bcbiff

bcbiff(1) - Boxcar based IMAP biff

bcbiff

Bcbiff checks the Inbox folder on an IMAP server for unread mails and sends a notification mail for each.

This tool was made to send push notification to your iPhone via Boxcar when you have received a mail in Inbox on an IMAP server, primarily with Gmail in mind. Bcbiff composes a notification mail that has From, Date and Subject header fields copied from the original, with other fields and the body part removed.

Simple mail forwarding using a filter on Gmail has a couple of problems. First, there is no easy way to write a filter that only matches mails that will be dropping in Inbox. Second, mail bodies and sensitive header fields will be leaked. Bcbiff solves both.

Bcbiff caches the Message-Id's of the latest 100 unread mails so that you get just one notification per mail, even if you leave a mail unread despite a notification.

• ~/.bcbiff

  User configuration file that would look like below.

    ---
    :accounts:
    - :host: imap.gmail.com
      :port: 993
      :ssl: true
      :username: "account1"
      :password: "********"
      :mailto: "******.*******@push.boxcar.io"
    - :host: imap.gmail.com
      :port: 993
      :ssl: true
      :username: "account2@your.domain"
      :password: "********"
      :mailto: "******.*******@push.boxcar.io"
      :folders:
      - Inbox
      - work/important
  

  You can list as many account entries as you want. The server needs not be of Gmail, and the mailto address needs not be of Boxcar.

  If you want to check folders other than the default of Inbox, specify them in the :folders field, in which case you need to specify Inbox if you want it checked.

• ~/Maildir/idcache.*.yml

  Message-Id cache files, one for each notification account.

Prepare your ~/.bcbiff, adjust constants defined in bcbiff for your system and run bcbiff once a minute or so.

Bcbiff will run with Ruby 1.8.7+ and 1.9.2+.

Bcbiff calls the sendmail command to send a mail. Sendmail (or any compatible software such as qmail or Postfix) must be properly configured.

To use SSL connections, you must have the certificates file/directory configured. Some of the common paths are determined by default, but if bcbiff(1) fails to locate the one on your system, follow the instruction displayed, and let me know if it's pretty much common on the platform.

gem install bcbiff

• Boxcar

• Gmail

Copyright (c) 2011, 2012, 2013 Akinori MUSHA.

Licensed under the 2-clause BSD license. See LICENSE.txt for details.

Visit GitHub Repository for the latest information and feedback.