php imap download email to eml a comparison of different approaches

Pieced together a simple php script to download emails using imap.

These are some of the different approaches to download the email as eml format. 

 Approach A   
 $headers = imap_fetchheader($connection, $k, FT_PREFETCHTEXT);  
 $body = imap_body($connection, $k);  
 file_put_contents("pathtoemail.eml", $headers . "\n" . $body);  
 Approach B  
  $body=imap_fetchbody($connection, $k, "");  
 file_put_contents("pathtoemail.eml", $body);  
 Approach C  
  imap_savebody($connection, "pathtoemail.eml", $k);  

Performance comparison when downloading 1 day worth of email. (lower is better)
 Approach A (mins)  
 1. 2.095  
 2. 1.886  
 3. 1.984  
 4. 1.990   
 Approach B (mins)  
 1. 1.447  
 2. 1.357  
 3. 1.399  
 4. 1.413  
 Approach C (mins)  
 1. 1.468  
 2. 1.409  
 3. 1.401  
 4. 1.367  


Conclusion:

Either approach B or C would make a good choice for downloading emails using php imap.

Sample script:

 <?php  
 $time_start = microtime(true);   
 //$server = '{imap.mail.yahoo.com:993/ssl}';  
 $server = '{imap.gmail.com:993/ssl}';  
 //$user = 'xxx@gmail.com';  
 $user = $argv[1];  
 //$pass = 'xxx';  
 $pass = "$argv[2]";  
 date_default_timezone_set('Asia/Shanghai');  
 $criteria = 'SINCE "'.date('d M Y', strtotime('- 1 days')).'"';  
 $connection = imap_open($server, $user, $pass) or die("can't connect: " . imap_last_error());  
 $mailboxes = imap_list($connection, $server, '*');  
 $folder = "./$user/";  
 if(!file_exists($folder)){  
   mkdir($folder, 0777, true);  
 }  
 foreach($mailboxes as $mailbox) {  
   $shortname = str_replace($server, '', $mailbox);  
   echo "$shortname\n";  
   //create folder  
   if(!file_exists("$folder$shortname")){  
     mkdir("$folder$shortname", 0777, true);  
     }  
   //enter into folder  
   imap_reopen($connection, $server.$shortname);  
   $count = imap_num_msg($connection);  
   $uids = imap_search($connection, $criteria, SE_UID, 'UTF-8');  
   if(is_array($uids)){  
     foreach($uids as $ud){    
       $k = imap_msgno ($connection, $ud);  
       //approach A  
       //$headers = imap_fetchheader($connection, $k, FT_PREFETCHTEXT);  
       //$body = imap_body($connection, $k);  
       //file_put_contents("$folder$shortname/$ud.eml", $headers ."\n". $body);  
       //approach B  
       //$body=imap_fetchbody($connection, $k, "");  
       //file_put_contents("$folder$shortname/$ud.eml", $body);  
       //approach C  
       imap_savebody($connection, "$folder$shortname/$ud.eml", $k);  
       echo "saved $ud.eml " . "($count-$k)\n";    
     }  
   }else{  
 //          echo "imap_search failed: " . imap_last_error() . "\n";  
     }  
 }  
   imap_errors();  
   imap_close($connection);  
 $time_end = microtime(true);  
 //dividing with 60 will give the execution time in minutes other wise seconds  
 $execution_time = ($time_end - $time_start)/60;  
 //execution time of the script  
 echo 'Total Execution Time: '.$execution_time.' Mins';  
 ?>