A Gentle Introduction to IMAP | Hacker News Reader

A Gentle Introduction to IMAP

duesee.dev

30 pointslukastyrychtr11 comments

This is a really great article! It would have helped me a lot when I started writing an IMAP library. I initially underestimated the headaches that come with the IMAP server being able to send responses at (mostly) any time.

> Note: If you want to connect to Gmail through IMAP, you need AUTH=XOAUTH2 or AUTH=OAUTH2. This requires registering an App with Google to create the necessary tokens. It’s not trivial and took me an hour to do using a Python script I downloaded from the Internet.

> Unfortunately, you can’t speak IMAP with Google by any other means. It’s good for security but complicates testing.

I don’t think this is true (although Google definitely pushes you to use OAuth). If you make an app-specific password in Google’s settings, you can login using the app-specific password, e.g. `a000 login “username@gmail.com” “appspecificpasswordhere”`. Unfortunately this wasn’t super well-documented and may not be something Google supports forever.

Google only lets you use app-specific passwords if you have set up two-step verification (and provided a phone number).

If you have an email client that doesn't speak OAuth and you can't/won't set up 2FA then this proxy of mine lets you use any IMAP (or POP/SMTP) client with an OAuth email provider, regardless of whether it supports OAuth 2.0 natively: https://github.com/simonrob/email-oauth2-proxy. No need for your client to know about OAuth at all.

Thank you both! I corrected the part about Gmail and OAUTH2. With 2FA enabled, generating an app password and using it in IMAP is still possible.

Will check out your proxy!

The library itself looks interesting.

How about we move on from archiac e-mail protocols? About time if you ask me..

Aren't these archaic protocols more reliable than the many other messaging options on hand? Pretty much the only reliable one?

Define 'reliable'.

Yep, I'm all abroad the JMAP train, but if you need the things to be done than the IMAP is the only one you can rely to.

What’s wrong with it? Not enough json kubernetes mongo rust npm AI cloud react? Or is “old” just the same as “bad”?

Sadly “move on” today means moving to a single vendor’s walled garden. We don’t really have truly federated protocols anymore. We do have some contenders but none that my mother and barber and government use.

email blacklisting could be considered a walled garden at this point. big providers are the only real option if you want guaranteed delivery these days. people will say otherwise but you don't always know when you're blacklisted by an email provider

"People say otherwise" because it's not true. I run my own email and I do just fine. The last blacklist I had was from Hotmail about five years ago

*that you know of

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