3 fetchmail is a full-featured, robust, well-documented POP2, POP3,
4 APOP, and IMAP batch mail retrieval/forwarding utility intended to be
5 used over on-demand TCP/IP links (such as SLIP or PPP connections).
6 It retrieves mail from remote mail servers and forwards it to your
7 local (client) machine's delivery system, so it can then be be read by
8 normal mail user agents such as elm(1) or Mail(1).
10 The fetchmail code was developed under Linux, but should be readily
11 portable to other Unix variants (it uses GNU autoconf). It has also
12 been ported to QNX; to build under QNX, see the header comments in the
15 Here are fetchmail's main features. Those unique to fetchmail are marked
18 * **POP2, POP3, **APOP, **IMAP support.
20 ** Support for Kerberos user authentication.
22 ** Host is auto-probed for a working server if no protocol is
23 specified for the connection. Thus you don't need to know
24 what servers are running on your mail host in advance; the
25 verbose option will tell you which one succeeds.
27 ** Delivery via via SMTP to the client machine's port 25. This
28 means the retrieved mail automatically goes to the system
29 default MDA as if it were normal sender-initiated SMTP mail.
31 ** Timeout if server connection is dropped.
33 ** Support for retrieving and forwarding from multi-drop mailboxes
34 that is guaranteed not to cause mail loops.
36 * Easy control via command line or free-format run control file.
38 * Daemon mode -- fetchmail can be run in background to poll
39 one or more hosts at a specified interval.
41 * From:, To:, Cc:, and Reply-To: headers are rewritten so that
42 usernames relative to the fetchmail host become fully-qualified
43 Internet addresses. This enables replies to work correctly.
44 (Would be unique to fetchmail if I hadn't added it to fetchpop.)
46 * Strict conformance to relevant RFCs and good debugging options.
47 You could use fetchmail to test and debug server implementatations.
49 * Carefully written, comprehensive and up-to-date man page describing
50 not only modes of operation but also (**) how to diagnose the most
51 common kinds of problems and what to do about deficient servers
53 * Rugged, simple, and well-tested code -- the author relies on it
54 every day and it has never lost mail, not even in experimental
57 * Large user community -- fetchmail has a large user base (the
58 author's beta list includes over a hundred people). This means
59 feedback is rapid, bugs get found and fixed rapidly.
61 The fetchmail code appears to be stable and free of bugs affecting
62 normal operation (that is, retrieving from POP3 or IMAP and forwarding
63 via SMTP to sendmail). It will probably undergo substantial change
64 only if and when support for a new retrieval protocol or authentication
65 is added. See the distribution files NEWS for detailed information on
66 recent changes and NOTES for design notes.
68 You can easily fetch the latest version of fetchmail via FTP from:
70 ftp://ftp.ccil.org/pub/esr/fetchmail-2.1.tar.gz
72 Or you can get it from Eric's home page:
74 http://www.ccil.org/~esr
76 Just chase the link to Eric's Freeware Collection. Besides fetchmail, it
77 includes a tasty selection of Web authoring tools, programmer's aids,
78 graphics libraries, compilers for bizarre languages, games, and
79 miscellaneous interesting hacks. Enjoy!