1CheckGmail(1) General Commands Manual CheckGmail(1)
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6 CheckGmail - system tray applet to check a Gmail account for new mail
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10 checkgmail [-profile] [-hosted] [-popup_delay] [-no_cookies] [-private]
11 [-v | -verbose] [-nocrypt] [-h]
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15 CheckGmail is an alternative Gmail Notifier for Linux and other *nix
16 systems. It is fast, secure and uses minimal bandwidth via the use of
17 Atom feeds.
18 CheckGmail is a system tray application that checks a Gmail account for
20 new mail. When new mail is present the tray icon changes, an optional
21 animated popup is displayed and a tooltip displays the number and
22 details of new messages. Configuration is GUI-based and the application
23 is designed to be simple, elegant and unobtrusive.
24 CheckGmail aims to be relatively secure in terms of password storage.
26 Combined with Crypt::Simple(3pm) the program provides the option of
27 either encrypting the saved password information or - for maximum secu‐
28 rity - re-entering your password each time the application is run. If
29 you decide to save the password, it is encrypted using a passphrase
30 generated from machine-unique information (the eth0 MAC address and/or
31 uname system information). Encrypting the password prevents both casual
32 reading of plain text passwords on your machine, but more importantly
33 allows the CheckGmail config file in your home directory to be stored
34 securely on external backups.
35 For the password encryption function, CheckGmail depends on the Perl
37 module Crypt::Simple(3pm) CheckGmail will save passwords as plain text
38 if this module (or associated modules) is not present on the system.
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42 -profile=[profile_name]
43 Using this switch causes CheckGmail to read preferences from a
44 file named prefs-[profile_name] in ~/.checkgmail - thus allowing
45 multiple instances of CheckGmail to be run to check different
46 Gmail accounts.
47 -hosted=[Gmail hosted domain]
50 Allows checkgmail to work for Gmail hosted domains. E.g. if
51 your hosted domain is test.net, run the program with
52 -hosted=test.net Once run, the -hosted flag is not required
53 again for that profile.
54 N.B: You will need to delete the Atom feed address from your
56 preferences or use a new profile before using this option for
57 the first time. Following a change in the Gmail login code for
58 hosted domains, this option does not appear to be compatible
59 with the -no_cookies method of checking mail.
60 -popup_delay=[time in millisecs]
63 Sets the time taken between the mouse entering the system tray
64 icon and the tooltip being displayed. Default is 250 millisecs
65 as of version 1.10 (previous versions used no delay).
66 -no_cookies
69 Uses the old Atom feed retrieval method (default in versions
70 1.7.2 and earlier) of sending the username and password across
71 https. The alternative, and currently default method, is to
72 login to Gmail, save the authentication cookies, and then
73 retrieve the Atom feeds without requiring any further authenti‐
74 cation - this method has the benefit of allowing various actions
75 to be carried out upon new messages received, such as deleting,
76 marking as read, archiving or reporting spam.
77 -private
80 Prevents the display of message details in the popup - only the
81 number of new messages will be displayed.
82 -v | -verbose
85 Causes CheckGmail to print details of mail checking and mail
86 contents to STDOUT
87 -nocrypt
89 Disables the use of Crypt::Simple to encrypt saved password
90 information - passwords will be saved as plain text.
91 -h Prints a usage message.
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96 HTTPS_PROXY
97 Setting the HTTPS_PROXY environment variable will cause CheckG‐
98 mail to use the specified proxy server when checking for new
99 mail.
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103 ~/.checkgmail/prefs.xml
104 User configuration file
105 ~/.checkgmail/lang.xml
107 Language translations
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111 Owen Marshall <owenjm at the email provider which this utility checks>
112 CheckGmail(1)