If you are a command-line lover, I am sure that you welcome with open arms any tool that allows you to perform at least one of your daily tasks using that powerful work environment, e.g., from scheduling appointments and managing finances to accessing Facebook and Twitter.

In this post I will show you yet another pretty neat use case of Linux command-line: accessing Google’s Gmail service. To do so, we are going to use Alpine, a versatile ncurses-based, command-line email client (not to be confused with Alpine Linux). We will configure Gmail’s IMAP and SMTP settings in Alpine to receive and send email messages via Google mail servers in a terminal environment. At the end of this tutorial, you will realize that it will only take a few minimum steps to use any other mail servers in Alpine.

Granted there are already outstanding GUI-based email clients such as Thunderbird, Evolution or even web interface. So why would anyone be interested in using a command-line email client to access Gmail? The answer is simple. You need to get something done quickly and want to avoid using system resources unnecessarily. Or you are accessing a minimal headless server that does not have the X server installed. Or the X server on your desktop crashed, and you need to send emails urgently before fixing it. In all these situations Alpine can come in handy and get you going in no time.

Some of us older folks may remember that one of the first command-line based email programs was named Pine.  Wonder if the creators of this program had that one in mind when they chose the name?

Full article here:
How to access Gmail from the command line on Linux with Alpine (Xmodulo)