'\" -*- tcl -*- doctools manpage
'\"
'\" Generated from ../tcllib/modules/pop3/pop3.man by mpexpand with fmt.nroff
'\"
.so man.macros
.TH "pop3" n 1.5.1 pop3 "Tcl POP3 Client Library"
.BS
.SH NAME
pop3 \- Tcl client for POP3 email protocol
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
package require \fBTcl 8.2\fR
.sp
package require \fBpop3 ?1.5.1?\fR
.sp
\fB::pop3::open\fR ?\fB-msex\fR 0|1? ?\fB-retr-mode\fR retr|list|slow? \fIhost username password\fR ?\fIport\fR?\fR
.sp
\fB::pop3::status\fR \fIchan\fR\fR
.sp
\fB::pop3::last\fR \fIchan\fR\fR
.sp
\fB::pop3::retrieve\fR \fIchan startIndex\fR ?\fIendIndex\fR?\fR
.sp
\fB::pop3::delete\fR \fIchan startIndex\fR ?\fIendIndex\fR?\fR
.sp
\fB::pop3::list\fR \fIchan\fR ?\fImsg\fR?\fR
.sp
\fB::pop3::top\fR \fIchan\fR \fImsg\fR \fIn\fR\fR
.sp
\fB::pop3::uidl\fR \fIchan\fR ?\fImsg\fR?\fR
.sp
\fB::pop3::close\fR \fIchan\fR\fR
.sp
.BE
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
The \fBpop3\fR package provides a simple Tcl-only client library
for the POP3 email protocol (RFC1939). It works by opening the
standard POP3 socket on the server, transmitting the username and
password, then providing a Tcl API to access the POP3 protocol
commands.  All server errors are returned as Tcl errors (thrown) which
must be caught with the Tcl \fBcatch\fR command.
.SH "COMMANDS"
.TP
\fB::pop3::open\fR ?\fB-msex\fR 0|1? ?\fB-retr-mode\fR retr|list|slow? \fIhost username password\fR ?\fIport\fR?\fR
Open a socket connection to the server specified by \fIhost\fR,
transmit the \fIusername\fR and \fIpassword\fR as login information to
the server.  The default port number is 110, which can be overridden
using the optional \fIport\fR argument.  The return value is a channel
used by all of the other ::pop3 functions.
.sp
The command recognizes the options \fB-msex\fR and
\fB-retr-mode\fR. The first of them can be used to notify the
package of the fact that the server to talk to is an MS Exchange
server (which has some oddities we have to work around). The default
is 0.
.sp
The retrieval mode determines how exactly messages are read from the
server. The allowed values are \fBretr\fR, \fBlist\fR and
\fBslow\fR. The default is \fBretr\fR. See
\fB::pop3::retrieve\fR for more information.
.TP
\fB::pop3::status\fR \fIchan\fR\fR
Query the server for the status of the mail spool.  The status is
returned as a list containing two elements, the first is the number of
email messages on the server and the second is the size (in octets, 8
byte blocks) of the entire mail spool.
.TP
\fB::pop3::last\fR \fIchan\fR\fR
Query the server for the last email message read from the spool.  This
value includes all messages read from all clients connecting to the
login account.  This command may not be supported by the email server,
in which case the server may return 0 or an error.
.TP
\fB::pop3::retrieve\fR \fIchan startIndex\fR ?\fIendIndex\fR?\fR
Retrieve a range of messages from the server.  If the \fIendIndex\fR
is not specified, only one message will be retrieved.  The return
value is a list containing each message as a separate element.  See
the \fIstartIndex\fR and \fIendIndex\fR descriptions below.
.sp
The retrieval mode determines how exactly messages are read from the
server. The mode \fBretr\fR assumes that the RETR command delivers
the size of the message as part of the command status and uses this to
read the message efficiently. In mode \fBlist\fR RETR does not
deliver the size, but the LIST command does and we use this to
retrieve the message size before the actual retrieval, which can then
be done efficiently. In the last mode, \fBslow\fR, the system is
unable to obtain the size of the message to retrieve in any manner and
falls back to reading the message from the server line by line.
.sp
It should also be noted that the system checks upon the configured
mode and falls back to the slower modes if the above assumptions are
not true.
.TP
\fB::pop3::delete\fR \fIchan startIndex\fR ?\fIendIndex\fR?\fR
Delete a range of messages from the server.  If the \fIendIndex\fR is
not specified, only one message will be deleted.  Note, the indices
are not reordered on the server, so if you delete message 1, then the
first message in the queue is message 2 (message index 1 is no longer
valid).  See the \fIstartIndex\fR and \fIendIndex\fR descriptions
below.
.RS
.TP
\fIstartIndex\fR
The \fIstartIndex\fR may be an index of a specific message starting
with the index 1, or it have any of the following values:
.RS
.TP
\fBstart\fR
This is a logical value for the first message in the spool, equivalent
to the value 1.
.TP
\fBnext\fR
The message immediately following the last message read, see
\fB::pop3::last\fR.
.TP
\fBend\fR
The most recent message in the spool (the end of the spool).  This is
useful to retrieve only the most recent message.
.RE
.TP
\fIendIndex\fR
The \fIendIndex\fR is an optional parameter and defaults to the value
"-1", which indicates to only retrieve the one message specified by
\fIstartIndex\fR.  If specified, it may be an index of a specific
message starting with the index "1", or it may have any of the
following values:
.RS
.TP
\fBlast\fR
The message is the last message read by a POP3 client, see
\fB::pop3::last\fR.
.TP
\fBend\fR
The most recent message in the spool (the end of the spool).
.RE
.RE
.TP
\fB::pop3::list\fR \fIchan\fR ?\fImsg\fR?\fR
Returns the scan listing of the mailbox. If parameter \fImsg\fR is
given, then the listing only for that message is returned.
.TP
\fB::pop3::top\fR \fIchan\fR \fImsg\fR \fIn\fR\fR
Optional POP3 command, not all servers may support this.
\fB::pop3::top\fR retrieves headers of a message, specified by
parameter \fImsg\fR, and number of \fIn\fR lines from the message
body.
.TP
\fB::pop3::uidl\fR \fIchan\fR ?\fImsg\fR?\fR
Optional POP3 command, not all servers may support this.
\fB::pop3::uidl\fR returns the uid listing of the mailbox. If the
parameter \fImsg\fR is specified, then the listing only for that
message is returned.
.TP
\fB::pop3::close\fR \fIchan\fR\fR
Gracefully close the connect after sending a POP3 QUIT command down
the socket.
.SH "KEYWORDS"
mail, email, pop, pop3, RFC1939
