Zig

Search an IMAP Mailbox

Demonstrates the Chilkat Imap.QueryMbx method, which searches the selected mailbox using IMAP search criteria and stores the matching message identifiers in a MessageSet. If bUid is true, the identifiers are UIDs; otherwise they are sequence numbers. This example finds unseen messages and lists their UIDs.

Background: IMAP search runs on the server, so you can find matching messages without downloading them. The criteria string is standard IMAP search syntax — for example UNSEEN, FROM "alice@example.com", SUBJECT "invoice", or SINCE 1-Jan-2026 — and terms can be combined. The result is a MessageSet of identifiers you then fetch, flag, copy, or move. Requesting UIDs (bUid = true) is preferred because UIDs remain valid across sessions.

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const std = @import("std");
const chilkat = @import("chilkat");

pub fn main(init: std.process.Init) !void {
    const alloc = init.arena.allocator();

    // Demonstrates the Imap.QueryMbx method, which searches the selected mailbox using IMAP
    // search criteria and stores the matching message identifiers in a MessageSet.  If bUid is
    // true, the identifiers are UIDs; otherwise they are sequence numbers.

    const imap = try chilkat.Imap.init();
    defer imap.deinit();

    imap.setSsl(true);
    imap.setPort(993);

    imap.connect("imap.example.com") catch {
        std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{try imap.getLastErrorText(alloc)});
        return;
    };

    imap.login("user@example.com", "myPassword") catch {
        std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{try imap.getLastErrorText(alloc)});
        return;
    };

    imap.selectMailbox("Inbox") catch {
        std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{try imap.getLastErrorText(alloc)});
        return;
    };

    // Search for unseen (unread) messages, returning their UIDs.
    const msg_set = try chilkat.MessageSet.init();
    defer msg_set.deinit();
    imap.queryMbx("UNSEEN", true, msg_set) catch {
        std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{try imap.getLastErrorText(alloc)});
        return;
    };

    // Iterate the matching message identifiers.
    const n = msg_set.getCount();
    std.debug.print("Matching messages: {d}\n", .{n});
    var i: i32 = 0;
    i = 0;
    while (i < n) : (i += 1) {
        std.debug.print("UID: {d}\n", .{msg_set.getId(i)});
    }

    imap.disconnect() catch {
        std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{try imap.getLastErrorText(alloc)});
        return;
    };
}