N. Albert via plug on 12 Jun 2023 18:12:51 -0700


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

[PLUG] "Online only" terminal IMAP client?


I'm thinking it might be difficult to get an answer to this anywhere, but I figured this would probably be the place to ask since I'm sure some of you use terminal mail readers.

Does anyone here know of any console mail clients (IMAP/SMTP) for Linux that can operate *fully online*?

By this, I mean a client that does not (or can be configured to not) store anything locally while running, or modify the file system in any way. It also shouldn't allow access to the file system in any way, e.g. attaching documents from the file system needs to be restricted. Basically, I'm looking for something that's like a webmail client, in that the way it utilizes the IMAP protocol is that of an online only reader that doesn't cache anything locally. I've looked around a bit at the usual stuff (mutt, alpine, neomutt, etc.), but they also seem to very much rely on storing everything locally and often support multiple formats (e.g. reading from a Maildir). Online only by definition means IMAP only and nothing else, no POP3, no reading from maildirs on disk, etc.

Additionally, I need to be able to pass in the IMAP connection details on the fly, i.e. via arguments or by specifying a config file.

Another way to think about this: if you launched this program and then gave your personal machine to a stranger, s/he shouldn't be able to do anything "undesired" on your machine while the program is running... i.e. there shouldn't be any access to the file system possible from within the client, and the client shouldn't really modify anything on the file system in the course of operation. The user shouldn't be able to do anything that would make anything "stick around" after the program exits.

It's fine if this isn't the only way the client operates, as long as it can operate in this mode somehow, and the mode *can't* be changed while the program is running (once launched).

Does such a client even exist? I'd prefer not to have to write my own... I've written an IMAP server and webmail client before, but working with ncurses has never been much fun for me, and I don't want to reinvent the wheel here.

Thanks!
  Albert
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug