Simple python script that connects to a mail server via IMAP and SMTP and replies to all emails in the inbox coming from a certain sender address using the Reply-To header. Mails that have been replied to are deleted afterwards.
This script runs on python3 and is written for the purpose of running as a cronjob.
To run it you'll only need python3.
To install, simply download a copy of the project (see screenshot below) and extract it to whatever folder you like.
Alternatively, on UNIX systems you can run
wget https://github.com/sunborn23/python-email-autoresponder/archive/master.zip && unzip master.zip
to download and then extract all project files.
Before first run, you need to adapt the project to your needs by editing the autoresponder.config.ini file with a text editor.
The required configuration items for the individual sections are listed below.
Section [login credentials]
| Configuration Item | Description |
|---|---|
| mailserver.incoming.username | The username to use for logging in at the IMAP server hosting the inbox, usually an email address. |
| mailserver.incoming.password | The password to use for logging in at the IMAP server hosting the inbox. |
| mailserver.outgoing.username | The username to use for logging in at the SMTP server for sending the reply, usually an email address. |
| mailserver.outgoing.password | The password to use for logging in at the SMTP server for sending the reply. |
| mailserver.outgoing.display.name | The name to use in the email's "From" field indicating where the reply email is from. |
| mailserver.outgoing.display.mail | The email address to use in the email's "From" field, should normally be a no-reply address. |
Section [mail server settings]
| Configuration Item | Description |
|---|---|
| mailserver.incoming.imap.host | The hostname, domain or IP of the IMAP server hosting the inbox. |
| mailserver.incoming.imap.port.ssl | The port to use for SSL communication with the IMAP server. |
| mailserver.outgoing.smtp.host | The hostname, domain or IP of the SMTP server for sending the reply. |
| mailserver.outgoing.smtp.port.tls | The port to use for TLS communication with the SMTP server. |
| mailserver.folders.inbox.name | The name of the inbox folder, normally this is "Inbox". |
Section [mail content settings]
| Configuration Item | Description |
|---|---|
| mail.request.from | The sender email address to check new mails against. If an email is found in the inbox with this sender address, a reply is triggered. |
| mail.reply.subject | The subject line of the reply email. |
| mail.reply.body | The plain text body of the reply email. |
After configuring the project, you can run it manually to test if your configuration works.
For testing purposes you can run the script from the shell. To do so, navigate to the project directory and run
python3 run_autoresponder.py
If you want to run the script multiple times with different configurations on each executions, you can achieve that by running
python3 run_autoresponder.py --config-path /the/path/to/your/config/file/autoresponder.config.ini
For production use you can configure it as a cronjob.
From the shell, run:
crontab -e
Then append to the file (replace "/the/path/to/the/project/folder" by the actual path to these files):
*/1 * * * * python3 /the/path/to/the/project/folder/run_autoresponder.py
This will run the script every minute.
You can use any Online Cron Expression Generator for generating other cron expressions.
For info on how to craft the cron expression yourself, run man crontab.