Notes how to perform  IMAP test with curl:
 $curl imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX?NEW

Scheme

scheme://host:port/path

Schemes for the e-mail protocols (supported by curl) are :
imap://user:password;options@in.example.com
pop3://user:password;options@in.example.com
smtp://user:password;options@in.example.com

More information :
https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-earhart-url-smtp-00 (SMTP URL scheme - IETF draft)
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5092 (IMAP URL scheme )
https://github.com/curl/

Starting notes

In order to show commands (i.e. IMAP commands) you can user option -v

curl -v imap://user:password@in.server.com/

* Trying 192.168.2.11...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to in.server.com (192.168.2.11) port 143 (#0)
< * OK IMAP4 PROXY server ready
> A001 CAPABILITY
< * CAPABILITY NAMESPACE QUOTA CHILDREN AUTH=CRAM-MD5 AUTH=PLAIN
< A001 OK capabilities listed
> A002 AUTHENTICATE CRAM-MD5
< + PEMyMjI0ODc3ABCDFS4NjA2QTg1QkU1NDE0QkFAbHAyOHQtYWxpY2UuY3AuYWxpY2UuaXQ+
> bS5ybNC12zxdTyMzQgOGJiNjdlNDRkYCDFGGDW134Dc4YTk=
< A002 OK authentication successful
> A003 LIST "" *
< * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "deleted"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "deleted"
< * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "sent"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "sent"
....
< * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" Trash
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" Trash
< A003 OK LIST completed
* Connection #0 to host in.server.com left intact
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curl imap://user:password@ in.example.com 
For an e-mail address such as <user>@gmail.com the server to use is not  gmail.com but is imap.gmail.com (IMAP server).

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In case you need to use "special" chars like @ you have to escape in according to  RFC 3986
Example (password: p@ssword) @ is escaped using %40
curl "imap://username:p%40ssword@in.example.com"

---

IMAP implicit SSL with:
curl "imaps://user:password@in.example.com"

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Send direct command:
curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com" -X '<COMMAND>'

Example :
$ curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com" -X 'LIST "" "*"'
$ curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com" -X 'CAPABILITY'
$ curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com" -X 'EXAMINE INBOX'

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A easy way in order to specify commands
CIP="<COMMAND>";curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/" -X "$CIP"

Example :
CIP="LIST \"\" \"*\"";curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/" -X "$CIP"
CIP="CAPABILITY";curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/" -X "$CIP"

---

if you get curl: (1) Protocol imap not supported or disabled in libcurl
curl -V
curl 7.51.0 (x86_64-apple-darwin16.0) libcurl/7.51.0 SecureTransport zlib/1.2.8
Protocols: dict file ftp ftps gopher http https imap imaps ldap ldaps pop3 pop3s rtsp smb smbs smtp smtps telnet tftp

Test IMAP with curl

Authentication

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com"
...or...
curl "imap://in.example.com/INBOX" --user "username:password" 

Capability

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com" -X  'CAPABILITY'

curl imap://username:password@in.example.com -X  'CAPABILITY'
* CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 IDLE LOGIN-REFERRALS NAMESPACE QUOTA CHILDREN  MOVE AUTH=CRAM-MD5 AUTH=DIGEST-MD5 AUTH=PLAIN

Top level list of folders

curl "imap://user:password@in.example.com" 

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" Draft
* LIST (\HasChildren) "/" "Deleted Messages"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" Drafts
* LIST (\HasChildren) "/" INBOX
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" INBOX/test
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" INBOX/test2
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" Trash

Check new email INBOX

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX?NEW"

$curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX?NEW"
* SEARCH 213

Fetch the new email (or fetch email specifying UID) 

Warning to fetch big email...

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/<FOLDER>;UID=<UID_NUMBER>"

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX;UID=213"
Return-Path: <testme@sender.me>
Received: from smtpXY.example.com (192.168.1.2) by ...
...
From: Jhon <testme@sender.me>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 10.2 \(3259\))
Subject: Test New
Message-Id: <000000-000000A8C524021DD4@example.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2017 11:50:19 +0100
To: username@example.com
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3259)

Test body
 

Fetch BODY (without header)

Warning to fetch big email...

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/<FOLDER>;UID=<UID_NUMBER>/;SECTION=TEXT"

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX;UID=213/;SECTION=TEXT"
Test body

Fetch partially

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/<FOLDER>;UID=<UID_NUMBER>/;PARTIAL=<FROM>.<TO>"

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX;UID=214/;PARTIAL=0.255"
Return-Path: <from@example.com>
Received: from smtpXYZ.xyz.it (1.1.1.1) by smtp.xyz
 id 58BASF2035193 for testme@xyz.it; Thu, 2 Mar 2017 12:23:38 +0100
... to 255 chars

...or...
curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX;UID=214/;SECTION=TEXT/;PARTIAL=0.255"
--Apple-Mail=_A46E4CA4-B32B-4936-A24D-9795751A92B2
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=utf-8
BODY PART
... to 255 chars

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX;UID=213/;SECTION=1"
is the command IMAP :
. FETCH 213 BODY[1]

$curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX;UID=213/;SECTION=2.3"
is the command IMAP :
. FETCH 213 BODY[2.3]

SEARCH

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX?SUBJECT%20test"
* SEARCH 1 2 4 5 6 83 184 186 210 211 213 214

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX?SINCE 18-apr-2016"
* SEARCH 1 2 4 5 6 12 23 210 211 213 214

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX?BEFORE%2018-apr-2016"
* SEARCH 1  44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 53 194 195

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX?BEFORE%2012-apr-2016%20SINCE%2015-apr-2015"
* SEARCH 148 149 150 151 151 192 193 194 195

Append

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/<FOLDER>" -T <FILE>

Create <FILE>

Content file doesn't matter.

vi /tmp/email2append.txt
Return-Path: <giovanni@busylog.net>
From: Giovanni <giovanni@busylog.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 10.2 \(3259\))
Subject: Test me APPEND
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2017 11:50:19 +0100
Cc: Giovanni <giovanni@busylog.net>
To: You <you@example.com>

Test

Append  <FILE>

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/INBOX" -T /tmp/email2append.txt
% Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   327    0     0  100   327      0    288  0:00:01  0:00:01 --:--:--   288

...or (folder/subfolder)...

curl "imap://username:password@in.example.com/test/test2" -T /tmp/email2append.txt

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