3 # indexgen.sh -- generate current version of fetchmail home page.
7 version=`sed -n <Makefile.in "/VERSION *= */s/VERSION *= *\([^ ]*\)/\1/p"`
8 date=`date "+%d %b %Y"`
10 set -- `timeseries | grep -v "[%#]" | head -1`
13 set -- `ls -ks fetchmail`
15 set -- `(cd /lib; ls libc-*)`
16 glibc=`echo $1 | sed 's/libc-\(.*\)\.so/\1/'`
21 # Compute MD5 checksums for security audit
23 for file in fetchmail-$version.tar.gz fetchmail-$version-1.i386.rpm fetchmail-$version-1.src.rpm
25 md5sum $file >>checksums
28 if [ $version != $goldvers ]
30 for file in /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/fetchmail-$goldvers.tar.gz /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/fetchmail-$goldvers-1.i386.rpm /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/fetchmail-$goldvers-1.src.rpm
32 md5sum $file | sed -e "s: .*/: :" >>checksums
36 # Cryptographically sign checksums
38 gpg --clearsign checksums
39 mv checksums.asc checksums
40 gpg --detach-sign --armor fetchmail-$version.tar.gz
44 <!doctype HTML public "-//W3O//DTD W3 HTML 3.2//EN">
47 <TITLE>Fetchmail Home Page</TITLE>
48 <link rev=made href=mailto:esr@snark.thyrsus.com>
49 <meta name="description" content="The fetchmail home page.">
50 <meta name="keywords" content="fetchmail, POP, POP3, IMAP, IMAP2bis, IMAP4, IMAP4rev1, ETRN, OTP, RPA">
53 <table width="100%" cellpadding=0><tr>
54 <td width="30%">Back to
55 <a href="http://$WWWVIRTUAL/~esr/software.html">Software</a>
56 <td width="30%" align=center>Up to <a href="http://$WWWVIRTUAL/~esr/sitemap.html">Site Map</a>
57 <td width="30%" align=right>$date
64 <center><img src="bighand.png"></center>
68 <H1>The fetchmail Home Page</H1>
71 <H1>What fetchmail does:</H1>
73 <P>Fetchmail is a full-featured, robust, well-documented
74 remote-mail retrieval and forwarding utility intended to be used over
75 on-demand TCP/IP links (such as SLIP or PPP connections). It supports
76 every remote-mail protocol now in use on the Internet: POP2, POP3,
77 RPOP, APOP, KPOP, all flavors of <a
78 href="http://www.imap.org">IMAP</a>, ETRN, and ODMR. It can even
79 support IPv6 and IPSEC.
81 <P>Fetchmail retrieves mail from remote mail servers and forwards it via
82 SMTP, so it can then be be read by normal mail user agents such as <a
83 href="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</a>, elm(1) or BSD Mail.
84 It allows all your system MTA's filtering, forwarding, and aliasing
85 facilities to work just as they would on normal mail.
87 <P>Fetchmail offers better security than any other Unix remote-mail
88 client. It supports APOP, KPOP, OTP, Compuserve RPA, Microsoft NTLM,
89 and IMAP RFC1731 encrypted authentication methods including CRAM-MD5
90 to avoid sending passwords en clair. It can be configured to support
91 end-to-end encryption via tunneling with <a
92 href="http://www.openssh.com/">ssh, the Secure Shell</a>
94 <P>Fetchmail can be used as a POP/IMAP-to-SMTP gateway for an entire DNS
95 domain, collecting mail from a single drop box on an ISP and
96 SMTP-forwarding it based on header addresses. (We don't really
97 recommend this, though, as it may lose important envelope-header
98 information. ETRN or a UUCP connection is better.)
100 <P>Fetchmail can be started automatically and silently as a system daemon
101 at boot time. When running in this mode with a short poll interval,
102 it is pretty hard for anyone to tell that the incoming mail link is
103 not a full-time "push" connection.
105 <P>Fetchmail is easy to configure. You can edit its dotfile directly, or
106 use the interactive GUI configurator (fetchmailconf) supplied with the
107 fetchmail distribution. It is also directly supported in linuxconf
108 versions 1.16r8 and later.
110 <P>Fetchmail is fast and lightweight. It packs all its standard
111 features (POP3, IMAP, and ETRN support) in ${fetchmailsize}K of core on a
114 <P>Fetchmail is <a href="http://www.opensource.org">open-source</a>
115 software. The openness of the sources is your strongest possible
116 assurance of quality and reliability.
118 <P><H1>Where to find out more about fetchmail:</H1>
120 See the <a href="fetchmail-features.html">Fetchmail Feature List</a> for more
121 about what fetchmail does.
123 <P>See the on-line <a href="fetchmail-man.html">manual page</a> for
126 <P>See the <a href="fetchmail-FAQ.html">HTML Fetchmail FAQ</A> for
127 troubleshooting help.
129 <P>See the <a href="design-notes.html">Fetchmail Design Notes</a>
130 for discussion of some of the design choices in fetchmail.
132 <P>See the project's <a href="todo.html">To-Do list</a> for indications
133 of known problems and requested features.
135 <H1>How to get fetchmail:</H1>
137 You can get any of the following leading-edge resources here:
139 <LI> <a href="fetchmail-$version.tar.gz">
140 Gzipped source archive of fetchmail $version</a>
141 <LI> <a href="fetchmail-$version-1.i386.rpm">
142 Intel binary RPM of fetchmail $version (uses $glibc)</a>
143 <LI> <a href="fetchmail-$version-1.src.rpm">
144 Source RPM of fetchmail $version</a>
147 The <a href="fetchmail-$version.tar.gz.asc">detached GPG signature</a> for the
148 binary tarball can be used to check it for correctness, with the command
151 gpg --verify fetchmail-$version.tar.gz.asc fetchmail-$version.tar.gz
154 MD5 <a href="checksums">checksums</a> are available for these files; the
155 checksum file is cryptographically signed and can be verified with the
159 gpg --verify checksums.asc
164 if [ $version != $goldvers ]
166 cat >>index.html <<EOF
168 Or you can get the last \`gold' version, $goldname:
170 <LI> <a href="fetchmail-$goldvers.tar.gz">
171 Gzipped source archive of fetchmail $goldname</a>
172 <LI> <a href="fetchmail-$goldvers-1.i386.rpm">
173 Intel binary RPM of fetchmail $goldname (uses glibc)</a>
174 <LI> <a href="fetchmail-$goldvers-1.alpha.rpm">
175 Alpha binary RPM of fetchmail $goldname (uses glibc)</a>
176 <LI> <a href="fetchmail-$goldvers-1.src.rpm">
177 Source RPM of fetchmail $goldname</a>
179 The <a href="fetchmail-$goldvers.tar.gz.asc">detached GPG signature</a> for the
180 binary tarball can be used to check it for correctness, with the command
183 gpg --verify fetchmail-$goldvers.tar.gz.asc fetchmail-$goldvers.tar.gz
186 For differences between the leading-edge $version and gold $goldname versions,
187 see the distribution <a href="NEWS">NEWS</a> file.<p>
191 cat >>index.html <<EOF
192 (Note that the binary RPMs don't have the POP2, OTP, IPv6, Kerberos,
193 GSSAPI, Compuserve RPA, Microsoft NTLM, or GNU gettext
194 internationalization support compiled in. To get any of these you
195 will have to build from sources.)
197 <P>The latest version of fetchmail is also carried in the
198 <a href="http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/mail/pop/!INDEX.html">
199 Metalab remote mail tools directory</a>.
201 <H1>Getting help with fetchmail:</H1>
203 There is a fetchmail-friends list for people who want to discuss fixes
204 and improvements in fetchmail and help co-develop it. It's a MailMan
205 list, which you can sign up for at <a
206 <a href="http://lists.ccil.org/mailman/listinfo/fetchmail-friends">
207 fetchmail-friends@ccil.org</a>.
208 There is also an announcements-only list,
209 <a href="http://lists.ccil.org/mailman/listinfo/fetchmail-announce">
210 fetchmail-announce@lists.ccil.org</a>.
212 <P>Note: before submitting a question to the list, <strong>please read
213 the <a href="fetchmail-FAQ.html">FAQ</a></strong> (especially item <a
214 href="http:fetchmail-FAQ.html#G3">G3</a> on how to report bugs). We
215 tend to get the same three newbie questions over and over again. The
216 FAQ covers them like a blanket.
218 <P>Fetchmail was written and is maintained by <a
219 href="../index.html">Eric S. Raymond</a>. There are some designated
220 backup maintainers (<a href="mailto:funk+@osu.edu">Rob Funk</a>, <a
221 href="http://www.dallas.net/~fox/">David DeSimone aka Fuzzy Fox</a>,
222 <a href="mailto:imdave@mcs.net">Dave Bodenstab</a>). Other backup
223 maintainers may be added in the future, in order to ensure continued
224 support should Eric S. Raymond drop permanently off the net for any
227 <H1>You can help improve fetchmail:</H1>
229 I welcome your code contributions. But even if you don't write code,
230 you can help fetchmail improve.
232 <P>If you administer a site that runs a post-office server, you may be
233 able help improve fetchmail by lending me a test account on your site.
234 Note that I do not need a shell account for this purpose, just a
235 maildrop. Nor am I interested in collecting maildrops per se --
236 what I'm collecting is different <em>kinds of servers</em>.
238 Before each release, I run a test harness that sends date-stamped
239 test mail to each site on my regression-test list, then tries to
240 retrieve it. Please take a look at my <a href="testservers.html">
241 list of test servers</a>. If you can lend me an account on a kind
242 of server that is <em>not</em> already on this list, please do.
244 <H1>Who uses fetchmail:</H1>
246 Fetchmail entered full production status with the 2.0.0 version in
247 November 1996 after about five months of evolution from the ancestral
248 <IT>popclient</IT> utility. It has since come into extremely wide use
249 in the Internet/Unix/Linux community. The Red Hat, Debian and
250 S.u.S.e. Linux distributions and their derivatives all include it. A
251 customized version is used at Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link. Several
252 large ISPs are known to recommend it to Unix-using SLIP and PPP
255 <P>Somewhere around a thousand people have participated on the fetchmail
256 beta lists (at time of current release there were $subscribers on the
257 friends and announce lists). While it's hard to count the users of
258 open-source software, we can estimate based on (a) population figures
259 at the WELL and other known fetchmail sites, (b) the size of the
260 Linux-using ISP customer base, and (c) the volume of fetchmail-related
261 talk on USENET. These estimates suggest that daily fetchmail users
262 number well into the hundreds of thousands, and possibly over a million.
264 <H1>The sociology of fetchmail:</H1>
266 The fetchmail development project was a sociological experiment as well
267 as a technical effort. I ran it as a test of some theories about why the
268 Linux development model works.
270 <P>I wrote a paper, <A
271 HREF="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/">The
272 Cathedral And The Bazaar</A>, about these theories and the project.
273 I developed the line of analysis it suggested in two later essays.
274 These papers became quite popular and (to my continuing astonishment) may
275 have actually helped change the world. Chase the title link, above,
276 for links to all three papers.
278 <P>I have done some analysis on the information in the project NEWS file.
279 You can view a <a href="history.html">statistical history</a> showing
280 levels of participation and release frequency over time.
282 <H1>Recent releases and where fetchmail is going:</H1>
284 Fetchmail is now sufficiently stable and effective that I'm getting
285 very little pressure to fix things or add features. Development has
286 slowed way down, release frequency has dropped off, and we're
287 basically in maintainance mode. Barring any urgent bug fixes, my
288 intention is to leave 5.0.0 alone for several months.
290 <P>Major changes or additions therefore seem unlikely until there are
291 significant changes in or additions to the related protocol RFCs. One
292 development that would stimulate a new release almost instantly is the
293 deployment of a standard lightweight encrypted authentication method
296 <H1>Where you can use fetchmail:</H1>
298 The fetchmail code was developed under Linux, but has also been
299 extensively tested under 4.4BSD, SunOS, Solaris, AIX, and NEXTSTEP. It
300 should be readily portable to other Unix variants (it requires only
301 POSIX plus BSD sockets, and uses GNU autoconf).
303 <P>Fetchmail is supported only for Unix by its official maintainers.
304 However, it is reported to build and run correctly under BeOS,
305 AmigaOS, Rhapsody, and QNX as well.
307 <H1>Related resources:</H1>
309 Jochen Hayek is developing a set of
310 <a href="http://www.ACM.org/~Jochen_Hayek/JHimap_utils/">
311 IMAP tools in Python</a> that read your .fetchmailrc file and are
312 designed to work with fetchmail. Jochen's tools can report selected
313 header lines, or move incoming messages to named mailboxes based on
314 the contents of headers.
316 <P>Scott Bronson has written a fetchmail plugin (actually, a specialist
318 href="http://www.trestle.com/linux/trestlemail/">trestlemail</a> that
319 helps redirect multidrop mail.
321 <P>Donncha O Caoihm has written a Perl script called
322 <a href="http://cork.linux.ie/projects/install-sendmail/">install-sendmail</a>
323 that assists you in installing sendmail and fetchmail together/
325 <P>Peter Hawkins has written a script called <a
326 href="http://www.hawkins.emu.id.au/gotmail/">gotmail</a>
327 that can retrieve Hotmail.
329 <P>A hacker identifying himself simply as \`Steines' has written a
330 filter which rewrites the to-line with a line which only includes
331 receipients for a given domain and renames the old to-line. It also
332 rewrites the domainpart of addresses if the offical domain is
333 different to local domain. You can find it <a
334 href="http://www.steines.com/mailf/">here</a>.
336 <H1>Fetchmail's funniest fan letter:</H1>
338 <A HREF="funny.html">This letter</A> still cracks me up whenever I reread it.
340 <H1>The fetchmail button:</H1>
342 If you use fetchmail and like it, here's a nifty fetchmail button you
343 can put on your web page:
345 <P><center><img src="fetchmail.png"></center>
347 <P>Thanks to <a href="http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~smatus1/">Steve
348 Matuszek</a> for the graphic design. The hand in the button (and the
349 larger top-of-page graphic) was actually derived from a color scan of
350 the fetchmail author's hand.
352 <H1>Fetchmail mirror sites:</H1>
354 There is a FTP mirror of the current sources and RPMs in Japan at
355 <a href="ftp://ftp.win.ne.jp/pub/network/mail/fetchmail">
356 ftp://ftp.win.ne.jp/pub/network/mail/fetchmail</a>.
358 <H1>Reviews and Awards</H1>
360 <P>Fetchmail was DaveCentral's Best Of Linux winner for
361 <a href="http://linux.davecentral.com/bol_19990630.html">June 30 1999</a>.
363 <P>Fetchmail was a five-star Editor's Pick at
364 <a href="http://www.softlandindia.com/Linux/EmailClients.htm">Softlandindia</a>
367 <table width="100%" cellpadding=0><tr>
368 <td width="30%">Back to
369 <a href="http://$WWWVIRTUAL/~esr/software.html">Software</a>
370 <td width="30%" align=center>Up to <a href="http://$WWWVIRTUAL/~esr/sitemap.html">Site Map</a>
371 <td width="30%" align=right>$date
374 <P><ADDRESS>Eric S. Raymond <A HREF="mailto:esr@thyrsus.com"><esr@snark.thyrsus.com></A></ADDRESS>
379 # The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS