gmail_archiver.php

gmail_archiver.php is a small PHP script to download all messages from a given IMAP server. (Probably this should have been a GitHub Gist.)

Usage

You need to enable IMAP access for less secure apps in Gmail.

~$ cd my_mails
~/my_mails$ php gmail_archiver.php
Server: imap.gmail.com
Port: 993
Account name: your_name@gmail.com
Password:

(When you type your password it will not be displayed on the screen.)

The script will create a directory named after your account name in the directory where you are running it. Inside that directory subdirectories will be created according to your IMAP folders. You will find your mails in those subdirectories after the script terminates.

Example:

~/my_mails$ find
.
./your_name@gmail.com
./your_name@gmail.com/INBOX
./your_name@gmail.com/INBOX/1234.txt
./your_name@gmail.com/INBOX/1235.txt
./your_name@gmail.com/INBOX/1236.txt
./your_name@gmail.com/a_label
./your_name@gmail.com/a_label/1.txt
./your_name@gmail.com/a_label/2.txt
./your_name@gmail.com/another_label
./your_name@gmail.com/another_label/42.txt
./your_name@gmail.com/another_label/43.txt

Or you can use gmail_archiver_stdout.php to just print all emails on stdout and manage them any way you like. (E.g. gzip them into a single file.)

You can run the script automatically if you specify connection parameters in the arguments.

~/my_mails$ php ~/gmail_archiver.php help
Usage: php gmail_archiver.php [IMAP server [port [account name [password]]]]

Note: be careful when running the script this way as your password might be recorded into your bash history or be seen in the process list, etc. Specify your password in the command line only if you are sure you know what you are doing!