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gh-55454: Add IMAP4 IDLE support to imaplib (#122542)
* gh-55454: Add IMAP4 IDLE support to imaplib

This extends imaplib with support for the rfc2177 IMAP IDLE command,
as requested in #55454.  It allows events to be pushed to a client as
they occur, rather than having to continually poll for mailbox changes.

The interface is a new idle() method, which returns an iterable context
manager.  Entering the context starts IDLE mode, during which events
(untagged responses) can be retrieved using the iteration protocol.
Exiting the context sends DONE to the server, ending IDLE mode.

An optional time limit for the IDLE session is supported, for use with
servers that impose an inactivity timeout.

The context manager also offers a burst() method, designed for programs
wishing to process events in batch rather than one at a time.

Notable differences from other implementations:

- It's an extension to imaplib, rather than a replacement.
- It doesn't introduce additional threads.
- It doesn't impose new requirements on the use of imaplib's existing methods.
- It passes the unit tests in CPython's test/test_imaplib.py module
  (and adds new ones).
- It works on Windows, Linux, and other unix-like systems.
- It makes IDLE available on all of imaplib's client variants
  (including IMAP4_stream).
- The interface is pythonic and easy to use.

Caveats:

- Due to a Windows limitation, the special case of IMAP4_stream running
  on Windows lacks a duration/timeout feature. (This is the stdin/stdout
  pipe connection variant; timeouts work fine for socket-based
  connections, even on Windows.) I have documented it where appropriate.

- The file-like imaplib instance attributes are changed from buffered to
  unbuffered mode. This could potentially break any client code that
  uses those objects directly without expecting partial reads/writes.
  However, these attributes are undocumented. As such, I think (and
  PEP 8 confirms) that they are fair game for changes.
  https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/#public-and-internal-interfaces

Usage examples:

https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/55454#issuecomment-2227543041

Original discussion:

https://discuss.python.org/t/gauging-interest-in-my-imap4-idle-implementation-for-imaplib/59272

Earlier requests and suggestions:

https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/55454

https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-ideas@python.org/thread/C4TVEYL5IBESQQPPS5GBR7WFBXCLQMZ2/

* gh-55454: Clarify imaplib idle() docs

- Add example idle response tuples, to make the minor difference from other
  imaplib response tuples more obvious.
- Merge the idle context manager's burst() method docs with the IMAP
  object's idle() method docs, for easier understanding.
- Upgrade the Windows note regarding lack of pipe timeouts to a warning.
- Rephrase various things for clarity.

* docs: words instead of <=

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

* docs: improve style in an example

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

* docs: grammatical edit

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

* docs consistency

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

* comment -> docstring

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

* docs: refer to imaplib as "this module"

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

* imaplib: simplify & clarify idle debug message

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

* imaplib: elaborate in idle context manager comment

* imaplib: re-raise BaseException instead of bare except

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

* imaplib: convert private doc string to comment

* docs: correct mistake in imaplib example

This is a correction to 8077f2eab2, which
changed a variable name in only one place and broke the subsequent
reference to it, departed from the naming convention used in the rest of
the module, and shadowed the type() builtin along the way.

* imaplib: simplify example code in doc string

This is for consistency with the documentation change in 8077f2eab2
and subsequent correction in 013bbf18fc.

* imaplib: rename _Idler to Idler, update its docs

* imaplib: add comment in Idler._pop()

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

* imaplib: remove unnecessary blank line

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

* imaplib: comment on use of unbuffered pipes

* docs: imaplib: use the reStructuredText :class: role

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

* Revert "docs: imaplib: use the reStructuredText :class: role"

This reverts commit f385e441df, because it
triggers CI failures in the docs by referencing a class that is
(deliberately) undocumented.

* docs: imaplib: use the reST :class: role, escaped

This is a different approach to f385e441df, which was reverted for
creating dangling link references.

By prefixing the reStructuredText role target with a ! we disable
conversion to a link, thereby passing continuous integration checks
even though the referenced class is deliberately absent from the
documentation.

* docs: refer to IMAP4 IDLE instead of just IDLE

This clarifies that we are referring to the email protocol, not the editor with the same name.

Co-authored-by: Guido van Rossum <gvanrossum@gmail.com>

* imaplib: IDLE -> IMAP4 IDLE in exception message

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

* docs: imaplib idle() phrasing and linking tweaks

* docs: imaplib: avoid linking to an invalid target

This reverts and rephrases part of a3f21cd75b
which created links to a method on a deliberately undocumented class.
The links didn't work consistently, and caused sphinx warnings that
broke cpython's continuous integration tests.

* imaplib: update test after recent exception change

This fixes a test that was broken by changing an exception in
b01de95171

* imaplib: rename idle() dur argument to duration

* imaplib: bytes.index() -> bytes.find()

This makes it more obvious which statement triggers the branch.

* imaplib: remove no-longer-necessary statement

Co-authored-by: Martin Panter <vadmium@users.noreply.github.com>

* docs: imaplib: concise & valid method links

The burst() method is a little tricky to link in restructuredText, due
to quirks of its parent class.  This syntax allows sphinx to generate
working links without generating warnings (which break continuous
integration) and without burdening the reader with unimportant namespace
qualifications.  It makes the reST source ugly, but few people read
the reST source, so it's a tolerable tradeoff.

* imaplib: note data types present in IDLE responses

* docs: imaplib: add comma to reST changes header

Co-authored-by: Bénédikt Tran <10796600+picnixz@users.noreply.github.com>

* imaplib: sync doc strings with reST docs

* docs: imaplib: minor Idler clarifications

* imaplib: idle: emit (type, [data, ...]) tuples

This allows our iterator to emit untagged responses that contain literal
strings in the same way that imaplib's existing methods do, while still
emitting exactly one whole response per iteration.

* imaplib: while/yield instead of yield from iter()

* imaplib: idle: use deadline idiom when iterating

This simplifies the code, and avoids idle duration drift from time spent
processing each iteration.

* docs: imaplib: state duration/interval arg types

* docs: imaplib: minor rephrasing of a sentence

* docs: imaplib: reposition a paragraph

This might improve readability, especially when encountering Idler.burst()
for the first time.

* docs: imaplib: wrap long lines in idle() section

* docs: imaplib: note: Idler objects require 'with'

* docs: imaplib: say that 29 minutes is 1740 seconds

* docs: imaplib: mark a paragraph as a 'tip'

* docs: imaplib: rephrase reference to MS Windows

* imaplib: end doc string titles with a period

* imaplib: idle: socket timeouts instead of select()

IDLE timeouts were originally implemented using select() after
checking for the presence of already-buffered data.
That allowed timeouts on pipe connetions like IMAP4_stream.
However, it seemed possible that SSL data arriving without any
IMAP data afterward could cause select() to indicate available
application data when there was none, leading to a read() call
that would block with no timeout. It was unclear under what
conditions this would happen in practice. This change switches
to socket timeouts instead of select(), just to be safe.

This also reverts IMAP4_stream changes that were made to support IDLE
timeouts, since our new implementation only supports socket connections.

* imaplib: Idler: rename private state attributes

* imaplib: rephrase a comment in example code

* docs: imaplib: idle: use Sphinx code-block:: pycon

* docs: whatsnew: imaplib: reformat IMAP4.idle entry

* imaplib: idle: make doc strings brief

Since we generally rely on the reST/html documentation for details, we
can keep these doc strings short. This matches the module's existing doc
string style and avoids having to sync small changes between two files.

* imaplib: Idler: split assert into two statements

* imaplib: Idler: move assignment out of try: block

* imaplib: Idler: move __exit__() for readability

* imaplib: Idler: move __next__() for readability

* imaplib: test: make IdleCmdHandler a global class

* docs: imaplib: idle: collapse double-spaces

* imaplib: warn on use of undocumented 'file' attr

* imaplib: revert import reformatting

Since we no longer import platform or selectors, the original import
statement style can be restored, reducing the footprint of PR #122542.

* imaplib: restore original exception msg formatting

This reduces the footprint of PR #122542.

* docs: imaplib: idle: versionadded:: next

* imaplib: move import statement to where it's used

This import is only needed if external code tries to use an attribute
that it shouldn't be using. Making it a local import reduces module
loading time in supported cases.

* imaplib test: RuntimeWarning on IMAP4.file access

* imaplib: use stacklevel=2 in warnings.warn()

* imaplib test: simplify IMAP4.file warning test

* imaplib test: pre-idle-continuation response

* imaplib test: post-done untagged response

* imaplib: downgrade idle-denied exception to error

This makes it easier for client code to distinguish a temporary
rejection of the IDLE command from a server responding incorrectly to
IDLE.

* imaplib: simplify check for socket object

* imaplib: narrow the scope of IDLE socket timeouts

If an IDLE duration or burst() was in use, and an unsolicited response
contained a literal string, and crossed a packet boundary, and the
subsequent packet was delayed beyond the IDLE feature's time limit, the
timeout would leave the incoming protocol stream in a bad state (with
the tail of that response appearing where the start of a response is
expected).

This change moves the IDLE socket timeout to cover only the start
of a response, so it can no longer cause that problem.

* imaplib: preserve partial reads on exception

This ensures that short IDLE durations / burst() intervals
won't risk corrupting response lines that span multiple packets.

* imaplib: read/readline: save multipart buffer tail

For resilience if read() or readline() ever complete with more than one
bytes object remaining in the buffer. This is not expected to happen,
but it seems wise to be prepared for a future change making it possible.

* imaplib: use TimeoutError subclass only if needed

* doc: imaplib: elaborate on IDLE response delivery

* doc: imaplib: elaborate in note re: IMAP4.response

* imaplib: comment on benefit of reading in chunks

Our read() implementation designed to support IDLE replaces the one from
PR #119514, fixing the same problem it was addressing. The tests that it
added are preserved.

* imaplib: readline(): treat ConnectionError as EOF

---------

Co-authored-by: Gregory P. Smith <greg@krypto.org>
Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org>
Co-authored-by: Guido van Rossum <gvanrossum@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Martin Panter <vadmium@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Bénédikt Tran <10796600+picnixz@users.noreply.github.com>
2025-02-06 19:15:11 -08:00
.azure-pipelines gh-122544: Change OS image in Azure pipeline to Ubuntu 24.04 (#125344) 2024-11-06 00:10:12 +01:00
.devcontainer gh-124612: Good bye dockerfile and use GHCR package (gh-124626) 2024-09-26 12:58:15 -07:00
.github gh-128563: A new tail-calling interpreter (GH-128718) 2025-02-06 23:21:57 +08:00
Android gh-129156: Fix variable quoting in android-env.sh script (#129321) 2025-01-27 10:53:24 +08:00
Doc gh-55454: Add IMAP4 IDLE support to imaplib (#122542) 2025-02-06 19:15:11 -08:00
Grammar gh-122951: Simplify the grammar of the assignment rule (#124998) 2024-10-06 11:55:56 +02:00
Include gh-128002: use per threads tasks linked list in asyncio (#128869) 2025-02-06 19:51:07 +01:00
InternalDocs GH-126599: Remove the PyOptimizer API (GH-129194) 2025-01-28 16:10:51 -08:00
iOS gh-129248: Filter out the iOS log prefix from testbed runner output. (#129252) 2025-01-25 16:49:39 +08:00
Lib gh-55454: Add IMAP4 IDLE support to imaplib (#122542) 2025-02-06 19:15:11 -08:00
Mac gh-126133: Only use start year in PSF copyright, remove end years (#126236) 2024-11-12 15:59:19 +02:00
Misc gh-55454: Add IMAP4 IDLE support to imaplib (#122542) 2025-02-06 19:15:11 -08:00
Modules gh-128002: use per threads tasks linked list in asyncio (#128869) 2025-02-06 19:51:07 +01:00
Objects gh-117657: Fix data race in new_reference for free threaded build (gh-129665) 2025-02-06 15:35:37 -05:00
Parser gh-128911: Add PyImport_ImportModuleAttr() function (#128912) 2025-01-30 11:17:29 +00:00
PC gh-111178: Generate correct signature for most self converters (#128447) 2025-01-20 12:40:18 +01:00
PCbuild gh-93649: Add Modules/_testcapi/function.c file (#129521) 2025-01-31 16:02:50 +01:00
Programs GH-128914: Remove all but one conditional stack effects (GH-129226) 2025-01-27 16:24:48 +00:00
Python gh-129533: Update PyGC_Enable/Disable/IsEnabled to use atomic operation (gh-129563) 2025-02-07 07:41:13 +09:00
Tools gh-117657: Include all of test_free_threading in TSAN tests (#129749) 2025-02-07 00:37:05 +01:00
.coveragerc gh-106368: Improve coverage reports for argument clinic (#107693) 2023-08-06 20:40:55 +01:00
.editorconfig gh-115317: Rewrite changelog filter to use vanilla JavaScript (#115324) 2024-02-12 22:17:33 +00:00
.gitattributes gh-121735: Fix module-adjacent references in zip files (#123037) 2024-09-11 22:33:07 -04:00
.gitignore gh-114099 - Add iOS framework loading machinery. (GH-116454) 2024-03-19 08:36:19 -04:00
.mailmap
.pre-commit-config.yaml Move to public Linux arm64 hosted runners (#128964) 2025-01-20 18:51:09 +02:00
.readthedocs.yml gh-122544: Change OS image in readthedocs.yml to ubuntu-24.04 (#122568) 2024-08-02 09:09:27 +03:00
aclocal.m4 gh-89640: Pull in update to float word order detection in autoconf-archive (#126747) 2024-11-13 21:57:33 +01:00
config.guess gh-115765: Upgrade to GNU Autoconf 2.72 (#128411) 2025-01-03 11:37:54 +00:00
config.sub gh-114099: Add configure and Makefile targets to support iOS compilation. (GH-115390) 2024-02-25 20:21:10 -05:00
configure gh-129737: Fix help message for tail calling interpreter configuration (GH-129754) 2025-02-07 08:47:13 +08:00
configure.ac gh-129737: Fix help message for tail calling interpreter configuration (GH-129754) 2025-02-07 08:47:13 +08:00
install-sh gh-115765: Upgrade to GNU Autoconf 2.72 (#128411) 2025-01-03 11:37:54 +00:00
LICENSE gh-126133: Only use start year in PSF copyright, remove end years (#126236) 2024-11-12 15:59:19 +02:00
Makefile.pre.in GH-127705: Add debug mode for _PyStackRefs inspired by HPy debug mode (GH-128121) 2024-12-20 16:52:20 +00:00
pyconfig.h.in gh-128563: A new tail-calling interpreter (GH-128718) 2025-02-06 23:21:57 +08:00
README.rst Python 3.14.0a4 2025-01-14 13:52:58 +02:00

This is Python version 3.14.0 alpha 4
=====================================

.. image:: https://github.com/python/cpython/actions/workflows/build.yml/badge.svg?branch=main&event=push
   :alt: CPython build status on GitHub Actions
   :target: https://github.com/python/cpython/actions

.. image:: https://dev.azure.com/python/cpython/_apis/build/status/Azure%20Pipelines%20CI?branchName=main
   :alt: CPython build status on Azure DevOps
   :target: https://dev.azure.com/python/cpython/_build/latest?definitionId=4&branchName=main

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/badge/discourse-join_chat-brightgreen.svg
   :alt: Python Discourse chat
   :target: https://discuss.python.org/


Copyright © 2001 Python Software Foundation.  All rights reserved.

See the end of this file for further copyright and license information.

.. contents::

General Information
-------------------

- Website: https://www.python.org
- Source code: https://github.com/python/cpython
- Issue tracker: https://github.com/python/cpython/issues
- Documentation: https://docs.python.org
- Developer's Guide: https://devguide.python.org/

Contributing to CPython
-----------------------

For more complete instructions on contributing to CPython development,
see the `Developer Guide`_.

.. _Developer Guide: https://devguide.python.org/

Using Python
------------

Installable Python kits, and information about using Python, are available at
`python.org`_.

.. _python.org: https://www.python.org/

Build Instructions
------------------

On Unix, Linux, BSD, macOS, and Cygwin::

    ./configure
    make
    make test
    sudo make install

This will install Python as ``python3``.

You can pass many options to the configure script; run ``./configure --help``
to find out more.  On macOS case-insensitive file systems and on Cygwin,
the executable is called ``python.exe``; elsewhere it's just ``python``.

Building a complete Python installation requires the use of various
additional third-party libraries, depending on your build platform and
configure options.  Not all standard library modules are buildable or
usable on all platforms.  Refer to the
`Install dependencies <https://devguide.python.org/getting-started/setup-building.html#build-dependencies>`_
section of the `Developer Guide`_ for current detailed information on
dependencies for various Linux distributions and macOS.

On macOS, there are additional configure and build options related
to macOS framework and universal builds.  Refer to `Mac/README.rst
<https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Mac/README.rst>`_.

On Windows, see `PCbuild/readme.txt
<https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/PCbuild/readme.txt>`_.

To build Windows installer, see `Tools/msi/README.txt
<https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Tools/msi/README.txt>`_.

If you wish, you can create a subdirectory and invoke configure from there.
For example::

    mkdir debug
    cd debug
    ../configure --with-pydebug
    make
    make test

(This will fail if you *also* built at the top-level directory.  You should do
a ``make clean`` at the top-level first.)

To get an optimized build of Python, ``configure --enable-optimizations``
before you run ``make``.  This sets the default make targets up to enable
Profile Guided Optimization (PGO) and may be used to auto-enable Link Time
Optimization (LTO) on some platforms.  For more details, see the sections
below.

Profile Guided Optimization
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

PGO takes advantage of recent versions of the GCC or Clang compilers.  If used,
either via ``configure --enable-optimizations`` or by manually running
``make profile-opt`` regardless of configure flags, the optimized build
process will perform the following steps:

The entire Python directory is cleaned of temporary files that may have
resulted from a previous compilation.

An instrumented version of the interpreter is built, using suitable compiler
flags for each flavor. Note that this is just an intermediary step.  The
binary resulting from this step is not good for real-life workloads as it has
profiling instructions embedded inside.

After the instrumented interpreter is built, the Makefile will run a training
workload.  This is necessary in order to profile the interpreter's execution.
Note also that any output, both stdout and stderr, that may appear at this step
is suppressed.

The final step is to build the actual interpreter, using the information
collected from the instrumented one.  The end result will be a Python binary
that is optimized; suitable for distribution or production installation.


Link Time Optimization
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Enabled via configure's ``--with-lto`` flag.  LTO takes advantage of the
ability of recent compiler toolchains to optimize across the otherwise
arbitrary ``.o`` file boundary when building final executables or shared
libraries for additional performance gains.


What's New
----------

We have a comprehensive overview of the changes in the `What's New in Python
3.14 <https://docs.python.org/3.14/whatsnew/3.14.html>`_ document.  For a more
detailed change log, read `Misc/NEWS
<https://github.com/python/cpython/tree/main/Misc/NEWS.d>`_, but a full
accounting of changes can only be gleaned from the `commit history
<https://github.com/python/cpython/commits/main>`_.

If you want to install multiple versions of Python, see the section below
entitled "Installing multiple versions".


Documentation
-------------

`Documentation for Python 3.14 <https://docs.python.org/3.14/>`_ is online,
updated daily.

It can also be downloaded in many formats for faster access.  The documentation
is downloadable in HTML, PDF, and reStructuredText formats; the latter version
is primarily for documentation authors, translators, and people with special
formatting requirements.

For information about building Python's documentation, refer to `Doc/README.rst
<https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Doc/README.rst>`_.


Testing
-------

To test the interpreter, type ``make test`` in the top-level directory.  The
test set produces some output.  You can generally ignore the messages about
skipped tests due to optional features which can't be imported.  If a message
is printed about a failed test or a traceback or core dump is produced,
something is wrong.

By default, tests are prevented from overusing resources like disk space and
memory.  To enable these tests, run ``make buildbottest``.

If any tests fail, you can re-run the failing test(s) in verbose mode.  For
example, if ``test_os`` and ``test_gdb`` failed, you can run::

    make test TESTOPTS="-v test_os test_gdb"

If the failure persists and appears to be a problem with Python rather than
your environment, you can `file a bug report
<https://github.com/python/cpython/issues>`_ and include relevant output from
that command to show the issue.

See `Running & Writing Tests <https://devguide.python.org/testing/run-write-tests.html>`_
for more on running tests.

Installing multiple versions
----------------------------

On Unix and Mac systems if you intend to install multiple versions of Python
using the same installation prefix (``--prefix`` argument to the configure
script) you must take care that your primary python executable is not
overwritten by the installation of a different version.  All files and
directories installed using ``make altinstall`` contain the major and minor
version and can thus live side-by-side.  ``make install`` also creates
``${prefix}/bin/python3`` which refers to ``${prefix}/bin/python3.X``.  If you
intend to install multiple versions using the same prefix you must decide which
version (if any) is your "primary" version.  Install that version using
``make install``.  Install all other versions using ``make altinstall``.

For example, if you want to install Python 2.7, 3.6, and 3.14 with 3.14 being the
primary version, you would execute ``make install`` in your 3.14 build directory
and ``make altinstall`` in the others.


Release Schedule
----------------

See `PEP 745 <https://peps.python.org/pep-0745/>`__ for Python 3.14 release details.


Copyright and License Information
---------------------------------


Copyright © 2001 Python Software Foundation.  All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2000 BeOpen.com.  All rights reserved.

Copyright © 1995-2001 Corporation for National Research Initiatives.  All
rights reserved.

Copyright © 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum.  All rights reserved.

See the `LICENSE <https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/LICENSE>`_ for
information on the history of this software, terms & conditions for usage, and a
DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.

This Python distribution contains *no* GNU General Public License (GPL) code,
so it may be used in proprietary projects.  There are interfaces to some GNU
code but these are entirely optional.

All trademarks referenced herein are property of their respective holders.