Gmail push new mail notifications to Linux?

Question

Is there any way to coax Gmail into pushing new-mail notifications into my Linux machine, without using a full-on graphical mail client like Thunderbird?

edit: Thanks for all the responses, but (unless I'm mistaken) these applications all poll, none of them receive notifications pushed from GMail.

Also, I'd prefer a console-based program, as this will be running on a headless server.

AFAIK Gmail doesn't push notifications at all, which means all notifiers must poll... but I may be unaware of some enterprise edition feature or other. — Yuval, Dec 01 '09 at 06:52
Instant notifications is possible using Gmail's free service (Thundebird is capable). I believe the enabling feature is IMAP IDLE. — alfplayer, Dec 01 '09 at 20:28
Yuval: yea, alfplayer is right. Gmail does push notifications, both to IMAP and when you're in the web interface. — David Wolever, Dec 04 '09 at 18:16

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 30 '09 at 22:16

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There is a program called checkgmail

(http://checkgmail.sourceforge.net/)

that will sit in your gnome taskbar. I know there is a plasma widget for KDE

(http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/gmail-plasmoid?content=101229)

that does something similar, although from what I've read, it might be a little broken.

The program Docky2 has a pretty good gmail notifier built in if you use a compositing window manager like compiz or metacity.

(https://launchpad.net/docky)

I don't know of any terminal based checkers if you don't have an X11 at all.

answered Nov 30 '09 at 22:16

Katerberg

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The command line equivalent is 'biff' – DaveParillo Nov 30 '09 at 23:30
If you're using Ubuntu or another debian-based distro, `checkgmail` should be in your repository. – DaveParillo Nov 30 '09 at 23:34
Do all of this clients support push (instant) notifications? I've only found Thunderbird to have this capability. – alfplayer Nov 30 '09 at 23:48
As alfpayer said, all of these (including, as far as I can tell, checkgmail) are polling not push based. – David Wolever Dec 01 '09 at 01:06
Ah, good point. Sorry, I didn't catch that. – Katerberg Dec 01 '09 at 17:22

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 30 '09 at 23:43

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Mail Notification supports Gmail. It can check multiple accounts simultaneously so you can also use it to notify you of new mail in Evolution, Thunderbird or IMAP and POP accounts.

answered Nov 30 '09 at 23:43

jwaddell

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Ah, thanks – this one does support push notifications… But, alas (and this is my fault, I'm sorry) I didn't make it clear that I wanted an X11-free app. – David Wolever Dec 01 '09 at 01:18

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 06 '10 at 10:39

I know this question is quite old but it came up in my search and I thought I'd update. Evolution now supports IMAP+ or IMAPx which enables IMAP IDLE, and so gmail can push mail to it.

http://chenthill.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/evolution-with-improved-imap-support-imapx/

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 30 '09 at 22:15

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Is this any good?

http://gmail-notify.sourceforge.net/

answered Nov 30 '09 at 22:15

NickG

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That does look nice, but unfortunately it uses polling, not server-push, too. – David Wolever Dec 01 '09 at 01:09

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 29 '10 at 08:13

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Gmail doesn't push. You can receive an atom feed:
http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/faq.html#GmailAtomFeed

answered Apr 29 '10 at 08:13

DanJ

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 22 '10 at 08:22

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If you are on Ubuntu, try GmailWatcher;

ppa:loneowais/ppa

answered Sep 22 '10 at 08:22

Owais Lone

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What is `ppa:loneowais/ppa`? – David Wolever Sep 27 '10 at 14:17
On Ubuntu you can add this to your list of software sources and you'll get automatic updates for all the apps present in this repository. – Owais Lone Sep 28 '10 at 13:48

Gmail push new mail notifications to Linux?

6 Answers6