.\"
.\" For license terms, see the file COPYING in this directory.
.\"
-.TH fetchmail 1
+.TH fetchmail 1 "fetchmail 6.3.7" "fetchmail" "fetchmail reference manual"
.SH NAME
fetchmail \- fetch mail from a POP, IMAP, ETRN, or ODMR-capable server
The
.I fetchmail
program can gather mail from servers supporting any of the common
-mail-retrieval protocols: POP2, POP3, IMAP2bis, IMAP4, and IMAP4rev1.
+mail-retrieval protocols: POP2 (legacy, to be removed from future
+release), POP3, IMAP2bis, IMAP4, and IMAP4rev1.
It can also use the ESMTP ETRN extension and ODMR. (The RFCs describing all
these protocols are listed at the end of this manual page.)
.PP
number of different recipients. Therefore,
.I fetchmail
must attempt to deduce the proper "envelope recipient" from the mail
-headers of each message. In this mode of operation
+headers of each message. In this mode of operation,
.I fetchmail
almost resembles an MTA, however it is important to note that neither
the POP nor IMAP protocols were intended for use in this fashion, and
-hence envelope information is not directly available. Instead,
+hence envelope information is often not directly available. Instead,
.I fetchmail
must resort to a process of informed guess-work in an attempt to
-discover the true envelope recipient of a message. Even if this
+discover the true envelope recipient of a message, unless the ISP stores
+the envelope information in some header (not all do). Even if this
information is present in the headers, the process can
be error-prone and is dependent upon the specific mail server used
for mail retrieval. Multidrop-mode is used when more than one local
methods, since they are based upon the SMTP protocol which
specifically provides the envelope recipient to \fIfetchmail\fR.
.PP
-As each message is retrieved \fIfetchmail\fR normally delivers it via SMTP to
+As each message is retrieved, \fIfetchmail\fR normally delivers it via SMTP to
port 25 on the machine it is running on (localhost), just as though it
were being passed in over a normal TCP/IP link. \fIfetchmail\fR provides
the SMTP server with an envelope recipient derived in the manner described
.B \-s | \-\-silent
Silent mode. Suppresses all progress/status messages that are
normally echoed to standard output during a fetch (but does not
-suppress actual error messages). The --verbose option overrides this.
+suppress actual error messages). The \-\-verbose option overrides this.
.TP
.B \-v | \-\-verbose
Verbose mode. All control messages passed between
.I fetchmail
-and the mailserver are echoed to stdout. Overrides --silent.
-Doubling this option (-v -v) causes extra diagnostic information
+and the mailserver are echoed to stdout. Overrides \-\-silent.
+Doubling this option (\-v \-v) causes extra diagnostic information
to be printed.
.SS Disposal Options
.TP
-.B \-a | \-\-all
-(Keyword: fetchall)
+.B \-a | \-\-all | (since v6.3.3) \-\-fetchall
+(Keyword: fetchall, since v3.0)
Retrieve both old (seen) and new messages from the mailserver. The
default is to fetch only messages the server has not marked seen.
Under POP3, this option also forces the use of RETR rather than TOP.
-Note that POP2 retrieval behaves as though --all is always on (see
+Note that POP2 retrieval behaves as though \-\-all is always on (see
RETRIEVAL FAILURE MODES below) and this option does not work with ETRN
-or ODMR.
+or ODMR. While the \-a and \-\-all command-line and fetchall rcfile
+options have been supported for a long time, the \-\-fetchall
+command-line option was added in v6.3.3.
.TP
.B \-k | \-\-keep
(Keyword: keep)
Keep retrieved messages on the remote mailserver. Normally, messages
are deleted from the folder on the mailserver after they have been retrieved.
-Specifying the
-.B keep
-option causes retrieved messages to remain in your folder on the
-mailserver. This option does not work with ETRN or ODMR.
+Specifying the \fBkeep\fR option causes retrieved messages to remain in
+your folder on the mailserver. This option does not work with ETRN or
+ODMR. If used with POP3, it is recommended to also specify the \-\-uidl
+option or uidl keyword.
.TP
.B \-K | \-\-nokeep
(Keyword: nokeep)
.B \-F | \-\-flush
POP3/IMAP only. This is a dangerous option and can cause mail loss when
used improperly. It deletes old (seen) messages from the mailserver
-before retrieving new messages. Warning: This can cause mail loss if
+before retrieving new messages. \fBWarning:\fR This can cause mail loss if
you check your mail with other clients than fetchmail, and cause
-fetchmail to delete a message it had never fetched before. Similarly, if
-your local MTA hangs and fetchmail is aborted, the next time you run
-fetchmail, it will delete mail that was never delivered to you. You
-should probably not use this option in your configuration file. What you
-probably want is the default setting: if you don't specify '-k', then
-fetchmail will automatically delete messages after successful
-delivery. This option does not work with ETRN and ODMR.
+fetchmail to delete a message it had never fetched before. It can also
+cause mail loss if the mail server marks the message seen after
+retrieval (IMAP2 servers). You should probably not use this option in your
+configuration file. If you use it with POP3, you must use the 'uidl'
+option. What you probably want is the default setting: if you don't
+specify '\-k', then fetchmail will automatically delete messages after
+successful delivery.
.TP
.B \-\-limitflush
POP3/IMAP only, since version 6.3.0. Delete oversized messages from the
mailserver before retrieving new messages. The size limit should be
-separately sepecified with the --limit option. This option does not
+separately specified with the \-\-limit option. This option does not
work with ETRN or ODMR.
.SS Protocol and Query Options
.TP
Tries IMAP, POP3, and POP2 (skipping any of these for which support
has not been compiled in).
.IP POP2
-Post Office Protocol 2
+Post Office Protocol 2 (legacy, to be removed from future release)
.IP POP3
Post Office Protocol 3
.IP APOP
.IP SDPS
Use POP3 with Demon Internet's SDPS extensions.
.IP IMAP
-IMAP2bis, IMAP4, or IMAP4rev1 (\fIfetchmail\fR autodetects their capabilities).
+IMAP2bis, IMAP4, or IMAP4rev1 (\fIfetchmail\fR automatically detects their capabilities).
.IP ETRN
Use the ESMTP ETRN option.
.IP ODMR
is logged, unless error logging is done through syslog while running in
daemon mode. Note that fetchmail may automatically enable this option
depending on upstream server capabilities. Note also that this option
-may be removed and forced enabled in a future fetchmail version.
-
+may be removed and forced enabled in a future fetchmail version. See
+also: \-\-idfile.
+.TP
+.B \-\-idle (since 6.3.3)
+(Keyword: idle, since before 6.0.0)
+Enable IDLE use (effective only with IMAP). Note that this works with
+only one folder at a given time. While the idle rcfile keyword had been
+supported for a long time, the \-\-idle command-line option was added in
+version 6.3.3. IDLE use means that fetchmail tells the IMAP server to
+send notice of new messages, so they can be retrieved sooner than would
+be possible with regular polls.
.TP
-.B \-\-service <servicename>
+.B \-P <portnumber> | \-\-service <servicename>
(Keyword: service) Since version 6.3.0.
The service option permits you to specify a service name to connect to.
You can specify a decimal port number here, if your services database
the \-\-ssl documentation for details. This replaces the older \-\-port
option.
.TP
-.B \-
P <portnumber> | \-\-port <portnumber>
+.B \-\-port <portnumber>
(Keyword: port)
Obsolete version of \-\-service that does not take service names.
.B Note:
\fIfetchmail\fR will hang up on it. Without such a timeout
\fIfetchmail\fR might hang up indefinitely trying to fetch mail from a
down host. This would be particularly annoying for a \fIfetchmail\fR
-running in background. There is a default timeout which fetchmail\~-V
+running in background. There is a default timeout which fetchmail\~\-V
will report. If a given connection receives too many timeouts in
succession, fetchmail will consider it wedged and stop retrying,
the calling user will be notified by email if this happens.
.B \-\-plugin <command>
(Keyword: plugin) The plugin option allows you to use an external
program to establish the TCP connection. This is useful if you want
-to use socks, SSL, ssh, or need some special firewalling setup. The
+to use SSL, ssh, or need some special firewalling setup. The
program will be looked up in $PATH and can optionally be passed the
hostname and port as arguments using "%h" and "%p" respectively (note
that the interpolation logic is rather primitive, and these token must
.B \-\-tracepolls
(Keyword: tracepolls)
Tell fetchmail to poll trace information in the form 'polling %s
-account %s' to the Received line it generates, where the %s parts are
-replaced by the user's remote name and the poll label (the Received
-header also normally includes the server's true name). This can be
-used to facilitate mail filtering based on the account it is being
-received from.
+account %s' and 'folder %s' to the Received line it generates,
+where the %s parts are replaced by the user's remote name, the poll
+label, and the folder (mailbox) where available (the Received header
+also normally includes the server's true name). This can be used to
+facilitate mail filtering based on the account it is being received
+from. The folder information is written only since version 6.3.4.
.TP
.B \-\-ssl
(Keyword: ssl)
Causes the connection to the mail server to be encrypted via SSL. Connect
to the server using the specified base protocol over a connection secured
-by SSL. SSL support must be present at the server.
+by SSL. This option defeats TLS negotiation. Use \-\-sslcertck to
+validate the certificates presented by the server.
+.sp
+Note that fetchmail may still try to negotiate TLS even if this option
+is not given. You can use the \-\-sslproto option to defeat this
+behavior or tell fetchmail to negotiate a particular SSL protocol.
.sp
If no port is specified, the connection is attempted to the well known
port of the SSL version of the base protocol. This is generally a
different port than the port used by the base protocol. For IMAP, this
is port 143 for the clear protocol and port 993 for the SSL secured
-protocol, for POP3, it is port 110 for the cleartext and port 995 for
+protocol, for POP3, it is port 110 for the clear text and port 995 for
the encrypted variant.
.sp
If your system lacks the corresponding entries from /etc/services, see
servers may not request it at all. It may be the same file
as the private key (combined key and certificate file) but this is not
recommended.
+.sp
+.B NOTE:
+If you use client authentication, the user name is fetched from the
+certificate's CommonName and overrides the name set with \-\-user.
.TP
.B \-\-sslkey <name>
(Keyword: sslkey)
.TP
.B \-\-sslproto <name>
(Keyword: sslproto)
-Forces an SSL protocol. Possible values are '\fBssl2\fR',
-\&'\fBssl3\fR', '\fBssl23\fR', and '\fBtls1\fR'. Try this if the default
-handshake does not work for your server. To defeat automatic TLSv1
-negotiation when the server advertises STARTTLS or STLS, use \fB''\fR or
-\&'\fBssl23\fR'. The default is to try appropriate protocols depending
+Forces an SSL or TLS protocol. Possible values are '\fBSSL2\fR',
+\&'\fBSSL3\fR', '\fBSSL23\fR', and '\fBTLS1\fR'. Try this if the default
+handshake does not work for your server. Use this option with
+'\fBTLS1\fR' to enforce a TLS connection. To defeat opportunistic TLSv1
+negotiation when the server advertises STARTTLS or STLS, use \fB''\fR.
+This option, even if the argument is the empty string, will also
+suppress the diagnostic 'SERVER: opportunistic upgrade to TLS.' message
+in verbose mode. The default is to try appropriate protocols depending
on context.
.TP
.B \-\-sslcertck
(Keyword: sslcertck)
Causes fetchmail to strictly check the server certificate against a set of
local trusted certificates (see the \fBsslcertpath\fR option). If the server
-certificate is not signed by one of the trusted ones (directly or indirectly),
-the SSL connection will fail. This checking should prevent man-in-the-middle
-attacks against the SSL connection. Note that CRLs are seemingly not currently
-supported by OpenSSL in certificate verification! Your system clock should
-be reasonably accurate when using this option!
+certificate cannot be obtained or is not signed by one of the trusted ones
+(directly or indirectly), the SSL connection will fail, regardless of
+the \fBsslfingerprint\fR option.
+Note that CRL are only supported in OpenSSL 0.9.7 and newer! Your system
+clock should also be reasonably accurate when using this option.
+.IP
+Note that this optional behavior may become default behavior in future
+fetchmail versions.
.TP
.B \-\-sslcertpath <directory>
(Keyword: sslcertpath)
and the one fetchmail uses to report the fingerprint when an SSL connection
is established. When this is specified, fetchmail will compare the server key
fingerprint with the given one, and the connection will fail if they do not
-match. This can be used to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
+match regardless of the \fBsslcertck\fR setting. The connection will
+also fail if fetchmail cannot obtain an SSL certificate from the server.
+This can be used to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, but the finger
+print from the server needs to be obtained or verified over a secure
+channel, and certainly not over the same Internet connection that
+fetchmail would use.
+.IP
+Using this option will prevent printing certificate verification errors
+as long as \-\-sslcertck is unset.
.IP
To obtain the fingerprint of a certificate stored in the file cert.pem,
try:
.sp
.nf
- openssl x509 -in cert.pem -noout -fingerprint
+ openssl x509 \-in cert.pem \-noout \-md5 \-fingerprint
.fi
.sp
For details, see
(Keyword: smtp[host])
Specify a hunt list of hosts to forward mail to (one or more
hostnames, comma-separated). Hosts are tried in list order; the first
-one that is up becomes the forwarding target for the current run.
-Normally, 'localhost' is added to the end of the list as an invisible
-default. However, when using Kerberos authentication, the FQDN of the
-machine running fetchmail is added to the end of the list as an
-invisible default. Each hostname may have a port number following the
-host name. The port number is separated from the host name by a
-slash; the default port is 25 (or "smtp" under IPv6). If you
-specify an absolute path name (beginning with a /), it will be
-interpreted as the name of a UNIX socket accepting LMTP connections
-(such as is supported by the Cyrus IMAP daemon) Example:
+one that is up becomes the forwarding target for the current run. If
+this option is not specified, 'localhost' is used as the default.
+Each hostname may have a port number following the host name. The
+port number is separated from the host name by a slash; the default
+port is "smtp". If you specify an absolute path name (beginning with
+a /), it will be interpreted as the name of a UNIX socket accepting
+LMTP connections (such as is supported by the Cyrus IMAP daemon)
+Example:
.sp
.nf
- --smtphost server1,server2/2525,server3,/var/imap/socket/lmtp
+ \-\-smtphost server1,server2/2525,server3,/var/imap/socket/lmtp
.fi
.sp
This option can be used with ODMR, and will make fetchmail a relay
.TP
.B \-D <domain> | \-\-smtpaddress <domain>
(Keyword: smtpaddress) Specify the domain to be appended to addresses
-in RCPT TO lines shipped to SMTP. The name of the SMTP server (as
-specified by --smtphost, or defaulted to "localhost") is used when
-this is not specified.
+in RCPT TO lines shipped to SMTP. When this is not specified, the name
+of the SMTP server (as specified by \-\-smtphost) is used for SMTP/LMTP
+and 'localhost' is used for UNIX socket/BSMTP.
.TP
.B \-\-smtpname <user@domain>
(Keyword: smtpname)
.B \-Z <nnn> | \-\-antispam <nnn[, nnn]...>
(Keyword: antispam)
Specifies the list of numeric SMTP errors that are to be interpreted
-as a spam-block response from the listener. A value of -1 disables
+as a spam-block response from the listener. A value of \-1 disables
this option. For the command-line option, the list values should
be comma-separated.
.TP
.B \-m <command> | \-\-mda <command>
(Keyword: mda) You can force mail to be passed to an MDA directly
-(rather than forwarded to port 25) with the --mda or -m option. To
-avoid losing mail, use this option only with MDAs like maildrop, procmail or
-sendmail that return a nonzero status on disk-full and other
+(rather than forwarded to port 25) with the \-\-mda or \-m option.
+
+To
+avoid losing mail, use this option only with MDAs like maildrop or
+MTAs like sendmail that return a nonzero status on disk-full and other
resource-exhaustion errors; the nonzero status tells fetchmail that
delivery failed and prevents the message from being deleted off the
-server. If \fIfetchmail\fR is running as root, it sets its user id to
+server.
+
+If \fIfetchmail\fR is running as root, it sets its user id to
that of the target user while delivering mail through an MDA. Some
-possible MDAs are "/usr/sbin/sendmail -i -f %F %T", "/usr/bin/deliver"
-and "/usr/bin/procmail -d %T" (but the latter is usually redundant as
-it's what SMTP listeners normally forward to). Local delivery
+possible MDAs are "/usr/sbin/sendmail \-i \-f %F \-\- %T" (\fBNote:\fR
+some several older or vendor sendmail versions mistake \-\- for an
+address, rather than an indicator to mark the end of the option arguments),
+"/usr/bin/deliver" and "/usr/bin/maildrop \-d %T". Local delivery
addresses will be inserted into the MDA command wherever you place a
%T; the mail message's From address will be inserted where you place
-an %F. \fBDO NOT ENCLOSE THE %F OR %T STRING IN SINGLE QUOTES!\fR For
-both %T and %F, fetchmail encloses the addresses in single quotes ('),
-after removing any single quotes they may contain, before the MDA
-command is passed to the shell. Do \fINOT\fR use an MDA invocation
-like "sendmail -i -t" that dispatches on the contents of To/Cc/Bcc, it
-will create mail loops and bring the just wrath of many postmasters
-down upon your head. Also, do \fInot\fR try to combine multidrop
-mode with an MDA such as procmail that can only accept one address;
-you will lose mail.
+an %F.
+
+.B "DO NOT ENCLOSE THE %F OR %T STRING IN SINGLE QUOTES!"
+For both %T and %F, fetchmail encloses the addresses in single quotes
+('), after removing any single quotes they may contain, before the MDA
+command is passed to the shell.
+
+\fRDo \fINOT\fP use an MDA invocation that dispatches on the contents of
+To/Cc/Bcc,\fP like "sendmail \-i \-t" or "qmail-inject", it will create
+mail loops and bring the just wrath of many postmasters down upon your
+head. This is one of the most frequent configuration errors!
+
+Also, do \fInot\fR try to combine multidrop mode with an MDA such
+as maildrop that can only accept one address, unless your upstream
+stores one copy of the message per recipient and transports the envelope
+recipient in a header; you will lose mail.
+
+The well-known
+.BR procmail (1)
+package is very hard to configure properly, it has a very nasty "fall
+through to the next rule" behavior on delivery errors (even temporary
+ones, such as out of disk space if another user's mail daemon copies the
+mailbox around to purge old messages), so your mail will end up in the
+wrong mailbox sooner or later. The proper procmail configuration is
+outside the scope of this document. Using
+.BR maildrop (1)
+is usually much easier, and many users find the filter syntax used by
+maildrop easier to understand.
+
+Finally, we strongly advise that you do
+.B not
+use qmail-inject. The command line interface is non-standard without
+providing benefits for typical use, and fetchmail makes no attempts to
+accomodate qmail-inject's deviations from the standard. Some of
+qmail-inject's command-line and environment options are actually
+dangerous and can cause broken threads, non-detected duplicate messages
+and forwarding loops.
+
.TP
.B \-\-lmtp
(Keyword: lmtp)
Cause delivery via LMTP (Local Mail Transfer Protocol). A service
-port \fImust\fR be explicitly specified (with a slash suffix) on each
-host in the smtphost hunt list if this option is selected; the
-default port 25 will (in accordance with RFC 2033) not be accepted.
+host and port \fBmust\fR be explicitly specified on each host in the
+smtphost hunt list (see above) if this option is selected; the default
+port 25 will (in accordance with RFC 2033) not be accepted.
.TP
.B \-\-bsmtp <filename>
(keyword: bsmtp)
Append fetched mail to a BSMTP file. This simply contains the SMTP
commands that would normally be generated by fetchmail when passing
-mail to an SMTP listener daemon. An argument of '-' causes the mail
+mail to an SMTP listener daemon. An argument of '\-' causes the mail
to be written to standard output. Note that fetchmail's
reconstruction of MAIL FROM and RCPT TO lines is not guaranteed
correct; the caveats discussed under THE USE AND ABUSE OF MULTIDROP
IMAP or POP3 without the fetchall option) the message will not be
marked seen.
.sp
-An explicit --limit of 0 overrides any limits set in your
+An explicit \-\-limit of 0 overrides any limits set in your
run control file. This option is intended for those needing to
strictly control fetch time due to expensive and variable phone rates.
.sp
-Combined with --limitflush, it can be used to delete oversized
+Combined with \-\-limitflush, it can be used to delete oversized
messages waiting on a server. In daemon mode, oversize notifications
-are mailed to the calling user (see the --warnings option). This
+are mailed to the calling user (see the \-\-warnings option). This
option does not work with ETRN or ODMR.
.TP
.B \-w <interval> | \-\-warnings <interval>
which warnings about oversized messages are mailed to the calling user
(or the user specified by the 'postmaster' option). One such
notification is always mailed at the end of the the first poll that
-the oversized message is detected. Thereafter, renotification is
+the oversized message is detected. Thereafter, re-notification is
suppressed until after the warning interval elapses (it will take
place at the end of the first following poll).
.TP
(Keyword: batchlimit)
Specify the maximum number of messages that will be shipped to an SMTP
listener before the connection is deliberately torn down and rebuilt
-(defaults to 0, meaning no limit). An explicit --batchlimit of 0
+(defaults to 0, meaning no limit). An explicit \-\-batchlimit of 0
overrides any limits set in your run control file. While
\fBsendmail\fR(8) normally initiates delivery of a message immediately
after receiving the message terminator, some SMTP listeners are not so
.B \-B <number> | \-\-fetchlimit <number>
(Keyword: fetchlimit)
Limit the number of messages accepted from a given server in a single
-poll. By default there is no limit. An explicit --fetchlimit of 0
+poll. By default there is no limit. An explicit \-\-fetchlimit of 0
overrides any limits set in your run control file.
This option does not work with ETRN or ODMR.
.TP
once followed by binary searches in 'n-1' polls if 'n' is greater than
1; binary search is always used if 'n' is 1; linear search is always
used if 'n' is 0. In non-daemon mode, binary search is used if 'n' is
-1; otherwise linear search is used.
+1; otherwise linear search is used. The default value of 'n' is 4.
This option works with POP3 only.
.TP
.B \-e <count> | \-\-expunge <count>
without sending QUIT and ending the session -- with this option on,
fetchmail will break a long mail retrieval session into multiple
sub-sessions, sending QUIT after each sub-session. This is a good
-defense against line drops on POP3 servers that do not do the
-equivalent of a QUIT on hangup. Under IMAP,
+defense against line drops on POP3 servers. Under IMAP,
.I fetchmail
normally issues an EXPUNGE command after each deletion in order to
force the deletion to be done immediately. This is safest when your
is connected to an alternate ISP), your username and password may be
vulnerable to snooping (especially when daemon mode automatically polls
for mail, shipping a clear password over the net at predictable
-intervals). The --interface option may be used to prevent this. When
+intervals). The \-\-interface option may be used to prevent this. When
the specified link is not up or is not connected to a matching IP
address, polling will be skipped. The format is:
.sp
AUTHENTICATION below for details). The possible values are \fBany\fR,
\&\fBpassword\fR, \fBkerberos_v5\fR, \fBkerberos\fR (or, for
excruciating exactness, \fBkerberos_v4\fR), \fBgssapi\fR,
-\fBcram-md5\fR, \fBotp\fR, \fBntlm\fR, \fBmsn\fR (only for POP3) and
-\fBssh\fR. When \fBany\fR (the default) is specified, fetchmail tries
-first methods that don't require a password (GSSAPI, KERBEROS\ IV,
+\fBcram\-md5\fR, \fBotp\fR, \fBntlm\fR, \fBmsn\fR (only for POP3),
+\fBexternal\fR (only IMAP) and \fBssh\fR.
+When \fBany\fR (the default) is specified, fetchmail tries
+first methods that don't require a password (EXTERNAL, GSSAPI, KERBEROS\ IV,
KERBEROS\ 5); then it looks for methods that mask your password
-(CRAM-MD5, X-OTP - note that NTLM and MSN are not autoprobed for POP3
+(CRAM-MD5, X\-OTP - note that NTLM and MSN are not autoprobed for POP3
and MSN is only supported for POP3); and only if the server doesn't
support any of those will it ship your password en clair. Other values
may be used to force various authentication methods
-(\fBssh\fR suppresses authentication). Any value other than
-\&\fBpassword\fR, \fBcram-md5\fR, \fBntlm\fR, \fBmsn\fR or \fBotp\fR
-suppresses fetchmail's normal inquiry for a password. Specify \fBssh\fR
-when you are using an end-to-end secure connection such as an ssh
-tunnel; specify \fBgssapi\fR or \fBkerberos_v4\fR if you are using a
-protocol variant that employs GSSAPI or K4. Choosing KPOP protocol
-automatically selects Kerberos authentication. This option does not
-work with ETRN.
+(\fBssh\fR suppresses authentication and is thus useful for IMAP PREAUTH).
+(\fBexternal\fR suppresses authentication and is thus useful for IMAP EXTERNAL).
+Any value other than \fBpassword\fR, \fBcram\-md5\fR, \fBntlm\fR,
+\&\fBmsn\fR or \fBotp\fR suppresses fetchmail's normal inquiry for a
+password. Specify \fBssh\fR when you are using an end-to-end secure
+connection such as an ssh tunnel; specify \fBexternal\fR when you use
+TLS with client authentication and specify \fBgssapi\fR or
+\&\fBkerberos_v4\fR if you are using a protocol variant that employs
+GSSAPI or K4. Choosing KPOP protocol automatically selects Kerberos
+authentication. This option does not work with ETRN.
.SS Miscellaneous Options
.TP
.B \-f <pathname> | \-\-fetchmailrc <pathname>
.I ~/.fetchmailrc
run control file. The pathname argument must be either "-" (a single
dash, meaning to read the configuration from standard input) or a
-filename. Unless the --version option is also on, a named file
+filename. Unless the \-\-version option is also on, a named file
argument must have permissions no more open than 0600 (u=rw,g=,o=) or
else be /dev/null.
.TP
.B \-i <pathname> | \-\-idfile <pathname>
(Keyword: idfile)
Specify an alternate name for the .fetchids file used to save POP3
-UIDs.
+UIDs. NOTE: since fetchmail 6.3.0, write access to the directory
+containing the idfile is required, as fetchmail writes a temporary file
+and renames it into the place of the real idfile only if the temporary
+file has been written successfully. This avoids the truncation of
+idfiles when running out of disk space.
+.TP
+.B \--pidfile <pathname>
+(Keyword: pidfile; since fetchmail v6.3.4)
+Override the default location of the PID file. Default: see
+"ENVIRONMENT" below.
.TP
.B \-n | \-\-norewrite
(Keyword: no rewrite)
Normally,
.I fetchmail
-edits RFC-822 address headers (To, From, Cc, Bcc, and Reply-To) in
+edits RFC-822 address headers (To, From, Cc, Bcc, and Reply\-To) in
fetched mail so that any mail IDs local to the server are expanded to
full addresses (@ and the mailserver hostname are appended). This enables
replies on the client to get addressed correctly (otherwise your
This option changes the header
.I fetchmail
assumes will carry a copy of the mail's envelope address. Normally
-this is 'X-Envelope-To' but as this header is not standard, practice
-varies. See the discussion of multidrop address handling below. As a
-special case, 'envelope "Received"' enables parsing of sendmail-style
-Received lines. This is the default, and it should not be necessary
-unless you have globally disabled Received parsing with 'no envelope'
-in the \fI.fetchmailrc\fR file.
+this is 'X\-Envelope\-To'. Other typically found headers to carry envelope
+information are 'X\-Original\-To' and 'Delivered\-To'. Now, since
+these headers are not standardized, practice varies. See the discussion
+of multidrop address handling below. As a special case, 'envelope
+"Received"' enables parsing of sendmail-style Received lines. This is
+the default, but discouraged because it is not fully reliable.
+
+.B Note
+that fetchmail expects the Received-line to be in a specific
+format: It must contain "by \fIhost\fP for \fIaddress\fR", where
+\fIhost\fP must match one of the mailserver names that fetchmail
+recognizes for the account in question.
.sp
The optional count argument (only available in the configuration file)
determines how many header lines of this kind are skipped. A count of 1
redirection provider) is using qmail.
One of the basic features of qmail is the
.sp
-\&'Delivered-To:'
+\&'Delivered\-To:'
.sp
message header. Whenever qmail delivers a message to a local mailbox
it puts the username and hostname of the envelope recipient on this
add a prefix to all mail addresses for this site. This results in mail
.\" The \&@\& tries to stop HTML converters from making a mailto URL here.
sent to 'username\&@\&userhost.userdom.dom.com' having a
-\&'Delivered-To:' line of the form:
+\&'Delivered\-To:' line of the form:
.sp
-Delivered-To: mbox-userstr-username\&@\&userhost.userdom.dom.com
+Delivered\-To: mbox\-userstr\-username\&@\&userhost.example.com
.sp
-The ISP can make the 'mbox-userstr-' prefix anything they choose
+The ISP can make the 'mbox\-userstr\-' prefix anything they choose
but a string matching the user host name is likely.
-By using the option 'envelope Delivered-To:' you can make fetchmail reliably
+By using the option 'envelope Delivered\-To:' you can make fetchmail reliably
identify the original envelope recipient, but you have to strip the
-\&'mbox-userstr-' prefix to deliver to the correct user.
+\&'mbox\-userstr\-' prefix to deliver to the correct user.
This is what this option is for.
.TP
-.B --configdump
+.B \-\-configdump
Parse the
.I ~/.fetchmailrc
file, interpret any command-line options specified, and dump a
written in Python.
.SS Removed Options
.TP
-.B -T | --netsec
+.B \-T | \-\-netsec
Removed before version 6.3.0, the required underlying inet6_apps library
had been discontinued and is no longer available.
If you use the same login name on both the server and the client machines,
you needn't worry about specifying a user-id with the
.B \-u
-option \-\- the default behavior is to use your login name on the
+option -- the default behavior is to use your login name on the
client machine as the user-id on the server machine. If you use a
different login name on the server machine, specify that login name
with the
.I fetchmail
as follows:
.IP
-fetchmail -u jsmith mailgrunt
+fetchmail \-u jsmith mailgrunt
.PP
The default behavior of
.I fetchmail
password are usually assigned by the server administrator when you apply for
a mailbox on the server. Contact your server administrator if you don't know
the correct user-id and password for your mailbox account.
-.SS POP3 variants
+.SH POP3 VARIANTS
.PP
Early versions of POP3 (RFC1081, RFC1225) supported a crude form of
independent authentication using the
by
.I fetchmail
(you can specify 'protocol RPOP' to have the program send 'RPOP'
-rather than 'PASS') but its use is strongly discouraged. This
+rather than 'PASS') but its use is strongly discouraged, and support
+will be removed from a future fetchmail version. This
facility was vulnerable to spoofing and was withdrawn in RFC1460.
.PP
RFC1460 introduced APOP authentication. In this variant of POP3,
logs in, it sends a cryptographically secure hash of your password and
the server greeting time to the server, which can verify it by
checking its authorization database.
-.SS Alternate authentication forms
+.SS RETR or TOP
+.I fetchmail
+makes some efforts to make the server believe messages had not been
+retrieved, by using the TOP command with a large number of lines when
+possible. TOP is a command that retrieves the full header and
+a \fIfetchmail\fP-specified amount of body lines. It is optional and
+therefore not implemented by all servers, and some are known to
+implement it improperly. On many servers however, the RETR command which
+retrieves the full message with header and body, sets the "seen" flag
+(for instance, in a web interface), whereas the TOP command does not do
+that.
+.PP
+.I fetchmail
+will always use the RETR command if "fetchall" is set.
+.I fetchmail
+will also use the RETR command if "keep" is set and "uidl" is unset.
+Finally,
+.I fetchmail
+will use the RETR command on Maillennium POP3/PROXY
+servers (used by Comcast) to avoid a deliberate TOP misinterpretation in
+this server that causes message corruption.
+.PP
+In all other cases,
+.I fetchmail
+will use the TOP command. This implies that in "keep" setups, "uidl"
+must be set if "TOP" is desired.
+.PP
+.B Note
+that this description is true for the current version of fetchmail, but
+the behavior may change in future versions. In particular, fetchmail may
+prefer the RETR command because the TOP command causes much grief on
+some servers and is only optional.
+.SH ALTERNATE AUTHENTICATION FORMS
.PP
If your \fIfetchmail\fR was built with Kerberos support and you specify
-Kerberos authentication (either with --auth or the \fI.fetchmailrc\fR
+Kerberos authentication (either with \-\-auth or the \fI.fetchmailrc\fR
option \fBauthenticate kerberos_v4\fR) it will try to get a Kerberos
ticket from the mailserver at the start of each query. Note: if
either the pollname or via name is 'hesiod', fetchmail will try to use
Hesiod to look up the mailserver.
.PP
If you use POP3 or IMAP with GSSAPI authentication, \fIfetchmail\fR will
-expect the server to have RFC1731- or RFC1734-conformant GSSAPI
+expect the server to have RFC1731- or RFC1734-conforming GSSAPI
capability, and will use it. Currently this has only been tested over
Kerberos V, so you're expected to already have a ticket-granting
ticket. You may pass a username different from your principal name
-using the standard \fB--user\fR command or by the \fI.fetchmailrc\fR
+using the standard \fB\-\-user\fR command or by the \fI.fetchmailrc\fR
option \fBuser\fR.
.PP
If your IMAP daemon returns the PREAUTH response in its greeting line,
site entry to stop \fI.fetchmail\fR from asking you for a password
when it starts up.
.PP
+If you use client authentication with \fITLS1\fR and your IMAP daemon
+returns the \fIAUTH=EXTERNAL\fR response, fetchmail will notice this
+and will use the authentication shortcut and will not send the
+passphrase. In this case you can declare the authentication value 'external'
+ on that site to stop \fIfetchmail\fR from asking you for a password
+when it starts up.
+.PP
If you are using POP3, and the server issues a one-time-password
challenge conforming to RFC1938, \fIfetchmail\fR will use your
password as a pass phrase to generate the required response. This
capability response. Specify a user option value that looks like
\&'user@domain': the part to the left of the @ will be passed as the
username and the part to the right as the NTLM domain.
-.SS Secure Socket Layers (SSL)
-.PP
-You can access SSL encrypted services by specifying the --ssl option.
-You can also do this using the "ssl" server option in the .fetchmailrc
-file. With SSL encryption enabled, queries are initiated over a connection
-after negotiating an SSL session. Some services, such as POP3 and IMAP,
-have different well known ports defined for the SSL encrypted services.
-The encrypted ports will be selected automatically when SSL is enabled and
-no explicit port is specified.
-.PP
-When connecting to an SSL encrypted server, the server presents a certificate
-to the client for validation. The certificate is checked to verify that
-the common name in the certificate matches the name of the server being
-contacted and that the effective and expiration dates in the certificate
-indicate that it is currently valid. If any of these checks fail, a warning
-message is printed, but the connection continues. The server certificate
-does not need to be signed by any specific Certifying Authority and may
-be a "self-signed" certificate.
+.SS Secure Socket Layers (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS)
+.PP
+You can access SSL encrypted services by specifying the \-\-ssl option.
+You can also do this using the "ssl" user option in the .fetchmailrc
+file. With SSL encryption enabled, queries are initiated over a connection
+after negotiating an SSL session, and the connection fails if SSL cannot
+be negotiated. Some services, such as POP3 and IMAP, have different
+well known ports defined for the SSL encrypted services. The encrypted
+ports will be selected automatically when SSL is enabled and no explicit
+port is specified. The \-\-sslproto option can be used to select the SSL
+protocols (default: v2 or v3). The \-\-sslcertck command line or
+sslcertck run control file option should be used to force strict
+certificate checking - see below.
+.PP
+If SSL is not configured, fetchmail will usually opportunistically try to use
+TLS. TLS can be enforced by using \-\-sslproto "TLS1". TLS
+connections use the same port as the unencrypted version of the
+protocol and negotiate TLS via special parameter. The \-\-sslcertck
+command line or sslcertck run control file option should be used to
+force strict certificate checking - see below.
+.PP
+.B \-\-sslcertck
+recommended: When connecting to an SSL or TLS encrypted server, the
+server presents a certificate to the client for validation. The
+certificate is checked to verify that the common name in the certificate
+matches the name of the server being contacted and that the effective
+and expiration dates in the certificate indicate that it is currently
+valid. If any of these checks fail, a warning message is printed, but
+the connection continues. The server certificate does not need to be
+signed by any specific Certifying Authority and may be a "self-signed"
+certificate. If the \-\-sslcertck command line option or sslcertck run
+control file option is used, fetchmail will instead abort if any of
+these checks fail. Use of the sslcertck or \-\-sslcertck option is
+advised.
.PP
Some SSL encrypted servers may request a client side certificate. A client
side public SSL certificate and private SSL key may be specified. If
.PP
A word of care about the use of SSL: While above mentioned
setup with self-signed server certificates retrieved over the wires
-can protect you from a passive eavesdropper it doesn't help against an
+can protect you from a passive eavesdropper, it doesn't help against an
active attacker. It's clearly an improvement over sending the
-passwords in clear but you should be aware that a man-in-the-middle
+passwords in clear, but you should be aware that a man-in-the-middle
attack is trivially possible (in particular with tools such as dsniff,
-http://www.monkey.org/~dugsong/dsniff/). Use of an ssh tunnel (see
-below for some examples) is preferable if you care seriously about the
-security of your mailbox.
-.SS SMTP AUTH
+http://monkey.org/~dugsong/dsniff/). Use of strict certificate checking
+with a certification authority recognized by server and client, or
+perhaps of an SSH tunnel (see below for some examples) is preferable if
+you care seriously about the security of your mailbox and passwords.
+.SS ESMTP AUTH
.PP
.B fetchmail
also supports authentication to the ESMTP server on the client side
defaults to the username of the calling user.
.SH DAEMON MODE
-The
-.B \-\-daemon <interval>
-or
-.B \-d <interval>
-option runs
-.I fetchmail
-in daemon mode. You must specify a numeric argument which is a
-polling interval in seconds.
-.PP
+.SS Introducing the daemon mode
In daemon mode,
.I fetchmail
-puts itself in background and runs forever, querying each specified
-host and then sleeping for the given polling interval.
-.PP
-Simply invoking
+puts itself into the background and runs forever, querying each
+specified host and then sleeping for a given polling interval.
+.SS Starting the daemon mode
+There are several ways to make fetchmail work in daemon mode. On the
+command line, \fB\-\-daemon\ <interval>\fR or \fB\-d\ <interval>\fR
+option runs \fIfetchmail\fR in daemon mode. You must specify a numeric
+argument which is a polling interval in seconds.
+.PP
+Example: simply invoking
.IP
-fetchmail -d 900
+fetchmail \-d 900
.PP
will, therefore, poll all the hosts described in your
.I ~/.fetchmailrc
file (except those explicitly excluded with the 'skip' verb) once
-every fifteen minutes.
+every 15 minutes.
.PP
-It is possible to set a polling interval
-in your
-.I ~/.fetchmailrc
-file by saying 'set daemon <interval>', where <interval> is an
-integer number of seconds. If you do this, fetchmail will always
-start in daemon mode unless you override it with the command-line
-option --daemon 0 or -d0.
+It is also possible to set a polling interval
+in your \fI~/.fetchmailrc\fR file by saying 'set\ daemon\ <interval>',
+where <interval> is an integer number of seconds. If you do this,
+fetchmail will always start in daemon mode unless you override it with
+the command-line option \-\-daemon 0 or \-d0.
.PP
Only one daemon process is permitted per user; in daemon mode,
-.I fetchmail
-makes a per-user lockfile to guarantee this.
+\fIfetchmail\fR sets up a per-user lockfile to guarantee this.
+(You can however cheat and set the FETCHMAILHOME environment variable to
+overcome this setting, but in that case, it is your responsibility to
+make sure you aren't polling the same server with two processes at the
+same time.)
+.SS Awakening the background daemon
.PP
Normally, calling fetchmail with a daemon in the background sends a
-wake-up signal to the daemon, forcing it to poll mailservers
-immediately. (The wake-up signal is SIGHUP if fetchmail is running as
-root, SIGUSR1 otherwise.) The wake-up action also clears any 'wedged'
-flags indicating that connections have wedged due to failed
+wake-up signal to the daemon and quits without output. The background
+daemon then starts its next poll cycle immediately. The wake-up signal,
+SIGUSR1, can also be sent manually. The wake-up action also clears any
+'wedged' flags indicating that connections have wedged due to failed
authentication or multiple timeouts.
+.SS Terminating the background daemon
.PP
The option
.B \-\-quit
will kill the running daemon process and then quit. Otherwise,
\fIfetchmail\fP will first kill a running daemon process and then
continue running with the other options.
+.SS Useful options for daemon mode
.PP
The
.B \-L <filename>
or
.B \-\-logfile <filename>
-option (keyword: set logfile) allows you to redirect status messages
-emitted while detached into a specified logfile (follow the
-option with the logfile name). The logfile is opened for append, so
-previous messages aren't deleted. This is primarily useful for
-debugging configurations.
+option (keyword: set logfile) is only effective when fetchmail is
+detached. This option allows you to redirect status messages
+into a specified logfile (follow the option with the logfile name). The
+logfile is opened for append, so previous messages aren't deleted. This
+is primarily useful for debugging configurations. Note that fetchmail
+does not detect if the logfile is rotated, the logfile is only opened
+once when fetchmail starts. You need to restart fetchmail after rotating
+the logfile and before compressing it (if applicable).
.PP
The
.B \-\-syslog
The
.B \-N
or
-.B --nodetach
+.B \-\-nodetach
option suppresses backgrounding and detachment of the
daemon process from its control terminal. This is useful
for debugging or when fetchmail runs as the child of a supervisor
at the beginning of the next poll cycle. When a changed
.I ~/.fetchmailrc
is detected, fetchmail rereads it and restarts from scratch (using
-exec(2); no state information is retained in the new instance). Note also
-that if you break the
+exec(2); no state information is retained in the new instance).
+Note also that if you break the
.I ~/.fetchmailrc
file's syntax, the new instance will softly and silently vanish away
on startup.
.B \-\-postmaster <name>
option (keyword: set postmaster) specifies the last-resort username to
which multidrop mail is to be forwarded if no matching local recipient
-can be found. Normally this is just the user who invoked
+can be found. It is also used as destination of undeliverable mail if
+the 'bouncemail' global option is off and additionally for spam-blocked
+mail if the 'bouncemail' global option is off and the 'spambounce'
+global option is on. This option defaults to the user who invoked
.IR fetchmail .
If the invoking user is root, then the default of this option is
the user 'postmaster'. Setting postmaster to the empty string causes
-such mail to be discarded.
+such mail as described above to be discarded - this however is usually a
+bad idea.
+See also the description of the 'FETCHMAILUSER' environment variable in
+the ENVIRONMENT section below.
.PP
The
.B \-\-nobounce
-option suppresses the normal action of bouncing errors back to the
-sender in an RFC1894-conformant error message. If nobounce is on, the
-message will go to the postmaster instead.
+behaves like the "set no bouncemail" global option, which see.
.PP
The
.B \-\-invisible
.B \-\-showdots
option (keyword: set showdots) forces fetchmail to show progress dots
even if the current tty is not stdout (for example logfiles).
-Starting with fetchmail version 5.3.0,
-progress dots are only shown on stdout by default.
+Fetchmail shows the dots by default when run in nodetach mode or when
+daemon mode is not enabled.
.PP
By specifying the
.B \-\-tracepolls
When forwarding to an MDA, however, there is more possibility
of error. Some MDAs are 'safe' and reliably return a nonzero status
on any delivery error, even one due to temporary resource limits.
-The well-known
-.IR procmail (1)
+The
+.IR maildrop (1)
program is like this; so are most programs designed as mail transport
agents, such as
.IR sendmail (1),
-and
+including the sendmail wrapper of Postfix and
.IR exim (1).
These programs give back a reliable positive acknowledgement and
can be used with the mda option with no risk of mail loss. Unsafe
The normal mode of \fIfetchmail\fR is to try to download only 'new'
messages, leaving untouched (and undeleted) messages you have already
read directly on the server (or fetched with a previous \fIfetchmail
---keep\fR). But you may find that messages you've already read on the
+\-\-keep\fR). But you may find that messages you've already read on the
server are being fetched (and deleted) even when you don't specify
---all. There are several reasons this can happen.
+\-\-all. There are several reasons this can happen.
.PP
One could be that you're using POP2. The POP2 protocol includes no
representation of 'new' or 'old' state in messages, so \fIfetchmail\fR
in the middle of mailboxes (some VMS implementations of mail are
rumored to do this). The \fIfetchmail\fR code assumes that new
messages are appended to the end of the mailbox; when this is not true
-it may treat some old messages as new and vice versa. Using UIDL might
-fix this, otherwise, consider switching to IMAP.
+it may treat some old messages as new and vice versa. Using UIDL whilst
+setting fastuidl 0 might fix this, otherwise, consider switching to IMAP.
.PP
Yet another POP3 problem is that if they can't make tempfiles in the
user's home directory, some POP3 servers will hand back an
this, though it's not specified by the IMAP RFCs. If you ever trip over
a server that doesn't, the symptom will be that messages you have
already read on your host will look new to the server. In this
-(unlikely) case, only messages you fetched with \fIfetchmail --keep\fR
+(unlikely) case, only messages you fetched with \fIfetchmail \-\-keep\fR
will be both undeleted and marked old.
.PP
In ETRN and ODMR modes, \fIfetchmail\fR does not actually retrieve messages;
.PP
By default, the list of antispam responses is empty.
.PP
-If the \fIspambounce\fR option is on, mail that is spam-blocked
-triggers an RFC1892 bounce message informing the originator that we do
-not accept mail from it. See also BUGS.
+If the \fIspambounce\fR global option is on, mail that is spam-blocked
+triggers an RFC1892/RFC1894 bounce message informing the originator that
+we do not accept mail from it. See also BUGS.
.SH SMTP/ESMTP ERROR HANDLING
Besides the spam-blocking described above, fetchmail takes special
your \fI~/.fetchmailrc\fR may not normally have more than 0600 (u=rw,g=,o=) permissions;
.I fetchmail
will complain and exit otherwise (this check is suppressed when
---version is on).
+\-\-version is on).
.PP
You may read the \fI.fetchmailrc\fR file as a list of commands to
be executed when
There are four kinds of tokens: grammar keywords, numbers
(i.e. decimal digit sequences), unquoted strings, and quoted strings.
A quoted string is bounded by double quotes and may contain
-whitespace (and quoted digits are treated as a string). An unquoted
-string is any whitespace-delimited token that is neither numeric, string
-quoted nor contains the special characters ',', ';', ':', or '='.
+whitespace (and quoted digits are treated as a string). Note that
+quoted strings will also contain line feed characters if they run across
+two or more lines, unless you use a backslash to join lines (see below).
+An unquoted string is any whitespace-delimited token that is neither
+numeric, string quoted nor contains the special characters ',', ';',
+\&':', or '='.
.PP
Any amount of whitespace separates tokens in server entries, but is
-otherwise ignored. You may use standard C-style escapes (\en, \et,
-\eb, octal, and hex) to embed non-printable characters or string
-delimiters in strings.
+otherwise ignored. You may use backslash escape sequences (\en for LF,
+\&\et for HT, \eb for BS, \er for CR, \e\fInnn\fP for decimal (where
+nnn cannot start with a 0), \e0\fIooo\fP for octal, and \ex\fIhh\fP for
+hex) to embed non-printable characters or string delimiters in strings.
+In quoted strings, a backslash at the very end of a line will cause the
+backslash itself and the line feed (LF or NL, new line) character to be
+ignored, so that you can wrap long strings. Without the backslash at the
+line end, the line feed character would become part of the string.
+.PP
+.B Warning:
+while these resemble C-style escape sequences, they are not the same.
+fetchmail only supports these eight styles. C supports more escape
+sequences that consist of backslash (\e) and a single character, but
+does not support decimal codes and does not require the leading 0 in
+octal notation. Example: fetchmail interprets \e233 the same as \exE9
+(Latin small letter e with acute), where C would interpret \e233 as
+octal 0233 = \ex9B (CSI, control sequence introducer).
.PP
Each server entry consists of one of the keywords 'poll' or 'skip',
followed by a server name, followed by server options, followed by any
.PP
.SS Keyword/Option Summary
Here are the legal options. Keyword suffixes enclosed in
-square brackets are optional. Those corresponding to command-line
-options are followed by '-' and the appropriate option letter.
-If option is only relevant to a single mode of operation, it is noted
-as 's' or 'm' for singledrop- or multidrop-mode, respectively.
+square brackets are optional. Those corresponding to short command-line
+options are followed by '\-' and the appropriate option letter. If
+option is only relevant to a single mode of operation, it is noted as
+\&'s' or 'm' for singledrop- or multidrop-mode, respectively.
Here are the legal global options:
l l l lw34.
Keyword Opt Mode Function
_
-set daemon \& \& T{
-Set a background poll interval in seconds
+set daemon \-d \& T{
+Set a background poll interval in seconds.
T}
set postmaster \& \& T{
-Give the name of the last-resort mail recipient
+Give the name of the last-resort mail recipient (default: user running
+fetchmail, "postmaster" if run by the root user)
+T}
+set bouncemail \& \& T{
+Direct error mail to the sender (default)
T}
set no bouncemail \& \& T{
-Direct error mail to postmaster rather than sender
+Direct error mail to the local postmaster (as per the 'postmaster'
+global option above).
T}
set no spambounce \& \& T{
-Send spam bounces
+Do not bounce spam-blocked mail (default).
T}
-set logfile \& \& T{
-Name of a file to dump error and status messages to
+set spambounce \& \& T{
+Bounce blocked spam-blocked mail (as per the 'antispam' user option)
+back to the destination as indicated by the 'bouncemail' global option.
+Warning: Do not use this to bounce spam back to the sender - most spam
+is sent with false sender address and thus this option hurts innocent
+bystanders.
T}
-set idfile \& \& T{
-Name of the file to store UID lists in
+set logfile \-L \& T{
+Name of a file to append error and status messages to.
T}
-set syslog \& \& T{
+set idfile \-i \& T{
+Name of the file to store UID lists in.
+T}
+set syslog \& \& T{
Do error logging through syslog(3).
T}
set no syslog \& \& T{
-Turn off error logging through syslog(3).
+Turn off error logging through syslog(3). (default)
T}
set properties \& \& T{
-String value is ignored by fetchmail (may be used by extension scripts)
+String value that is ignored by fetchmail (may be used by extension
+scripts).
T}
.TE
via \& \& T{
Specify DNS name of mailserver, overriding poll name
T}
-proto[col] -p \& T{
+proto[col] \-p \& T{
Specify protocol (case insensitive):
POP2, POP3, IMAP, APOP, KPOP
T}
local[domains] \& m T{
Specify domain(s) to be regarded as local
T}
-port -P \& T{
-Specify TCP/IP service port
+port \& \& T{
+Specify TCP/IP service port (obsolete, use 'service' instead).
+T}
+service \-P \& T{
+Specify service name (a numeric value is also allowed and
+considered a TCP/IP port number).
T}
auth[enticate] \& \& T{
Set authentication type (default 'any')
T}
-timeout -t \& T{
+timeout \-t \& T{
Server inactivity timeout in seconds (default 300)
T}
-envelope -E m T{
+envelope \-E m T{
Specify envelope-address header name
T}
no envelope \& m T{
Disable looking for envelope address
T}
-qvirtual -Q m T{
+qvirtual \-Q m T{
Qmail virtual domain prefix to remove from user name
T}
aka \& m T{
Specify alternate DNS names of mailserver
T}
-interface -I \& T{
+interface \-I \& T{
specify IP interface(s) that must be up for server poll to take place
T}
-monitor -M \& T{
+monitor \-M \& T{
Specify IP address to monitor for activity
T}
plugin \& \& T{
no checkalias \& m T{
Do comparison by name for multidrop (default)
T}
-uidl -U \& T{
-Force POP3 to use client-side UIDLs
+uidl \-U \& T{
+Force POP3 to use client-side UIDLs (recommended)
T}
no uidl \& \& T{
Turn off POP3 use of client-side UIDLs (default)
Add poll tracing information to the Received header
T}
principal \& \& T{
-Set Kerberos principal (only useful with imap and kerberos)
+Set Kerberos principal (only useful with IMAP and kerberos)
T}
esmtpname \& \& T{
Set name for RFC2554 authentication to the ESMTP server.
T}
-esmtppassword \& \& T{
+esmtppassword \& \& T{
Set password for RFC2554 authentication to the ESMTP server.
T}
.TE
l l l lw34.
Keyword Opt Mode Function
_
-user[name] -u \& T{
+user[name] \-u \& T{
Set remote user name
(local user name if name followed by 'here')
T}
sslproto \& \& T{
Force ssl protocol for connection
T}
-folder -r \& T{
+folder \-r \& T{
Specify remote folder to query
T}
-smtphost -S \& T{
+smtphost \-S \& T{
Specify smtp host(s) to forward to
T}
fetchdomains \& m T{
Specify domains for which mail should be fetched
T}
-smtpaddress -D \& T{
+smtpaddress \-D \& T{
Specify the domain to be put in RCPT TO lines
T}
smtpname \& \& T{
Specify the user and domain to be put in RCPT TO lines
T}
-antispam -Z \& T{
+antispam \-Z \& T{
Specify what SMTP returns are interpreted as spam-policy blocks
T}
-mda -m \& T{
+mda \-m \& T{
Specify MDA for local delivery
T}
-bsmtp -o \& T{
+bsmtp \-o \& T{
Specify BSMTP batch file to append to
T}
preconnect \& \& T{
postconnect \& \& T{
Command to be executed after each connection
T}
-keep -k \& T{
-Don't delete seen messages from server
+keep \-k \& T{
+Don't delete seen messages from server (for POP3, uidl is recommended)
T}
-flush -F \& T{
+flush \-F \& T{
Flush all seen messages before querying (DANGEROUS)
T}
limitflush \& \& T{
Flush all oversized messages before querying
T}
-fetchall -a \& T{
+fetchall \-a \& T{
Fetch all messages whether seen or not
T}
rewrite \& \& T{
idle \& \& T{
Idle waiting for new messages after each poll (IMAP only)
T}
-no keep -K \& T{
+no keep \-K \& T{
Delete seen messages from server (default)
T}
no flush \& \& T{
Don't drop Status headers (default)
T}
no dropdelivered \& \& T{
-Don't drop Delivered-To headers (default)
+Don't drop Delivered\-To headers (default)
T}
no mimedecode \& \& T{
Don't convert quoted-printable to 8-bit in MIME messages (default)
no idle \& \& T{
Don't idle waiting for new messages after each poll (IMAP only)
T}
-limit -l \& T{
+limit \-l \& T{
Set message size limit
T}
-warnings -w \& T{
+warnings \-w \& T{
Set message size warning interval
T}
-batchlimit -b \& T{
+batchlimit \-b \& T{
Max # messages to forward in single connect
T}
-fetchlimit -B \& T{
+fetchlimit \-B \& T{
Max # messages to fetch in single connect
T}
fetchsizelimit \& \& T{
fastuidl \& \& T{
Use binary search for first unseen message (POP3 only)
T}
-expunge -e \& T{
+expunge \-e \& T{
Perform an expunge on every #th message (IMAP and POP3 only)
T}
properties \& \& T{
\&'checkalias'/'no checkalias', 'password', 'preconnect', 'postconnect',
\&'localdomains', 'stripcr'/'no stripcr', 'forcecr'/'no forcecr',
\&'pass8bits'/'no pass8bits' 'dropstatus/no dropstatus',
-\&'dropdelivered/no dropdelivered', 'mimedecode/no mimedecode', 'idle/no
-idle', and 'no envelope'.
+\&'dropdelivered/no dropdelivered', 'mimedecode/no mimedecode', 'no idle',
+and 'no envelope'.
.PP
The 'via' option is for if you want to have more
than one configuration pointing at the same site. If it is present,
server less frequently than the basic poll interval. If you say
\&'interval N' the server this option is attached to will only be
queried every N poll intervals.
+.SS Singledrop vs. Multidrop options
+.PP
+Please ensure you read the section titled
+.B THE USE AND ABUSE OF MULTIDROP MAILBOXES
+if you intend to use multidrop mode.
.PP
The 'is' or 'to' keywords associate the following local (client)
name(s) (or server-name to client-name mappings separated by =) with
the mailserver user name in the entry. If an is/to list has '*' as
-its last name, unrecognized names are simply passed through.
+its last name, unrecognized names are simply passed through. Note that
+until \fIfetchmail\fR version 6.3.4 inclusively, these lists could only
+contain local parts of user names (fetchmail would only look at the part
+before the @ sign). \fIfetchmail\fR versions 6.3.5 and
+newer support full addresses on the left hand side of these mappings,
+and they take precedence over any 'localdomains', 'aka', 'via' or
+similar mappings.
.PP
A single local name can be used to support redirecting your mail when
your username on the client machine is different from your name on the
mailserver. When there is only a single local name, mail is forwarded
to that local username regardless of the message's Received, To, Cc,
-and Bcc headers. In this case
+and Bcc headers. In this case,
.I fetchmail
never does DNS lookups.
.PP
-When there is more than one local name (or name mapping) the
-\fIfetchmail\fR code does look at the Received, To, Cc, and Bcc
-headers of retrieved mail (this is 'multidrop mode'). It looks for
-addresses with hostname parts that match your poll name or your 'via',
-\&'aka' or 'localdomains' options, and usually also for hostname parts
-which DNS tells it are aliases of the mailserver. See the discussion
-of 'dns', 'checkalias', 'localdomains', and 'aka' for details on how
-matching addresses are handled.
+When there is more than one local name (or name mapping),
+\fIfetchmail\fR looks at the envelope header, if configured, and
+otherwise at the Received, To, Cc, and Bcc headers of retrieved mail
+(this is 'multidrop mode'). It looks for addresses with hostname parts
+that match your poll name or your 'via', 'aka' or 'localdomains'
+options, and usually also for hostname parts which DNS tells it are
+aliases of the mailserver. See the discussion of 'dns', 'checkalias',
+\&'localdomains', and 'aka' for details on how matching addresses are
+handled.
.PP
If \fIfetchmail\fR cannot match any mailserver usernames or
localdomain addresses, the mail will be bounced.
-Normally it will be bounced to the sender, but if 'nobounce' is on
-it will go to the postmaster (which in turn defaults to being the
-calling user). See also BUGS.
+Normally it will be bounced to the sender, but if the 'bouncemail'
+global option is off, the mail will go to the local postmaster instead.
+(see the 'postmaster' global option). See also BUGS.
.PP
The 'dns' option (normally on) controls the way addresses from
multidrop mailboxes are checked. On, it enables logic to check each
-host address that doesn't match an 'aka' or 'localdomains' declaration
+host address that does not match an 'aka' or 'localdomains' declaration
by looking it up with DNS. When a mailserver username is recognized
attached to a matching hostname part, its local mapping is added to
the list of local recipients.
to the listener or MDA unaltered (local-name mappings are \fInot\fR
applied).
.PP
-If you are using 'localdomains', you may also need to specify \&'no
+If you are using 'localdomains', you may also need to specify 'no
envelope', which disables \fIfetchmail\fR's normal attempt to deduce
an envelope address from the Received line or X-Envelope-To header or
whatever header has been previously set by 'envelope'. If you set 'no
Status line in it has been seen. (Note: the empty Status lines
inserted by some buggy POP servers are unconditionally discarded.)
.PP
-The 'dropdelivered' option controls whether Delivered-To headers will
+The 'dropdelivered' option controls whether Delivered\-To headers will
be kept in fetched mail (the default) or discarded. These headers are
added by Qmail and Postfix mailservers in order to avoid mail loops but
may get in your way if you try to "mirror" a mailserver within the same
can save bandwidth by eliminating TCP/IP connects and LOGIN/LOGOUT
sequences. On the other hand, an IDLE connection will eat almost all
of your fetchmail's time, because it will never drop the connection
-and allow other pools to occur unless the server times out the IDLE.
+and allow other polls to occur unless the server times out the IDLE.
It also doesn't work with multiple folders; only the first folder will
ever be polled.
The 'properties' option is an extension mechanism. It takes a string
argument, which is ignored by fetchmail itself. The string argument may be
used to store configuration information for scripts which require it.
-In particular, the output of '--configdump' option will make properties
+In particular, the output of '\-\-configdump' option will make properties
associated with a user entry readily available to a Python script.
.PP
.SS Miscellaneous Run Control Options
Legal protocol identifiers for use with the 'protocol' keyword are:
.sp
.nf
- auto (or AUTO)
- pop2 (or POP2)
+ auto (or AUTO) (legacy, to be removed from future release)
+ pop2 (or POP2) (legacy, to be removed from future release)
pop3 (or POP3)
sdps (or SDPS)
imap (or IMAP)
.sp
.PP
Legal authentication types are 'any', 'password', 'kerberos',
-\&'kerberos_v4', 'kerberos_v5' and 'gssapi', 'cram-md5', 'otp', 'msn'
-(only for POP3), 'ntlm', 'ssh'. The 'password' type specifies
+\&'kerberos_v4', 'kerberos_v5' and 'gssapi', 'cram\-md5', 'otp', 'msn'
+(only for POP3), 'ntlm', 'ssh', 'external' (only IMAP).
+The 'password' type specifies
authentication by normal transmission of a password (the password may be
plain text or subject to protocol-specific encryption as in APOP);
\&'kerberos' tells \fIfetchmail\fR to try to get a Kerberos ticket at the
Specifying 'kpop' sets POP3 protocol over port 1109 with Kerberos V4
authentication. These defaults may be overridden by later options.
.PP
-There are currently four global option statements; 'set logfile'
-followed by a string sets the same global specified by --logfile. A
-command-line --logfile option will override this. Also, 'set daemon'
-sets the poll interval as --daemon does. This can be overridden by a
-command-line --daemon option; in particular --daemon 0 can be used to
-force foreground operation. The 'set postmaster' statement sets the
-address to which multidrop mail defaults if there are no local
-matches. Finally, 'set syslog' sends log messages to syslogd(8).
+There are some global option statements: 'set logfile'
+followed by a string sets the same global specified by \-\-logfile. A
+command-line \-\-logfile option will override this. Note that \-\-logfile is
+only effective if fetchmail detaches itself from the terminal. Also,
+\&'set daemon' sets the poll interval as \-\-daemon does. This can be
+overridden by a command-line \-\-daemon option; in particular \-\-daemon\~0
+can be used to force foreground operation. The 'set postmaster'
+statement sets the address to which multidrop mail defaults if there are
+no local matches. Finally, 'set syslog' sends log messages to
+syslogd(8).
+
+.SH DEBUGGING FETCHMAIL
+.SS Fetchmail crashing
+There are various ways in that fetchmail may "crash", i. e. stop
+operation suddenly and unexpectedly. A "crash" usually refers to an
+error condition that the software did not handle by itself. A well-known
+failure mode is the "segmentation fault" or "signal 11" or "SIGSEGV" or
+just "segfault" for short. These can be caused by hardware or by software
+problems. Software-induced segfaults can usually be reproduced easily
+and in the same place, whereas hardware-induced segfaults can go away if
+the computer is rebooted, or powered off for a few hours, and can happen
+in random locations even if you use the software the same way.
+
+For solving hardware-induced segfaults, find the faulty component and repair or
+replace it. <http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/> may help you with details.
+
+For solving software-induced segfaults, the developers may need a "stack
+backtrace".
+
+.SS Enabling fetchmail core dumps
+By default, fetchmail suppresses core dumps as these might contain
+passwords and other sensitive information. For debugging fetchmail
+crashes, obtaining a "stack backtrace" from a core dump is often the
+quickest way to solve the problem, and when posting your problem on a
+mailing list, the developers may ask you for a "backtrace".
+
+1. To get useful backtraces, fetchmail needs to be installed without
+getting stripped of its compilation symbols. Unfortunately, most
+binary packages that are installed are stripped, and core files from
+symbol-stripped programs are worthless. So you may need to recompile
+fetchmail. On many systems, you can type
+.sp
+.nf
+ file `which fetchmail`
+.fi
+.sp
+to find out if fetchmail was symbol-stripped or not. If yours was
+unstripped, fine, proceed, if it was stripped, you need to recompile the
+source code first. You do not usually need to install fetchmail in order
+to debug it.
+
+2. The shell environment that starts fetchmail needs to enable core
+dumps. The key is the "maximum core (file) size" that can usually be
+configured with a tool named "limit" or "ulimit". See the documentation
+for your shell for details. In the popular bash shell, "ulimit \-Sc
+unlimited" will allow the core dump.
+
+3. You need to tell fetchmail, too, to allow core dumps. To do
+this, run fetchmail with the \fB\-d0 \-v\fP options. It is often easier
+to also add \fB\-\-nosyslog \-N\fR as well.
+
+Finally, you need to reproduce the crash. You can just start fetchmail
+from the directory where you compiled it by typing \fB./fetchmail\fR,
+so the complete command line will start with \fB./fetchmail \-Nvd0
+\&\-\-nosyslog\fR and perhaps list your other options.
+
+After the crash, run your debugger to obtain the core dump. The
+debugger will often be GNU GDB, you can then type (adjust paths as
+necessary) \fBgdb ./fetchmail fetchmail.core\fR and then, after GDB
+has started up and read all its files, type \fBbacktrace full\fR, save
+the output (copy & paste will do, the backtrace will be read by a human)
+and then type \fBquit\fR to leave gdb.
+.B Note:
+on some systems, the core
+files have different names, they might contain a number instead of the
+program name, or number and name, but it will usually have "core" as
+part of their name.
.SH INTERACTION WITH RFC 822
When trying to determine the originating address of a message,
rather to the list manager (which is less annoying).
In multidrop mode, destination headers are processed as follows:
-First, fetchmail looks for the Received: header (or whichever one is
-specified by the 'envelope' option) to determine the local
-recipient address. If the mail is addressed to more than one recipient,
-the Received line won't contain any information regarding recipient addresses.
+First, fetchmail looks for the header specified by the 'envelope' option
+in order to determine the local recipient address. If the mail is
+addressed to more than one recipient, the Received line won't contain
+any information regarding recipient addresses.
Then fetchmail looks for the Resent-To:, Resent-Cc:, and Resent-Bcc:
lines. If they exist, they should contain the final recipients and
-have precedence over their To:/Cc:/Bcc: counterparts. If the Resent-*
+have precedence over their To:/Cc:/Bcc: counterparts. If the Resent\-*
lines don't exist, the To:, Cc:, Bcc: and Apparently-To: lines are
-looked for. (The presence of a Resent-To: is taken to imply that the
+looked for. (The presence of a Resent\-To: is taken to imply that the
person referred by the To: address has already received the original
copy of the mail.)
pop.provider.net username 'jones'. Mail for 'jones' is kept on the
server after download.
.PP
-Here's what a simple retrieval configuration for a multi-drop mailbox
+Here's what a simple retrieval configuration for a multidrop mailbox
looks like:
.nf
.fi
This says that the mailbox of account 'maildrop' on the server is a
-multi-drop box, and that messages in it should be parsed for the
+multidrop box, and that messages in it should be parsed for the
server user names 'golux', 'hurkle', and 'snark'. It further
specifies that 'golux' and 'snark' have the same name on the
client as on the server, but mail for server user 'hurkle' should be
delivered to client user 'happy'.
+
+.B Note
+that
+.I fetchmail,
+until version 6.3.4, did NOT allow full user@domain specifications here,
+these would never match. \fIFetchmail\fP 6.3.5 and newer support
+user@domain specifications on the left-hand side of a user mapping.
.PP
Here's an example of another kind of multidrop connection:
.nf
- poll pop.provider.net localdomains loonytoons.org toons.org:
+ poll pop.provider.net localdomains loonytoons.org toons.org
+ envelope X-Envelope-To
user maildrop with pass secret1 to * here
.fi
This also says that the mailbox of account 'maildrop' on the server is
-a multi-drop box. It tells fetchmail that any address in the
+a multidrop box. It tells fetchmail that any address in the
loonytoons.org or toons.org domains (including sub-domain addresses like
\&'joe@daffy.loonytoons.org') should be passed through to the local SMTP
listener without modification. Be careful of mail loops if you do this!
header. But this doesn't work reliably for other MTAs, nor if there is
more than one recipient. By default, \fIfetchmail\fR looks for
envelope addresses in these lines; you can restore this default with
--E "Received" or \&'envelope Received'.
+\&\-E "Received" or 'envelope Received'.
.PP
.B As a better alternative,
some SMTP listeners and/or mail servers insert a header
in each message containing a copy of the envelope addresses. This
-header (when it exists) is often 'X-Original-To', 'Delivered-To' or
-'X-Envelope-To'. Fetchmail's assumption about this can be changed with
-the -E or 'envelope' option. Note that writing an envelope header of
+header (when it exists) is often 'X\-Original\-To', 'Delivered\-To' or
+\&'X\-Envelope\-To'. Fetchmail's assumption about this can be changed with
+the \-E or 'envelope' option. Note that writing an envelope header of
this kind exposes the names of recipients (including blind-copy
recipients) to all receivers of the messages, so the upstream must store
one copy of the message per recipient to avoid becoming a privacy problem.
.PP
-Postfix, since version 2.0, writes an X-Original-To: header which
+Postfix, since version 2.0, writes an X\-Original\-To: header which
contains a copy of the envelope as it was received.
.PP
-Qmail and Postfix generally write a 'Delivered-To' header upon
+Qmail and Postfix generally write a 'Delivered\-To' header upon
delivering the message to the mail spool and use it to avoid mail loops.
Qmail virtual domains however will prefix the user name with a string
that normally matches the user's domain. To remove this prefix you can
-use the -Q or 'qvirtual' option.
+use the \-Q or 'qvirtual' option.
.PP
Sometimes, unfortunately, neither of these methods works. That is the
point when you should contact your ISP and ask them to provide such an
In particular, mailing-list software often ships mail with only
the list broadcast address in the To header.
.PP
-.B Note that a future version of fetchmail may remove To/Cc parsing!
+.B Note that a future version of \fIfetchmail\fP may remove To/Cc parsing!
.PP
When
.I fetchmail
A related problem is that when you blind-copy a mail message, the Bcc
information is carried \fIonly\fR as envelope address (it's removed from
the headers by the sending mail server, so fetchmail can see it only if
-there is an X-Envelope-To header). Thus, blind-copying to someone who
+there is an X-\Envelope\-To header). Thus, blind-copying to someone who
gets mail over a fetchmail multidrop link will fail unless the the
-mailserver host routinely writes X-Envelope-To or an equivalent header
+mailserver host routinely writes X\-Envelope\-To or an equivalent header
into messages in your maildrop.
.PP
\fBIn conclusion, mailing lists and Bcc'd mail can only work if the
server you're fetching from (1) stores one copy of the message per
-recipient in \fBIyour\fP domain and (2) records the envelope
-information in a special header (X-Original-To, Delivered-To,
-X-Envelope-To).\fR
+recipient in \fIyour\fP domain and (2) records the envelope
+information in a special header (X\-Original\-To, Delivered\-To,
+X\-Envelope\-To).\fR
.SS Good Ways To Use Multidrop Mailboxes
Multiple local names can be used to administer a mailing list from the
list called (say) "fetchmail-friends", and you want to keep the alias
list on your client machine.
.PP
-On your server, you can alias \&'fetchmail-friends' to 'esr'; then, in
-your \fI.fetchmailrc\fR, declare \&'to esr fetchmail-friends here'.
-Then, when mail including 'fetchmail-friends' as a local address
+On your server, you can alias 'fetchmail\-friends' to 'esr'; then, in
+your \fI.fetchmailrc\fR, declare 'to esr fetchmail\-friends here'.
+Then, when mail including 'fetchmail\-friends' as a local address
gets fetched, the list name will be appended to the list of
recipients your SMTP listener sees. Therefore it will undergo alias
expansion locally. Be sure to include 'esr' in the local alias
-expansion of fetchmail-friends, or you'll never see mail sent only to
+expansion of fetchmail\-friends, or you'll never see mail sent only to
the list. Also be sure that your listener has the "me-too" option set
-(sendmail's -oXm command-line option or OXm declaration) so your name
+(sendmail's \-oXm command-line option or OXm declaration) so your name
isn't removed from alias expansions in messages you send.
.PP
This trick is not without its problems, however. You'll begin to see
this when a message comes in that is addressed only to a mailing list
you do \fInot\fR have declared as a local name. Each such message
-will feature an 'X-Fetchmail-Warning' header which is generated
+will feature an 'X\-Fetchmail\-Warning' header which is generated
because fetchmail cannot find a valid local name in the recipient
addresses. Such messages default (as was described above) to being
sent to the local user running
you can declare 'no dns' to suppress DNS lookups entirely and
\fIonly\fR match against the aka list.
+.SH SOCKS
+Support for socks4/5 is a
+.B compile time
+configuration option. Once
+compiled in fetchmail will always use the socks libraries and
+configuration on your system. There are no configuration
+options internal to fetchmail to control this behaviour, and the socks
+and socks5 libraries provide no documented interfaces that fetchmail
+could use to achieve run-time configurability.
+
.SH EXIT CODES
To facilitate the use of
.I fetchmail
-in shell scripts, an exit code is returned to give an indication
+in shell scripts, an exit\ status code is returned to give an indication
of what occurred during a given connection.
.PP
The exit codes returned by
.I fetchmail
are as follows:
.IP 0
-One or more messages were successfully retrieved (or, if the -c option
+One or more messages were successfully retrieved (or, if the \-c option
was selected, were found waiting but not retrieved).
.IP 1
There was no mail awaiting retrieval. (There may have been old mail still
.IP 12
BSMTP batch file could not be opened.
.IP 13
-Poll terminated by a fetch limit (see the --fetchlimit option).
+Poll terminated by a fetch limit (see the \-\-fetchlimit option).
.IP 14
Server busy indication.
-.IP 15
-Server timed out during an IMAP IDLE.
.IP 23
Internal error. You should see a message on standard error with
details.
+.IP "24 - 26, 28, 29"
+These are internal codes and should not appear externally.
.PP
When
.I fetchmail
multiple names per userid gracefully).
If the environment variable FETCHMAILHOME is set to a valid and
-existing directory name, the .fetchmailrc and .fetchids and
-\&.fetchmail.pid files are put there instead of in the invoking user's
-home directory (and lose the leading dots on their names). The
-\&.netrc file is looked for in the the invoking user's home directory
-regardless of FETCHMAILHOME's setting.
+existing directory name, fetchmail will read $FETCHMAILHOME/fetchmailrc
+(the dot is missing in this case), $FETCHMAILHOME/.fetchids and
+$FETCHMAILHOME/.fetchmail.pid rather than from the user's home
+directory. The .netrc file is always looked for in the the invoking
+user's home directory regardless of FETCHMAILHOME's setting.
-If the HOME_ETC variable is set, file $HOME_ETC/.fetchmailrc is used
-instead of ~/.fetchmailrc.
+If the HOME_ETC variable is set, fetchmail will read
+$HOME_ETC/.fetchmailrc instead of ~/.fetchmailrc.
+
+If HOME_ETC and FETCHMAILHOME are set, HOME_ETC will be ignored.
.SH SIGNALS
If a
.I fetchmail
-daemon is running as root, SIGHUP wakes it up from its sleep phase and
-forces a poll of all non-skipped servers (this is in accordance with
-the usual conventions for system daemons).
+daemon is running as root, SIGUSR1 wakes it up from its sleep phase and
+forces a poll of all non-skipped servers. For compatibility reasons,
+SIGHUP can also be used in 6.3.X but may not be available in future
+fetchmail versions.
.PP
If
.I fetchmail
.SH BUGS AND KNOWN PROBLEMS
.PP
+Please check the \fBNEWS\fP file that shipped with fetchmail for more
+known bugs than those listed here.
+.PP
+Fetchmail cannot handle user names that contain blanks after a "@"
+character, for instance "demonstr@ti on". These are rather uncommon and
+only hurt when using UID-based \-\-keep setups, so the 6.3.X versions of
+fetchmail won't be fixed.
+.PP
The assumptions that the DNS and in particular the checkalias options
make are not often sustainable. For instance, it has become uncommon for
an MX server to be a POP3 or IMAP server at the same time. Therefore the
zombies accumulate. So either don't deliver to a MDA using plugins or
risk being overrun by an army of undead.
.PP
-The --interface option does not support IPv6 and it is doubtful if it
+The \-\-interface option does not support IPv6 and it is doubtful if it
ever will, since there is no portable way to query interface IPv6
addresses.
.PP
quoting and embedded comments are likely to confuse it.
.PP
In a message with multiple envelope headers, only the last one
-processed will be visible to fetchmail. To get around this, use a
-mailserver-side filter that consolidates the contents of all envelope
-headers into a single one (procmail, mailagent, or maildrop can be
-programmed to do this fairly easily).
+processed will be visible to fetchmail.
.PP
Use of some of these protocols requires that the program send
unencrypted passwords over the TCP/IP connection to the mailserver.
This creates a risk that name/password pairs might be snaffled with a
packet sniffer or more sophisticated monitoring software. Under Linux
-and FreeBSD, the --interface option can be used to restrict polling to
+and FreeBSD, the \-\-interface option can be used to restrict polling to
availability of a specific interface device with a specific local or
remote IP address, but snooping is still possible if (a) either host
has a network device that can be opened in promiscuous mode, or (b)
MDA. For maximum safety, however, don't use an mda command containing
%F or %T when fetchmail is run from the root account itself.
.PP
-Fetchmail's method of sending bouncemail and spam bounces requires that
-port 25 of localhost be available for sending mail via SMTP.
+Fetchmail's method of sending bounces due to errors or spam-blocking and
+spam bounces requires that port 25 of localhost be available for sending
+mail via SMTP.
.PP
If you modify a
.I ~/.fetchmailrc
error; this seems to have something to do with buggy terminal ioctl
code in the kernel.
.PP
-The -f - option (reading a configuration from stdin) is incompatible
+The \-f\~\- option (reading a configuration from stdin) is incompatible
with the plugin option.
.PP
The 'principal' option only handles Kerberos IV, not V.
.PP
+Interactively entered passwords are truncated after 63 characters. If
+you really need to use a longer password, you will have to use a
+configuration file.
+.PP
+A backslash as the last character of a configuration file will be
+flagged as a syntax error rather than ignored.
+.PP
Send comments, bug reports, gripes, and the like to the
-fetchmail-devel list <fetchmail-devel@lists.berlios.de>. An HTML FAQ is
+fetchmail\-devel list <fetchmail\-devel@lists.berlios.de>. An HTML FAQ is
available at the fetchmail home page; surf to
http://fetchmail.berlios.de/ or do a WWW search for pages with
\&'fetchmail' in their titles.
.SH AUTHOR
-Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>. Too many other people to
-name here have contributed code and patches.
+Fetchmail is currently maintained by Matthias Andree and Rob Funk with
+major assistance from Sunil Shetye (for code) and Rob MacGregor (for the
+mailing lists).
+.PP
+Most of the code is from Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>. Too
+many other people to name here have contributed code and patches.
+.PP
This program is descended from and replaces
.IR popclient ,
by Carl Harris <ceharris@mal.com>; the internals have become quite different,
but some of its interface design is directly traceable to that
ancestral program.
.PP
-This manual page has been improved by R.\ Hannes Beinert.
-.PP
-Fetchmail is currently maintained by Matthias Andree and Rob Funk.
+This manual page has been improved by R.\ Hannes Beinert and H\['e]ctor
+Garc\['i]a.
.SH SEE ALSO
mutt(1), elm(1), mail(1), sendmail(8), popd(8), imapd(8), netrc(5)
+
+The fetchmail home page: <http://fetchmail.berlios.de/>
+
+The maildrop home page: <http://www.courier-mta.org/maildrop/>
.SH APPLICABLE STANDARDS
+.PP
+Note that this list is just a collection of references and not a
+statement as to the actual protocol conformance or requirements in
+fetchmail.
.TP 5
SMTP/ESMTP:
-RFC 821, RFC2821, RFC 1869, RFC 1652, RFC 1870, RFC 1983, RFC 1985,
+RFC 821, RFC 2821, RFC 1869, RFC 1652, RFC 1870, RFC 1983, RFC 1985,
RFC 2554.
.TP 5
mail:
-RFC 822, RFC2822, RFC 1123, RFC 1892, RFC 1894.
+RFC 822, RFC 2822, RFC 1123, RFC 1892, RFC 1894.
.TP 5
POP2:
RFC 937
.TP 5
POP3:
-RFC 1081, RFC 1225, RFC 1460, RFC 1725, RFC1734, RFC 1939, RFC 1957,
-RFC2195, RFC 2449.
+RFC 1081, RFC 1225, RFC 1460, RFC 1725, RFC 1734, RFC 1939, RFC 1957,
+RFC 2195, RFC 2449.
.TP 5
APOP:
RFC 1460, RFC 1725, RFC 1939.
projects / ~andy / fetchmail / blobdiff