Batch delete all email from POP server via Python #

#! /usr/bin/env python
import poplib
M = poplib.POP3_SSL("mail.example.com", 995)
M.user("user@example.com")
M.pass_("password")
for i in range(M.stat()[0], 0, -1):
  M.dele(i)
M.quit()

To prompt for the password rather than storing it in the script, change ("password") to (getpass.getpass()) and add import getpass.
See also Batch delete all email from IMAP Inbox in iOS.
Sources & Additional Examples:
- Deleting email from a mail server with Python
- gmail-importer3
- Sean Vinsick's comment on Using Telnet to Delete Mass Amounts of E-mail
- poplib documentation: "On most servers deletions are not actually performed until QUIT (the major exception is Eudora QPOP, which deliberately violates the RFCs by doing pending deletes on any disconnect)."
- Delete All Messages From A POP3 Account
- delPopMail.py
- empty_pop3_account.py
- PopAndTweet.py
- Pythonでメール受信

/nix | Aug 04, 2020

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