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).
-The fetchmail code was developed under Linux, but 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.
+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.
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 **.
- * **POP2, POP3, **APOP, **IMAP2bis, **IMAP4 support.
+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).
means the retrieved mail automatically goes to the system
default MDA as if it were normal sender-initiated SMTP mail.
- ** Timeout if server connection is dropped.
+ ** Configurable timeout to detect if server connection is dropped.
** Support for retrieving and forwarding from multi-drop mailboxes
that is guaranteed not to cause mail loops.
- ** (Linux only) Security option to permit fetchmail to run only
- when an interface to a particular IP address is up.
-
* Easy control via command line or free-format run control file.
* Daemon mode -- fetchmail can be run in background to poll
* 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
versions.
* Large user community -- fetchmail has a large user base (the
- author's beta list includes over a hundred people). This means
- feedback is rapid, bugs get found and fixed rapidly.
+ 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 is added. See the distribution files NEWS
-for detailed information on recent changes and NOTES for design notes.
+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
+You can easily fetch the latest version of fetchmail via FTP from the
following FTP directory:
ftp://ftp.ccil.org/pub/esr/fetchmail
projects / ~andy / fetchmail / blobdiff