Let us first compress the current directory and then create an email message. We can send the email message via an external SMTP host, or we can use a local email server to do this. Like other recipes, let us get the sender and recipient information from parsing the command-line inputs.

Listing 5.3 shows how to convert an email folder into a compressed ZIP file as follows:

#!/usr/bin/env python 
# Python Network Programming Cookbook, Second Edition -- Chapter - 5 
# This program is optimized for Python 2.7.12 and Python 3.5.2. 
# It may run on any other version with/without modifications. 
 
import os 
import argparse 
import smtplib 
import zipfile 
import tempfile 
from email import encoders 
from email.mime.base import MIMEBase 
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart     
 
def email_dir_zipped(sender, recipient): 
    zf = tempfile.TemporaryFile(prefix='mail', suffix='.zip') 
    zip = zipfile.ZipFile(zf, 'w') 
    print ("Zipping current dir: %s" %os.getcwd()) 
    for file_name in os.listdir(os.getcwd()): 
        zip.write(file_name) 
    zip.close() 
    zf.seek(0) 
 
    # Create the message 
    print ("Creating email message...") 
    email_msg = MIMEMultipart() 
    email_msg['Subject'] = 'File from path %s' %os.getcwd() 
    email_msg['To'] = ', '.join(recipient) 
    email_msg['From'] = sender 
    email_msg.preamble = 'Testing email from Python.
' 
    msg = MIMEBase('application', 'zip') 
    msg.set_payload(zf.read()) 
    encoders.encode_base64(msg) 
    msg.add_header('Content-Disposition', 'attachment',  
                   filename=os.getcwd()[-1] + '.zip') 
    email_msg.attach(msg) 
    email_msg = email_msg.as_string() 
 
    # send the message 
    print ("Sending email message...") 
    try: 
        smtp = smtplib.SMTP('localhost') 
        smtp.set_debuglevel(1) 
        smtp.sendmail(sender, recipient, email_msg) 
    except Exception as e: 
        print ("Error: %s" %str(e)) 
    finally: 
        smtp.close() 
 
if __name__ == '__main__': 
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Email Example') 
    parser.add_argument('--sender', action="store", 
    dest="sender", default='[email protected]') 
    parser.add_argument('--recipient', action="store", 
    dest="recipient") 
    given_args = parser.parse_args() 
    email_dir_zipped(given_args.sender, given_args.recipient) 

Running this recipe shows the following output. The extra output is shown because we enabled the email debug level:

$ python 5_3_email_current_dir_zipped.py --recipient=faruq@localhost
Zipping current dir: /home/faruq/Dropbox/PacktPub/pynet-cookbook/pynetcookbook_code/chapter5
Creating email message...
Sending email message...
send: 'ehlo [127.0.0.1]
'
reply: '250-debian6.debian2013.com
'
reply: '250-PIPELINING
'
reply: '250-SIZE 10240000
'
reply: '250-VRFY
'
reply: '250-ETRN
'
reply: '250-STARTTLS
'
reply: '250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
'
reply: '250-8BITMIME
'
reply: '250 DSN
'
reply: retcode (250); Msg: debian6.debian2013.com
PIPELINING
SIZE 10240000
VRFY
ETRN
STARTTLS
ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
8BITMIME
DSN
send: 'mail FROM:<[email protected]> size=9141
'
reply: '250 2.1.0 Ok
'
reply: retcode (250); Msg: 2.1.0 Ok
send: 'rcpt TO:<faruq@localhost>
'
reply: '250 2.1.5 Ok
'
reply: retcode (250); Msg: 2.1.5 Ok
send: 'data
'
reply: '354 End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>
'
reply: retcode (354); Msg: End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>
data: (354, 'End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>')
send: 'Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="===============0388489101==...[TRUNCATED]
reply: '250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 42D2F34A996
'
reply: retcode (250); Msg: 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 42D2F34A996
data: (250, '2.0.0 Ok: queued as 42D2F34A996')