLS (POP3S, port 995) whenever possible.
- Prefer app-specific passwords or OAuth if supported, not your primary account password.
- Limit delete-after-fetch unless you have reliable backups.
- Keep configuration files permissions restricted (chmod 600).
- Rotate credentials and monitor logs for suspicious activity.
9. Troubleshooting
Common problems and fixes:
- Connection refused: check firewall, correct host/port, and that POP3 is enabled on the server.
- Invalid credentials: verify username/password, try an app-specific password, or enable “less secure apps” only if necessary (prefer OAuth).
- SSL errors: ensure correct port (995) and that your system trusts the server certificate; use –no-verify only for testing.
- Partial messages or encoding issues: ensure POPMan is saving raw message bytes and use a modern mail parser for decoding.
Useful debug flag:
popman fetch --account personal --verbose --debug 10. Example end-to-end: fetch, filter, archive, and delete
- Create account config in ~/.popman.yml.
- Fetch to Maildir: popman fetch –account personal –format maildir –output ~/Maildir/personal
- Run a filter to move invoices: popman filter –account personal –rule ‘subject =~ /invoice/i’ –action move –target ~/Archives/Invoices
- After verification, delete processed messages: popman delete –account personal –processed
Further reading and resources
- POP3 protocol (RFC 1939) and POP3S (TLS) best practices
- Maildir vs mbox formats explained
- Email parsing libraries for your language (email, mailparser, MimeKit)
If you want, I can: provide a ready-to-run example configuration for your specific POP provider, write a script that auto-processes invoices, or adapt the article into a shorter quick-start cheat sheet.
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