printmailatt

Python script that automatically prints mail attachments

What does it do?

The main use case is the following: Send an email with attachments to be printed to a dedicated mail address (e.g. printmymailatt@myprovider.com) with the subject containing #print. If printmailatt.py is run on the machine connected to your printer it will connect to the IMAP server, download all unread mails, look for the '#print' keyword in the subject, convert all printable mail attachments to pdf, print all converted pdfs, delete the unread #print-mails.

Ideally, the script is run automatically, e.g. every 30 secs, on an always-on Raspberry Pi connected to your printer.

Requriements

• Linux machine with internet connection and connected printer
• dedicated IMAP mail address
• LibreOffice, unoconv, qpdf, Python 3.x + modules

Features

• prints: pdf, docx, pptx, text-file
• multiple attachments
• external .cfg file
• encrypted mail password
• print selected pages (e.g. #print #pages20-30)
• duplex/non-duplex (default is duplex, to deactive use: #print #singlesided or #print #noduplex)
• automatically chooses ortientation
• whitelist for sender mail addresses

How to run

1. encrypt mail password using the MAC-address of the machine connected to the printer (optional but recommended)

   python3 generateKey.py
   

2. edit default.cfg or create your own configuration file, e.g. myconfig.cfg and enter the required information: printer name, server address, mail address, (encrypted) mail password, whitelisted sender mail addresses

3. run script manually

   python3 printmailatt.py myconfig.cfg
   

   or use the bash script (edit first to use the correct .cfg file)

   ./printmailatt.sh
   

   (probably requires chmod +x printmailatt.sh first). The bash script will append all script outputs to output.log.

How to automatically check every 30 seconds?

A convenient way is to use cron. Add the following lines (with the correct user name and location of printmailatt.sh) in /etc/crontab

# run bash script every 30 seconds
*/1 * * * * pi /home/pi/printmailatt/printmailatt.sh
*/1 * * * * pi ( sleep 30 ; /home/pi/printmailatt/printmail.sh )

Author

Philip Schuter