POP3 component

Q: Does pop3 remember which messages it has read?

Without delete=true, it remembers message UIDLs in memory, so a restart reads them again. Use delete=true or IMAP for durable tracking.

Q: How do I get only the text?

Keep mapMailMessage=true (the default): the body is the first text/plain part.

The pop3 component downloads email from a POP3 mailbox on a schedule and turns each message into an exchange.

Scheme: pop3: · Also: pop3s: · Crate: cameleer-protocols · Cargo feature: protocols · Consumer: yes · Producer: no · Apache Camel: Mail

pop3s: uses implicit TLS (port 995); pop3: can upgrade with STLS (mail.pop3.starttls.enable=true). For folders and flags use imap.

When to use it

Archive every incoming message of a mailbox to disk or object storage.
Collect mail from devices or old systems that report by email.
Simple mail intake where messages are deleted from the server once handled.

URI format

text

pop3://[username@]host[:port][?options]
pop3s://[username@]host[:port][?options]

Default ports: 110 (pop3), 995 (pop3s).

Example

Archive each new message as a raw .eml file and delete it from the server.

yaml example: pop3-archive-mail

- route:
    id: archive-mail
    from:
      uri: "pop3s://{{env:POP3_HOST:pop.example.com}}?username={{env:POP3_USER:archive@example.com}}&password={{env:POP3_PASSWORD:changeme}}&mapMailMessage=false&delete=true&delay=60000"
      steps:
        - to: "file:{{env:ARCHIVE_DIR:mail-archive}}?fileName=${date:now:yyyyMMdd}/${exchangeId}.eml"

Rust DSL

rust

fn archive_mail_route(b: &mut RouteBuilder, pop3: &str, archive_dir: &str) {
    b.from(pop3)
        .route_id("archive-mail")
        .to(&format!("file:{}?fileName=${{date:now:yyyyMMdd}}/${{exchangeId}}.eml", archive_dir));
}

Options

option	default	description
`username`, `password`		Login.
`delete`	`false`	Delete messages after processing.
`unseen`	`true`	Only messages not seen before (tracked by `UIDL`, in memory).
`maxMessagesPerPoll` / `fetchSize`	no limit	Messages per poll.
`mapMailMessage`	`true`	`true`: the body is the text content. `false`: the raw message.
`delay`	`60000`	Milliseconds between polls (`initialDelay` 1000 and the other scheduler options).
`connectionTimeout`	`30s`	Connect timeout.
`mail.pop3.starttls.enable`, `mail.pop3.starttls.required`	`false`	STLS on `pop3:`.
`sslContextParameters`		`#bean` with trust material for TLS.
`useGlobalSslContextParameters`	`false`	Use the global `camel.ssl.*` parameters.

Message headers

header	direction	description
`Subject`, `From`, `To`, `Date`, `Message-ID`, ...	out	Every mail header; repeated headers become a list.

MIME parts other than the body go to the CamelAttachments exchange property.

Run it with Docker

docker run --rm --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" -e POP3_HOST=pop.example.com -e POP3_USER -e POP3_PASSWORD \
  -e ARCHIVE_DIR=/data/mail-archive -v "$PWD:/data" \
  -v "$PWD/archive-mail.camel.yaml:/routes/archive-mail.camel.yaml:ro" \
  pmsudhi/cameleer run /routes/archive-mail.camel.yaml

Common questions

Does pop3 remember which messages it has read?

Without delete=true, it remembers message UIDLs in memory, so a restart reads them again. Use delete=true or IMAP for durable tracking.

How do I get only the text?

Keep mapMailMessage=true (the default): the body is the first text/plain part.

imap, smtp, file.
Apache Camel: Mail component.

Found a problem?

If something on this page doesn't match what Cameleer does, or you hit a bug while building with it, please help fix it, whether you are a person or a coding agent: open an issue that describes what you saw, then fork the repository, fix it, add or update a test, run cargo test --workspace, and open a pull request. CONTRIBUTING.md explains the ground rules.