PHP: imap_open - Manual

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Last updated: Sat, 27 Jan 2007

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# imap_open

(PHP 3, PHP 4, PHP 5)

imap_open -- Open an IMAP stream to a mailbox

## Описание

resource imap_open ( string mailbox, string username, string password [, int options] )

Opens an IMAP stream to a `mailbox`.

This function can also be used to open streams to POP3 and NNTP servers, but some functions and features are only available on IMAP servers.

## Список параметров

`mailbox`

  A mailbox name consists of a server and a mailbox path on this server. The special name `INBOX` stands for the current users personal mailbox. Mailbox names that contain international characters besides those in the printable ASCII space have to be encoded width imap_utf7_encode().

  The server part, which is enclosed in '{' and '}', consists of the servers name or ip address, an optional port (prefixed by ':'), and an optional protocol specification (prefixed by '/').

  The server part is mandatory in all mailbox parameters.

  All names which start with `{` are remote names, and are in the form `"{" remote_system_name [":" port] [flags] "}" [mailbox_name]` where:

  - `remote_system_name` - Internet domain name or bracketed IP address of server.

  - `port` - optional TCP port number, default is the default port for that service

  - `flags` - optional flags, see following table.

  - `mailbox_name` - remote mailbox name, default is INBOX

  Таблица 1. Optional flags for names

  Flag | Description
  --- | ---
  `/service=`service | mailbox access service, default is "imap"
  `/user=`user | remote user name for login on the server
  `/authuser=`user | remote authentication user; if specified this is the user name whose password is used (e.g. administrator)
  `/anonymous` | remote access as anonymous user
  `/debug` | record protocol telemetry in application's debug log
  `/secure` | do not transmit a plaintext password over the network
  `/imap`, `/imap2`, `/imap2bis`, `/imap4`, `/imap4rev1` | equivalent to /service=imap
  `/pop3` | equivalent to /service=pop3
  `/nntp` | equivalent to /service=nntp
  `/norsh` | do not use rsh or ssh to establish a preauthenticated IMAP session
  `/ssl` | use the Secure Socket Layer to encrypt the session
  `/validate-cert` | validate certificates from TLS/SSL server (this is the default behavior)
  `/novalidate-cert` | do not validate certificates from TLS/SSL server, needed if server uses self-signed certificates
  `/tls` | force use of start-TLS to encrypt the session, and reject connection to servers that do not support it
  `/notls` | do not do start-TLS to encrypt the session, even with servers that support it
  `/readonly` | request read-only mailbox open (IMAP only; ignored on NNTP, and an error with SMTP and POP3)

`username`

  The user name

`password`

  The password associated with the `username`

`options`

  The `options` are a bit mask with one or more of the following:

  - `OP_READONLY` - Open mailbox read-only

  - `OP_ANONYMOUS` - Don't use or update a `.newsrc` for news (NNTP only)

  - `OP_HALFOPEN` - For IMAP and NNTP names, open a connection but don't open a mailbox.

  - `CL_EXPUNGE` - Expunge mailbox automatically upon mailbox close (see also imap_delete() and imap_expunge())

  - `OP_DEBUG` - Debug protocol negotiations

  - `OP_SHORTCACHE` - Short (elt-only) caching

  - `OP_SILENT` - Don't pass up events (internal use)

  - `OP_PROTOTYPE` - Return driver prototype

  - `OP_EXPUNGE` - Silently expunge recycle stream

  - `OP_SECURE` - Don't do non-secure authentication

## Возвращаемые значения

Returns an IMAP stream on success or `FALSE` on error.

## Примеры

Пример 1. Different use of imap_open()

`<?php
// To connect to an IMAP server running on port 143 on the local machine,
// do the following:
$mbox = imap_open("{localhost:143}INBOX", "user_id", "password");
// To connect to a POP3 server on port 110 on the local server, use:
$mbox = imap_open ("{localhost:110/pop3}INBOX", "user_id", "password");
// To connect to an SSL IMAP or POP3 server, add /ssl after the protocol
// specification:
$mbox = imap_open ("{localhost:993/imap/ssl}INBOX", "user_id", "password");
// To connect to an SSL IMAP or POP3 server with a self-signed certificate,
// add /ssl/novalidate-cert after the protocol specification:
$mbox = imap_open ("{localhost:995/pop3/ssl/novalidate-cert}", "user_id", "password");
// To connect to an NNTP server on port 119 on the local server, use:
$nntp = imap_open ("{localhost:119/nntp}comp.test", "", "");
// To connect to a remote server replace "localhost" with the name or the
// IP address of the server you want to connect to.
?>`

Пример 2. imap_open() example

`<?php
$mbox = imap_open("{imap.example.org:143}", "username", "password");
echo "<h1>Mailboxes</h1>\n";
$folders = imap_listmailbox($mbox, "{imap.example.org:143}", "*");
if ($folders == false) {
echo "Call failed<br />\n";
} else {
foreach ($folders as $val) {
echo $val . "<br />\n";
}
}
echo "<h1>Headers in INBOX</h1>\n";
$headers = imap_headers($mbox);
if ($headers == false) {
echo "Call failed<br />\n";
} else {
foreach ($headers as $val) {
echo $val . "<br />\n";
}
}
imap_close($mbox);
?>`

## Смотрите также

imap_close()

add a note User Contributed Notes
imap_open
Fladnag
27-Feb-2007 01:08
`you can avoid this message :
Warning: (null)(); Mailbox is empty (errflg=1) in Unknown on line 0
by specified the option OP_SILENT to imap_open.`
danwatts at gmNOSPAMail dot com
12-Feb-2007 08:39
`Be careful about how you specify the string
(at least on PHP5). It looks like you need to
break out of the "string" if you specify the
server name within a variable.
<?php
//DOES NOT WORK:
imap_open("{$server:143/novalidate-cert}".
$mailbox,$username,$password)
//DOES WORK:
imap_open("{".$server.":143/novalidate-cert}".
$mailbox,$username,$password)
//ALSO WORKS:
imap_open("{imap.servername.com:143/novalidate-cert}".
$mailbox,$username,$password)
?>`
Amit
11-Sep-2006 10:25
`None of the above comments explain the configuration issues on Apache/Windows combination. I thought it might be helpful to list my findings here so that Windows people's time is saved.
There is a bug in Windows php_imap.dll that prevents it from connecting it to the SSL IMAP/POP3 server.
http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=36496&edit=1`
shaikh_zaid at yahoo dot com
11-Jul-2006 06:20
`I have seem people using "." within imap_open. I would suggest not to use "." operator for concatanation just format the strings separtately from imap_open.`
shaikh_zaid at yahoo dot com
04-Apr-2006 11:55
`imap_open will not open a stream if your server operates with Transport Layer Security (i.e. TLS) imap_open connects with SSL if its there. So try opening mailbox as
$mailbox="{mail.domain.com:143/imap/notls}";
or
$mailbox="{mail.domain.com:110/pop3/notls}"; This works...
Some mail server requires you to provide username@domain.com so you can always use. user@doamin.com
$conn=imap_open($mailbox, $username, $password);
Some server may ask for username as "user=user@domain.com"
:)`
admin at webes dot es
04-Feb-2006 03:03
`Just a note concerning "empty mailbox" error in case it helps somebody out there.
whenever the mailbox was empty, I kept on getting errors of the type "Warning: imap_header()..." as there were no messages to read headers of.
Reading through here I sussed that the first entry in "imap_errors()" gives you a clear "Mailbox is empty" if this is the case.
Knowing this, I can now code for not continuing with headers, etc if the mailbox is empty, something like:
$foo = imap_errors();
if($foo[0] !== "Mailbox is empty"){check headeres etc... };
Cheers`
Simon F
13-Dec-2005 06:52
`I had to use /novalidate-cert
strace php test.php on the CLI proves invalauble to work out exaclty which set of options I needed.`
admin at sellchain dot com
08-Dec-2005 08:36
`Looking for a cool PHP Script to help you connect to a POP3 server, and download E-Mail to MySQL? Check out my neet-skeet script I wrote. Have fun.
Http://www.sellchain.com/phPOP3/phPOP3.txt
Download the above TXT file, and rename it to phPOP3.php.
Trust me, you will learn mostly everything about IMAP with this script.
By the way, be sure to use print_r($headers) to discover the headers that come with each message. You can setup your MySQL + Email Account information at the top of the script. No includes required!
Enjoyz;)`
admin at sellchain dot com
07-Dec-2005 02:54
`Regarding PHP.net's CONNECT TO POP3 SERVER command above, I have a modification for some people that might help..
For my mail server, it only accepts mail.server.com types of addresses, so if you are having trouble, try using this method:
$mailbox = imap_open ("{mail.YOURSITE.com:110/pop3}INBOX", "YOURUSERNAME", "YOURPASSWORD");`
02-Aug-2005 07:13
`WHen you use the /ssl connection... half open doesnt work...!
what i did was opened it up with the .com:143/pop3}, op_halfopen
when i was getting my folders...`
avizion at relay dot dk
12-May-2005 03:30
`For FreeBSD users...
If you want to have SSL support, you want to install the ports:
mail/php5-imap
security/php5-openssl
Cheers :)
- avizion`
MaartenKoops.NL
09-May-2005 10:56
`Somtimes when you can't connect whit IMAP of POP3 use as username (when connecting like imap_open) user@domain.td.
This workt fine with me. Greetings, Maarten Koops.`
m dot stoel at cyberkinetic dot nl
27-Apr-2005 10:50
`a little tip for those who get really frustrated even after reading all the right solutions and implementing them but still get the same errors or none at all..:
after having changed the code.. restart the httpd deamon..
for Fedora or any other Red Hat Linux OS (/etc/init.d/httpd restart).
After this you will be able to make a imap/pop3 stream from apache..`
thushara dot perera at unilink dot lk
25-Feb-2005 09:19
`Warning: imap_open() [function.imap-open]: Couldn't open stream {xx.xx.x.xxx:143}INBOX
correct the connection string as :
{xx.xx.x.xxx:143/notls}INBOX`
info at infosoporte.com
24-Feb-2005 06:14
`I can connect to my email server with no problem using regular usernames and passwords but.... in my server the usernames are long.. like name.surname1.surname2@subdomain.domain.com , and i get an error when the username size is over 40 chars:
$conn = imap_open("{". $server . ":110/pop3}", $username, $user_password) or die ("Failed with error: ".imap_last_error());
returns
Too many login failures
when the username is over 40 chars. Just remember that if you plan to use long usernames.`
elizar.palad
13-Dec-2004 10:22
`thanks to the one who added that the login part should be the whole email address for it to work.. (assuming of course that all other stuff is good and working ;)
to add something, in the 'email address' login name, is not really the email address, ,it's the pop login name plus '@' plus the domain.. hope it's not confusing...
poploginname@domain.com
not
emailaddress@domain.com..`
gasaunde at vcu dot edu
13-Dec-2004 11:35
`I've found that on my servers I _must_ use imap_errors() and imap_alerts() after an imap_open or this error is thrown in the logs when the mailbox is empty: [error] PHP Warning: (null)(); Mailbox is empty (errflg=1) in Unknown on line 0`
cg at compile dot ch
20-Sep-2004 05:16
`If you use cyrus, passwords shadow via saslauth, check this:
> =====IMAPD.conf======
> configdirectory: /var/imap
> partition-default: /var/spool/imap
> sievedir: /var/imap/sieve
> tls_cert_file: /etc/cyrusimapd/server.crt
> tls_key_file: /etc/cyrusimapd/server.key
> admins: cyrus
> hashimapspool: yes
> allowanonymouslogin: no
> allowplaintext: yes
> unixhierarchysep: 0
> servername: mail.garage.com
> sasl_pwcheck_method: saslauthd
> mech_list: plain login
Make this
sasl_mech_list: plain login`
liamr at umich dot edu
29-Jun-2004 04:40
`To authenticate using kerberos V / GSSAPI, you might need to add "user=" to the connection string.. eg:
$mbox = imap_open( "\{imap.example.com:143/imap/notls/user=" . $user . "}INBOX", $user, $passwd );
Our IMAP servers won't allow a user other than the user specified in the kerberos credentials connect using those credentials unless you specify that extra "user=" in the connection string. Passing it as an argument to imap_open() doesn't seem to be enough.`
nmmm at nmmm dot nu
22-Jun-2004 10:37
`To open local mailbox ( mbox ) enter its absolute file name.
>an absolute filename
>This specifies a mailbox in the default format (usually >Berkeley format for most default library builds)
source:
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/CodeDoc/Mail-Cclient/Cclient.html`
greenie at oddpost dot com
18-May-2004 04:01
`I was trying to use the example code above to connect to a POP mailbox, but no matter how I arranged the elements of the mailbox name, the script hung on the imap_open() command, and never came back. No error message, no timeout - the browser just spins. Strangely, the same syntax worked just fine for a local mailbox.
I did some Googling, and it looks like many others are having the same problem. Finally, I got it to work using the following syntax:
$mbox = imap_open( "{yourmailserver.com/pop3:110/notls}INBOX", "username", "password" );
Note that the port information comes AFTER the "/pop3" bit, which is contrary to the examples given above. I have no idea if this is correct or not, but it works for me :)
FWIW, I'm using PHP 4.1.2.
Also - others here have suggested using the "/notls" part, but haven't explained what it does: it explicitly requests a non-SSL connection.`
rleroy at avantages dot com
30-Apr-2004 10:15
`The only way I made a connection to my IMAP server was using the following syntax ->
MAILSERVER="{imap.example.com:143/imap/notls}";
and not
MAILSERVER="{imap.example.com:143}";
That was for a REDHAT 7.1 imapd daemon.
I searched a lil bit before figuring this one out ;-)
rleroy@avantages.com`
rvarkelen AT hortimax.nl
14-Jan-2004 03:03
`In order to make a IMAP connection to a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, I used this connection-string :
<?php
if(imap_open ("{192.168.1.6:143/imap}Inbox", "DOMAIN/USERNAME/ALIAS", "PASSWORD"))
{
echo 'Connection success!';
}
else
{
echo 'Connection failed';
}
?>
By replacing "Inbox" with, e.g. "Tasks", its possible to see all your tasks. I Hope this helps anybody!
Regards`
marshall /AT\ pacdemon.org
03-Nov-2003 11:50
`Thanks for all your comments. The user comments have saved me countless times.
I'd like to give back in my small way by providing this little tip. To test your pop or imap services you can use telnet (almost all operating systems should come with a command line telnet client).
Here's the pop3 example (the lines that start with + are the server's response):
telnet your.pop.host.com 110
+OK POP3 your.pop.host.com v2001.78 server ready
user your_username
+OK User name accepted, password please
pass your_password
+OK Mailbox open, 23 messages
Note that your pop server may be on some other port than 110 but that is the default/standard.
Here's the imap example (Lines that have OK near the begining are server responses):
telnet your.imap.host.com 143
* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4REV1...]
1 LOGIN "your_username" "your_password"
1 OK [CAPABILITY...] ... User your_username authenticated
This might be old news to some people but I hope it's helpful for many.`
marshall /at/ sprux net
18-Aug-2003 04:44
`I only run imap on port 993 (ssl only) and I was unable to use imap_open().. couldn't even get an error out of the script, it just sat there and timed out with no messages in the logs or anything--the page wouldn't load.
Anyway, this is what finally worked, which I found in the readme for a popular opensource webmail system:
$i = @imap_open("{localhost:993/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX", $user, $pw);
I didn't see the 'ssl' option mentioned anywhere in these comments so maybe this will help someone out.`
Kyle Putnam
14-Jun-2003 04:52
`I was getting bizzare errors that I couldn't find documentation about anywhere on Google. I tried connecting to another server and got different, but just as unusual error messages. I even checked the POP3 server logs and it said something about invalid command... I figured it was another libc problem.
Stupidly enough, the problem was that I was using an unset variable for the password! Make sure you don't have an empty username or password... you'll have a hard time debugging the problem ;)`
stefan dot greifeneder at dioezese-linz dot at
08-May-2003 06:10
`Had problems to use imap_open with iMail 6.06 Server. My problem was (sounds stupid): Didn't realise that the username had to be the full email address and not just the login. Maybe this helps some people.`
bill dot mccoy at pictureiq dot com
23-Apr-2003 07:29
`"notls" seems to be required for PHP on RedHat 8.0, but it seems that "/norsh" is also advisable; without it, the client library will attempt an RSH connection and wait for this to timeout before reverting to normal IMAP. This was causing a 15 second delay in imap_open for me. Looking at the client lib C code this will likely be an issue on other platforms as well as they update to the newer version. You can use both "/notls" and "/norsh", e.g. the first parameter to imap_open can be something like: "{your.imap.host/imap/notls/norsh}".`
kaper at nexgc dot com
08-Apr-2003 09:17
`I had been having lots of trouble trying to get imap_open to connect to an imap server. Then I found another post online that suggested this and it worked, so I am going to post it here. I hope this helps others..
"I have tried with the following strings instead and it works:
for pop3: {www.server.com:110/pop3/notls}INBOX
and for imap: {www.server.com:143/notls}INBOX.`
xore at hotmail dot com
02-Apr-2003 04:37
`pop3 seems to like refusing connection if you have OP_READONLY set
testers: be forewarned :P`
madsiuk at morellos dot net
27-Feb-2003 07:35
`hi
Note for all having problems to connect hosts using imap_open:
I spent almost week trying to fix my script which was connecting to localhost but was unable to connect any other host. Sollution was actually wery simple but I'm writing that note becouse there are some posts at usenet or forums decribing similiar problems. And actually I haven't found any answer for that. So for all of you trying to connect to hosts with imap_open CHECK IF THERE IS NO FIREWALL BLOCKING POP3.
madsiuk`
russell at flora dot ca
08-Jan-2003 03:07
`Note about "PHP Warning: Certificate failure"
I'm not sure if this is a RedHat, PHP, or IMAP library issue, but the default for SSL seems to have changed.
You now need to specify "/notls" when you don't want TLS, rather than only needing to specify "/ssl" when you do.
Example:
"{localhost:143}INBOX"
becomes:
"{localhost:143/notls}INBOX"`
jpdalbec at ccNO dot ysuSPAM dot edu
17-Jun-2002 11:27
`I ran into the
PHP Warning: Certificate failure for <server>: self signed certificate:
message while upgrading 4.0.6->4.1.2. I'm pleased to report that {<server>:<port>/imap/tls/novalidate-cert}<mailbox>
works as expected (and fixes my problem). I'm using IMP 2.2.8.`
fxbois at free dot fr
05-Jun-2002 11:07
`Hi,
I just want to say to all redhat people who have problem (Couldn't open stream) with the connection on the local pop server to use this :
{127.0.0.1:110/pop3/notls}INBOX
hope this help`
sgriffith AT dualityofman.dhs.org
15-May-2002 04:35
`Just wanted to add that you cannot have any white space between your {}'s. it took me a little while to figure that out.
"{127.0.0.1:110/pop3}INBOX" is correct
while
"{ 127.0.0.1:110/pop3 } INBOX" is not.
Also, if you forget to put INBOX, it may connect but wont return anything.
just a heads up to anyone else who might have misinterpreted the manuals instructions.`
frederik at roal dot no
17-Apr-2002 09:02
`For all imap functions where you specify the mailbox string it is important that you ALWAYS use IP (not hostname) and the portnumber. If you do not do this imap functions will be painfully slow.
Using hostname instead of IP adds 3 seconds to each IMAP call, not using portnumber adds 10 seconds to each imap call. (hint: use gethostbyname() )`
brojann at netscape dot com
30-Oct-2001 02:01
`You can do
<? $foo = imap_errors(); ?>
to clear unwanted warning messages like 'Mailbox is empty'`
jdg11 at po dot cwru dot edu
13-Aug-2001 03:41
`It would be nice to mention that this function does send headers. It makes sense, but it is not obvious. It took me a while to figure it out. I authenticate against a POP3 server, and set a cookie if the authentication validates. At least I wanted to :) But since it sends a header to the server, setcookie() won't work.`
curtis at lamere dot net
26-Jun-2001 04:16
`I have found that the syntax for the imap_open command in PHP 4 differs whether you're passing a variable to the imap_open function or declaring the host directly within the function. If you are passing variables to the imap_open function, the syntax should look like:
$username = "user";
$password = "password";
$mailserver = "mail.somedomina.com:110/imap";
$link = imap_open("\{$mailserver}INBOX",$username,$password);
If you don't include the leading backslash (\) you will not open the stream. Likewise you cannot pass the curly braces to the function.
If you define the server directly, omit the leading backslash.
$username = "user";
$password = "password";
$link = imap_open("{mail.somedomain.com:110/pop3}",$username,$password)"
I discovered all of this after 3 days of trying to get all of this work on redhat 7.1.`
23-May-2001 10:23
`A better way to connect to a mail server would be to use uri syntax, for example:
imap://username:password@server.com:143/INBOX/message/part
this is very easy to parse using 'parse_url()'
Remember to keep your username and password hidden if your over an open network`
fferreres at joydivision dot com dot ar
29-Mar-2001 07:12
`IMAP, POP and NNTP are ok. But plaintext mailboxes are unmentioned here. You just forget the {part} and go for the file (tested on unix):
$mbox = imap_open ($a_mail_box_file_name_in_home_dir, "", "") || die("Snif...:
".imap_last_error());`
kvance at n-link dot net
09-Mar-2001 01:34
`Connections to the IMAP server work without specifying the port number, but they are slow, so specifying the port number is important if you don't want a slow application.`
bandpay at hotmail dot com
04-Dec-2000 12:59
`I have a single comment to add about imap_open.
If you want to connect to a news server, without specifying any news gruop, you can use the following:
$server = "{news.servername.com/nntp:119}";
$nntp = imap_open($server,"","",OP_HALFOPEN);
and $nntp will become the connection ID.
Regards
//Babak`
add a note
imap_ping imap_num_recent

Last updated: Sat, 27 Jan 2007
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