MoonPoint Support Weblog

Checking a mailbox with POP3 commands

To check the email in an account's inbox using Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) commands from a command-line interface (CLI), if the POP3 server, e.g., Dovecot, is listening on the default well-known port of 110 by connecting to the POP3 server using Telnet and issuing the following commands:

Authentication

user <username> - enter the username for the account
pass <password> - enter the password for the account

Mailbox Status & Information

stat - see the number of messages in the inbox
list [msg] - lists all messages or a specific message number along with its size
uidl [msg] <n> - returns the unique message ID for tracking a specific email
capa - request a list of the server's capabilities

Mail Retrieval

retr <msg> – the retrieve command downloads/displays the full content of the specified message number
top <msg> <n> – retrieves the message header plus a specified number (n) of body lines.

Mail Management & Session Control

dele <msg> - delete a particular message
rset - Unmarks any messages that were previously marked for deletion during the session
noop - performs no operation (can be used as a keep-alive check)
quit - disconnect from the POP3 server

E.g.:

# telnet 127.0.0.1 110
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK Dovecot ready.
capa
+OK
CAPA
TOP
UIDL
RESP-CODES
PIPELINING
AUTH-RESP-CODE
STLS
USER
SASL PLAIN
.
user nell
+OK
pass thePassword
+OK Logged in.
stat
+OK 278 59431689
retr 278
+OK 691 octets
Return-Path: 
Received: from moonpoint.com (localhost [127.0.0.1])
	by moonpoint.com (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id 6A4122DY022073
	for ; Tue, 3 Nov 2026 20:02:02 -0500
Received: (from jdoe@localhost)
	by moonpoint.com (8.14.7/8.14.7/Submit) id 6A4122iG022070
	for nell@moonpoint.com; Tue, 3 Nov 2026 20:02:02 -0500
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2026 20:02:02 -0500
From: jdoe 
To: nell@moonpoint.com
Subject: Example email
Message-ID: <20261104010202.GA21379@moonpoint.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15)

This is an example email.
.
dele 278
+OK Marked to be deleted.
rset
+OK
noop
+OK
quit
+OK Logging out, messages deleted.
Connection closed by foreign host.
#

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Wed, Nov 04, 2026 8:46 pm