IMAP FETCH Subject

Question

Using IMAP via telnet, I want to be able to extract the subject from the specific given email. Now I know that the fetch command is responsible for getting data from an email.

My question is, how do I get the subject header specifically, without using a call to BODY[HEADER.FIELDS (SUBJECT)] (which will, in the eyes of the server, 'open the email' and thus set the /seen flag, which is what I don't want to occur)?

I understand FETCH FULL returns the full header, which contains the subject but it's a nightmare to parse through and could be riddled with unseen pitfalls if I manually parse it. How would I get the server to give me just the subject from the header?

I'm willing to consider alternatives so long as the /seen flag isn't set on usage. — user1433767, Sep 19 '12 at 11:59

score 21 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 19 '12 at 12:13

21

I discovered the answer:

BODY.PEEK[HEADER.FIELDS (SUBJECT)]

.PEEK tells it not open it (so /seen isn't set).

answered Sep 19 '12 at 12:13

user1433767

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score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 19 '12 at 13:07

4

Besides BODY.PEEK, you could fetch ENVELOPE, which gives you a parsed summary of much of the message metadata.

answered Sep 19 '12 at 13:07

Max

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score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 06 '14 at 00:02

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"a1 FETCH 1:* (FLAGS BODY[HEADER.FIELDS (SUBJECT DATE FROM)])\r\n"

answered Jun 06 '14 at 00:02

Nicolás Schmidt Gubbins

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IMAP FETCH Subject

3 Answers3

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