Python IMAP search for partial subject

Question

I'm trying to fetch all emails whose subject starts with "New Order" but I can't seem to figure it out. Currently I can search for an exact match with a setup like so...

result, data = M.uid('search', None, '(HEADER Subject "Subject Here")')

However this won't retrieve any messages that aren't an exact match. How would I go about doing a partial match?

If it matters I am talking to gmail's imap server(s).

Thanks

Nefertiti

What api/library are you using, also what is M? – Atelier

You also might find https://mcmap.net/q/176405/-how-can-i-download-all-emails-with-attachments-from-gmail useful. – Atelier

I am using the imaplib library and M is an IMAP4 object. I had hoped to only pull down the messages that had the desired subjects and not every single message which I believe is what they are doing in your link although I may be wrong. – Nefertiti

Answer 1

According to the IMAP RFC SEARCH should do all of its matching as substring matches:

In all search keys that use strings, a message matches the key if the string is a substring of the field. The matching is case-insensitive.

Therefore, a search

M.uid('search', None, 'HEADER Subject "New Order"')

should match all messages where New Order occurs anywhere in the subject. If it is not, you should notify Google that their server does not implement IMAP properly. In the meantime you might try using the SUBJECT key as in

M.uid('search', None, 'SUBJECT "New Order"')

Also, according to Google's IMAP extension documentation you might be able to use the X-GM-RAW key and a gmail search string as in

M.uid('search', None, r'X-GM-RAW "subject:\"New Order\""')

Graupel

I figured out what was going wrong. Google/gmail assumes that all searches are words which means that '(HEADER Subject "Subject Here")' will match things such as "Subject Here Extra words for example" but not "Subject Here5". I'm still not sure how to do a non-word search with gmail or if it is even possible. – Nefertiti

You will have to use gmails extended search syntax. They only support word oriented searches for normal searching. (The x-gm-raw bit he provided) – Andeee

When I run "M.uid('search', None, r'X-GM-RAW "subject:\"New Order\""')" I get the following error: "imaplib.error: UID command error: BAD ['Could not parse command']". Any idea why that might be? – Nefertiti

So substring search isn't possible with gmail over IMAP, and no workaround? – Tabasco

are there any news on this? – Spaetzle

Answer 2

This worked for me:

mail.uid('search', None, r'(X-GM-RAW "subject:\"New Order\"")')

Pomelo

Answer 3

This worked for me:

M.uid('search',None, '(SUBJECT "New Order")')

Format for search is (EmailAttribute "your searchstring")

Hope it works for you.

Ratchet

Answer 4

This worked for me:

result, data = m.search(None, 'X-GM-RAW', 'subject: New Order')

Moneychanger