inst/docker/README.md

In mRpostman: An IMAP Client for R

mRpostman IMAP sandbox

A disposable local IMAP server (Dovecot on Alpine Linux) for testing and demonstrating mRpostman without a real mail account. Everything runs offline, and the mailbox is populated deterministically by the package itself, so results are reproducible across machines.

Not suitable for production use: no TLS, plaintext authentication, and a single static password (sandbox) shared by every username.

Requirements

• Docker
• mRpostman >= 1.3.0

Quick start

From this folder (system.file("docker", package = "mRpostman")):

docker build -t mrpostman-sandbox .
docker run -d --name mrpostman-sandbox -p 1430:143 mrpostman-sandbox

Populate the mailbox with 200 synthetic messages (any username works; the password is always sandbox):

Rscript populate_mailbox.R 200

or, from R:

library(mRpostman)
con <- configure_imap(url = "imap://localhost:1430",
                      username = "testuser",
                      password = "sandbox",
                      use_ssl = FALSE)
populate_sandbox(con, n = 200)

Then use the package as usual:

con$list_mail_folders()
con$select_folder("INBOX")
con$search_string(expr = "sales", where = "SUBJECT")

See the "A reproducible IMAP sandbox with Docker" vignette for a guided tour.

Tear down

docker rm -f mrpostman-sandbox

Removing the container discards the mailbox; a fresh docker run + populate_sandbox() recreates it identically.

mRpostman documentation built on July 28, 2026, 9:08 a.m.