Getting Net::POP3 to grab mail then forward it on.

[Anonymous Monk]

I have a script using Net::POP3 to pop mail off a pop3 server. I'd like to forward the mail to another e-mail account without having to use postfix, or even write it to a file. I haven't been able to get it done. Here's what I have so far:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
#
# using pop3get -c will leave the mail on the server.
#

use Net::POP3;
use Getopt::Long;
use strict 'vars';
use vars qw($opt_c);

GetOptions("c!");

my $ServerName = "my.pop3server.com";
my $pop3 = Net::POP3->new($ServerName, Debug => 0);
my $UserName = "user";
my $Password = "pass";
my $inbox = "/export/homes/user/Mail/inbox";
my $msg_id;

die "Couldn't log on to server" unless $pop3;
my $Num_Messages = $pop3->login($UserName, $Password);
my $Messages = $pop3->list();

open FH, ">> $inbox" or die "Couldn't open inbox: ($!)\n";

for $msg_id (keys(%$Messages)) {
    print "Retriving Msg: $msg_id\n";
    my $MsgContent = $pop3->get($msg_id);
    # Here's where I'd like to forward it on..
    for (@$MsgContent) {
        print FH $_;   
    }
    my $delete_msg = $pop3->delete($msg_id) unless ($opt_c);
}

close FH;
$pop3->quit();

[Kanji]

I'm not sure if you're looking to bypass Postfix entirely (um, why?) or just want to be a little more platform independent, but you might want to take a look at Net::SMTP (alt.) or one of the many Mail::* modules that support SMTP like Mail::Sendmail (alt.), Mail::Mailer (alt.) or Mail::Sender (alt.).

    --k.

[jlongino]

As Kanji suggests, use Net::SMTP. I used the following code and it worked for the three messages I had in my pop3 account but I haven't extensively tested it:

# ...

use Net::SMTP;

my $smtp = Net::SMTP->new(Debug   => 1,
                          # other stuff
);

# ...

for $msg_id (keys(%$Messages)) {
    print "Retrieving Msg: $msg_id\n";
    my $MsgContent = $pop3->get($msg_id);
    # Here's where I'd like to forward it on..
    $smtp->mail($resentby);
    $smtp->to($target);
    $smtp->data();
    for (@$MsgContent) {
        $smtp->datasend($_);
    }
    $smtp->dataend();
}
$smtp->quit;

The debug mode will help pinpoint problems. If you get a "broken pipe" message, then one of your supplied arguments ($smtp->mail or $smtp->to) is most likely the culprit.

--Jim