Stand - A Very Simple POP3 Client

Download version 0.96

This is a small Ruby script for fetching mail from POP3 servers and delivering them to some LDA (Local Delivery Agent, typically procmail, although Reuben recommends maildrop). It does APOP authentication, SSL/TLS-wrapped POP3 and UIDL caching.

If you're using Debian, it depends on the following packages:

• ruby1.9.1
• libruby1.9.1
• libopenssl-ruby1.9.1
• libsqlite3-ruby1.9.1

I used nothing but the original script for dealing with my email for some years, but this is a brand new version based largely on the work of Reuben Thomas, who kindly took an interest in it. As as result the code is now less than a third of its original size.

By default, stand deletes each message once it has been successfully delivered to the LDA so use a reliable LDA (such as procmail or maildrop) or you could easily lose mail.

stand uses a YAML configuration file called ~/.stand.yaml that looks like this:

# Comments start with `#'; leave a blank line between each
# account's details.  The Host, User and Pass lines are
# required.  Command defaults to "procmail -f-".

# For testing tpop3d:

-
  Host: localhost
  User: a@b.c
  Pass: not-my-password
  Command: procmail -f-
  APOP: yes

-
  Host: secure.mythic-beasts.com
  SSL: yes
  User: mark
  Pass: not-my-password-either
  Command: procmail -f-

-
  Host: pop.clara.net
  User: mark.longair
  Pass: something-else
  Command: procmail -f-

The usage message (and the script itself) should tell you anything else you need to know.

Please bear in mind that it's quite possible that there may be bugs in these scripts that will cause you to lose mail; use this at your own risk. You can download the most recent version (currently 0.96) here or from the link at the top of the page. stand is released under the GNU General Public License version 3.

Version Control

The source code for stand is now maintained in a git repository on GitHub.