Install goimapnotify with Homebrew, apk, MacPorts, Nix, pacman

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• goimapnotify

Project history

The project was created on GitLab in August 2017 and describes itself as a Golang version of an IMAP notification tool for executing scripts on mailbox changes. Its first visible Git tags, 1.0 and 1.0.1, appeared in August 2017.

The README documents compatibility with the Python imapnotify configuration style while using Go-specific option names such as passwordCMD. Later releases added OAuth2 support, STARTTLS-related fixes, YAML configuration, monitoring all mailboxes, IMAP ID support, and event handling for changed or deleted mail.

Adoption history

The package is distributed in multiple Unix package ecosystems, including Homebrew, Arch Linux, MacPorts, Alpine, and Nix according to the supplied package-manager metadata. Arch Linux and MacPorts both publish package pages that point back to the GitLab upstream and describe the same IMAP-IDLE script-triggering purpose.

How it is used

Users install the goimapnotify CLI and provide a JSON, YAML, YML, or TOML configuration file. The documented default config path is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/goimapnotify/goimapnotify.yaml, and the -conf flag can override it.

A configuration defines one or more IMAP accounts, watched mailboxes, authentication values or commands that produce them, TLS behavior, and shell commands to run for events such as new, changed, or deleted messages. The -list mode helps users inspect mailbox hierarchy before choosing mailbox names.

Why package nerds care

goimapnotify is a small Unix-style automation utility: it bridges remote IMAP IDLE events to local commands such as mail sync scripts. That makes it useful in terminal mail setups where package-manager availability and predictable config-file behavior matter more than a graphical mail client.

For package maintainers, it is a compact Go network daemon/CLI with a stable upstream, tagged releases, and cross-distribution packaging, but it also carries typical mail-tool concerns around TLS defaults, OAuth2 token handling, and redaction of credentials in logs.

Timeline

• 2017-08-23: GitLab project created.
• 2017-08-25: Tag 1.0 published.
• 2019-04-26: Tag 2.0 published.
• 2021-04-19: Tag 2.2 published with OAuth2-related development in the tag history.
• 2024-09-30: Version 2.4 changelog records YAML support, monitoring all mailboxes, IMAP ID support, and credential-redaction work.
• 2026-02-14: Version 2.5.5 released.

Related projects

• python-imapnotify is listed by the goimapnotify README as the older Python implementation whose configuration style goimapnotify mostly follows.

Sources

• https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/goimapnotify/
• https://gitlab.com/shackra/goimapnotify
• https://gitlab.com/shackra/goimapnotify/-/raw/master/CHANGELOG.md
• https://gitlab.com/shackra/goimapnotify/-/raw/master/README.md
• https://gitlab.com/shackra/goimapnotify/-/tags
• https://gitlab.com/shackra/goimapnotify/-/tags?page=2
• https://ports.macports.org/port/goimapnotify/