- README for popclient
+ fetchmail README
-popclient is a full-featured, robust, well-documented POP2, POP3, APOP,
-and IMAP client originally developed by Carl Harris <ceharris@mal.com> and
-now maintained by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>.
+fetchmail is a full-featured, robust, well-documented POP2, POP3,
+APOP, and IMAP batch mail retrieval/forwarding utility intended to be
+used over on-demand TCP/IP links (such as SLIP or PPP connections).
+It retrieves mail from remote mail servers and forwards it to your
+local (client) machine's delivery system, so it can then be be read by
+normal mail user agents such as elm(1) or Mail(1).
-popclient was developed under Linux and should be readily portable to other
-UNIX systems (it uses GNU autoconf). It has also been ported to QNX; to build
-under QNX, see the header commets in the Makefile.
+The fetchmail code was developed under Linux, but has also been
+extensively tested under 4.4BSD, Solaris and NEXTSTEP. It should be
+readily portable to other Unix variants (it uses GNU autoconf). It
+has also been ported to QNX; to build under QNX, see the header
+comments in the Makefile.
-You can find the latest version of popclient from Eric's home page
+Here are fetchmail's main features. Those unique to fetchmail
+(relative to fetchpop1.9, PopTart-0.9.3, get-mail, gwpop, pimp-1.0,
+pop-perl5-1.2, popc, popmail-1.6 and upop) are marked with **.
- http://www.ccil.org/~esr
+Since 3.0:
+
+ ** Support for ESMTP 8BITMIME and SIZE options.
+
+ ** The stripcr option to explicitly control carriage-return
+ stripping before mail forwarding.
+
+Since 2.0:
+
+ ** Support for secure use with ssh.
+
+ ** Mailserver passwords can be parsed out of your .netrc file.
+
+ ** When forwarding mail via SMTP, fetchmail respects the 571
+ "spam filter" response and discards any mail that triggers it.
+
+ ** Transaction and error logging may optionally be done via syslog.
+
+ ** (Linux only) Security option to permit fetchmail to poll a host
+ only when a point-to-point link to a particular IP address is up.
+
+ ** RPOP support (restored; had been removed in 1.8).
+
+2.0 and earlier versions:
+
+ * **POP2, POP3, **APOP, **RPOP, **IMAP2bis, **IMAP4 support.
+
+ ** Support for Kerberos user authentication (either MIT or Cygnus).
-Features of popclient include:
+ ** Host is auto-probed for a working server if no protocol is
+ specified for the connection. Thus you don't need to know
+ what servers are running on your mail host in advance; the
+ verbose option will tell you which one succeeds.
- * POP2, POP3, APOP, RPOP and IMAP support with auto-probing for a
- server on the host if no protocol is specified.
+ ** Delivery via via SMTP to the client machine's port 25. This
+ means the retrieved mail automatically goes to the system
+ default MDA as if it were normal sender-initiated SMTP mail.
- * Easy configuration via command line or free-format .poprc file.
+ ** Configurable timeout to detect if server connection is dropped.
- * Daemon mode -- popmail can be run in background to poll
- one or more hosts at a specified interval.
+ ** Support for retrieving and forwarding from multi-drop mailboxes
+ that is guaranteed not to cause mail loops.
- * Delivery via either file-append with mandatory locking or an
- MDA you specify, or via SMTP to the client machine's port 25.
+ * Easy control via command line or free-format run control file.
+
+ * Daemon mode -- fetchmail can be run in background to poll
+ one or more hosts at a specified interval.
+
+ * From:, To:, Cc:, and Reply-To: headers are rewritten so that
+ usernames relative to the fetchmail host become fully-qualified
+ Internet addresses. This enables replies to work correctly.
+ (Would be unique to fetchmail if I hadn't added it to fetchpop.)
+
+ * Strict conformance to relevant RFCs and good debugging options.
+ You could use fetchmail to test and debug server implementatations.
+
+ * Message and header processing are 8-bit clean.
+
+ * Carefully written, comprehensive and up-to-date man page describing
+ not only modes of operation but also (**) how to diagnose the most
+ common kinds of problems and what to do about deficient servers
+
+ * Rugged, simple, and well-tested code -- the author relies on it
+ every day and it has never lost mail, not even in experimental
+ versions.
+
+ * Large user community -- fetchmail has a large user base (the
+ author's beta list includes about two hundred people). This
+ means feedback is rapid, bugs get found and fixed rapidly.
+
+The fetchmail code appears to be stable and free of bugs affecting
+normal operation (that is, retrieving from POP3 or IMAP in single-drop
+mode and forwarding via SMTP to sendmail). It will probably undergo
+substantial change only if and when support for a new retrieval
+protocol or authentication mode is added. See the distribution files
+NEWS for detailed information on recent changes and NOTES for design
+notes.
+
+You can easily fetch the latest version of fetchmail via FTP from the
+following FTP directory:
+
+ ftp://ftp.ccil.org/pub/esr/fetchmail
+
+Or you can get it from Eric's home page:
+
+ http://www.ccil.org/~esr
- * From:, To:, Cc:, and Reply-To: headers are rewritten so that
- usernames relative to the popclient host become fully-qualified
- Internet addresses. This enables replies to work correctly.
+Just chase the link to Eric's Freeware Collection. Besides fetchmail, it
+includes a tasty selection of Web authoring tools, programmer's aids,
+graphics libraries, compilers for bizarre languages, games, and
+miscellaneous interesting hacks. Enjoy!
-There is a man page at popclient.man. A sample rc file is at sample.poprc.
-For a release history, see the file NEWS.
-- esr
projects / ~andy / fetchmail / blobdiff