I'm using Mail::IMAPClient to write my own mail monitor and currently trying handling connection problems, simulated simply detaching the ethernet cable. Ideally I'd like the program to retry a connection for some times before giving definitevely up.

With both intuitive solution like $imap->connect() if $imap->IsUnconnected and also reinstanciating the whole $imap object ( new calls connect or login on its own) I get a nasty loop of: Lost connection to ... retry 1 retry 2.. [I plug eth] Succesfully reconnected .. Lost connection to ..

Here the code reduced to the minimum (I left the read password echo(0) to play nicely with your terminal security ;)

use strict;
use warnings;

use Mail::IMAPClient;
use Term::ReadKey;

my $user   = 'put.here.your.imap.account@example.com';
my $server = 'email.example.com';
my $port   = 993;
my $ssl    = 1;                # generally ssl is used
my $imap_folder = "INBOX";
my $sleep  = 5;


print "\n(use CTRL-C to permit logout)\n";
print "Enter the password for $user on $server\n";
my $password;
ReadMode('noecho');
$password = ReadLine(0);
chomp $password;
ReadMode 'normal';

my $imap = Mail::IMAPClient->new(
  Server => $server,
  User => $user,
  password => $password,
  Port => $port,
  Ssl=> $ssl,
  Uid=> 1,
  ) or die "IMAP Failure: $@";

print "Logged in succesfully\n" if $imap->IsConnected();
 
# Handle Ctrl-C
$SIG{INT} = sub{ 
    print "\n\nLogging out..\n";
    $imap->logout();
    exit;
};

# do NOT mark as read when handling messages
$imap->Peek(1);

# look in INBOX
$imap->select( $imap_folder ) or die "IMAP Select Error for imap folde
+r [$imap_folder]: $@";

my $now = time;
my %seen = map { $_ => 1} $imap->sentsince($now);

while (1){
    ##################################################################
+##############
    #        Handling a lost connection
    ##################################################################
+##############
    if ( $imap->IsUnconnected ){
        print "Lost connection to $server\n";
        for (1..100){
            sleep 1 for 1..5;
            print "Connection retry $_..\n";
            
            # option 1
            # enters in a loop connected / unconnected
            # $imap->connect();
            
            # option 2 
            # also this enters in a loop

            $imap = Mail::IMAPClient->new(
                Server => $server,
                User => $user,
                password => $password,
                Port => $port,
                Ssl=> $ssl,
                Uid=> 1,
            );
            next unless $imap;
            last if $imap->IsConnected();
        }
        # give up..
        die "Reconnection impossible!" if $imap->IsUnconnected();
        # if here we succeded
        print "Succesfully reconnected!\n";
    }
    # as the above solutions do not work..
    next if $imap->IsUnconnected();
    ##################################################################
+##############

    my @msgs = $imap->sentsince($now);
    foreach my $msg (@msgs){
        # without this line I get an undef $msg entry in %seen
        next unless defined $msg;
        next if $seen{$msg};        
        $seen{ $msg }++;        
        print "New message: ",
                $imap->get_header( $msg, "Subject" ), " from: ", 
                $imap->get_header( $msg, "From" ),"\n";    
    }    
    sleep 1 for 1..$sleep;
    $now = time;
}
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Some idea on how reconnect safely and really?

L*