Continuously email a random Stoic meditation from Marcus Aurelius: a simple exercise in file reading, timedeltas, and sending gmail with Python.

continuous_stoic_meditation.py

# Builds on the random daily Stoic meditation gist at:
# https://gist.github.com/AO8/a33b0e70a1885679279f0533d4f5d8dc
# Enable less secure apps in gmail before running

import random
import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
from time import sleep

def send_gmail(from_addr, password, to_addr, subject, body):
    # prepare email
    msg = MIMEText(body)
    msg["Subject"] = subject
    msg["From"] = from_addr
    msg["To"] = to_addr
    # connect, send, quit
    s = smtplib.SMTP("smtp.gmail.com: 587")
    s.ehlo()
    s.starttls()
    s.login(from_addr, password)
    s.send_message(msg)
    s.quit()
    
start = datetime.now()
stop = start + timedelta(#define when program should stop using days=, hours=, or seconds=)

while datetime.now() < stop:

    random.seed(datetime.now())

    with open("meditations.txt", encoding="utf8") as f:
        contents = f.readlines()

    body = random.choice(contents) + "\n" + "~ Marcus"
    subject = body[0:30] + "..."

    with open("subscribers.txt", encoding="utf8") as f:
        subscribers = f.readlines()

    for subscriber in subscribers:
        send_gmail("#your gmail address",
                    "#your password",
                    subscriber,
                    subject,
                    body)

    sleep(#seconds until loop starts over)