The
.I fetchmail
program can gather mail from servers supporting any of the common
-mail-retrieval protocols: POP2, POP3, IMAP2bis, and IMAP4. It can
-also use the ESMTP ETRN extension. (The RFCs describing all these
-protocols are listed at the end of this document.)
+mail-retrieval protocols: POP2, POP3, IMAP2bis, IMAP4, and IMAPrev1.
+It can also use the ESMTP ETRN extension. (The RFCs describing all
+these protocols are listed at the end of this manual page.)
.PP
While
.I fetchmail
were being passed in over a normal TCP/IP link. The mail will then be
delivered locally via your system's MDA (Mail Delivery Agent, usually
\fIsendmail\fR(8) but your system may use a different one such
-as \fIsmail\fR, \fImmdf\fR, or \fIqmail\fR). All the delivery-control
-mechanisms (such as \fI.forward\fR files) normally available through
-your system MDA and local delivery agents will therefore work.
+as \fIsmail\fR, \fImmdf\fR, \fIexim\fR, or \fIqmail\fR). All the
+delivery-control mechanisms (such as \fI.forward\fR files) normally
+available through your system MDA and local delivery agents will
+therefore work.
.PP
If the program
.I fetchmailconf
complete control of fetchmail configuration, including the
multidrop features. In either case, the `Autoprobe' button
will tell you the most capable protocol a given mailserver
-supported, and warn you of potential problems with that server.
+supports, and warn you of potential problems with that server.
.SH GENERAL OPERATION
The behavior of
.PP
Each server name that you specify following the options on the
command line will be queried. If you don't specify any servers
-on the command line, each server in your
+on the command line, each `poll' entry in your
.I ~/.fetchmailrc
file will be queried.
.PP
To facilitate the use of
.I fetchmail
-In scripts, pipelines, etc., it returns an appropriate exit code upon
+in scripts and pipelines, it returns an appropriate exit code upon
termination -- see EXIT CODES below.
+.PP
The following options modify the behavior of \fIfetchmail\fR. It is
seldom necessary to specify any of these once you have a
working \fI.fetchmailrc\fR file set up.
.I fetchmailrc
file.
.PP
-Some special options are not covered here, but are documented insttead
-in sections on AUTHENTICATION and DAEMON MODE which follows.
+Some special options are not covered here, but are documented instead
+in sections on AUTHENTICATION and DAEMON MODE which follow.
.SS General Options
.TP
.B \-V, --version
Displays the version information for your copy of
.I fetchmail.
No mail fetch is performed.
-Instead, for each server specified, all option information
+Instead, for each server specified, all the option information
that would be computed if
-.I fetchmail.
+.I fetchmail
were connecting to that server is displayed. Any non-printables in
passwords or other string names are shown as backslashed C-like
escape sequences. This option is useful for verifying that your
Verbose mode. All control messages passed between
.I fetchmail
and the mailserver are echoed to stderr. Overrides --silent.
+Doubling this option (-v -v) causes extra diagnostic information
+to be printed.
.SS Disposal Options
.TP
.B \-a, --all
fetchmail will automatically delete messages after successful delivery.
.SS Protocol and Query Options
.TP
-.B \-p, \--protocol proto
+.B \-p, \--protocol <proto>
(Keyword: proto[col])
-Specify the protocol to used when communicating with the remote
-mailserver. If no protocol is specified,
-.I fetchmail
-will try each of the supported protocols in turn, terminating after
-any successful attempt.
+Specify the protocol to use when communicating with the remote
+mailserver. If no protocol is specified, the default is AUTO.
.I proto
may be one of the following:
.RS
+.IP AUTO
+Tries IMAP, POP3, and POP2 (skipping any of these for which support
+has not been compiled in).
.IP POP2
Post Office Protocol 2
.IP POP3
.IP RPOP
Use POP3 with RPOP authentication.
.IP KPOP
-Use POP3 with Kerberos V4 authentication on port 1109.
+Use POP3 with Kerberos V4 preauthentication on port 1109.
.IP SDPS
Use POP3 with Demon Internet's SDPS extensions.
.IP IMAP
IMAP2bis, IMAP4, or IMAP4rev1 (\fIfetchmail\fR autodetects their capabilities).
.IP IMAP-K4
IMAP4, or IMAP4rev1 (\fIfetchmail\fR autodetects their capabilities)
-with RFC 1731 Kerberos v4 authentication.
+with RFC 1731 Kerberos v4 preauthentication.
.IP IMAP-GSS
IMAP4, or IMAP4rev1 (\fIfetchmail\fR autodetects their capabilities)
-with RFC 1731 GSSAPI authentication.
+with RFC 1731 GSSAPI preauthentication.
+.IP IMAP-CRAMMD5
+IMAP4, or IMAP4rev1 (\fIfetchmail\fR autodetects their capabilities)
+with RFC 2195 CRAM-MD5 authentication.
+.IP IMAP-LOGIN
+IMAP4, or IMAP4rev1 (\fIfetchmail\fR autodetects their capabilities)
+with plain LOGIN authentication only, even if the server supports
+better methods.
.IP ETRN
Use the ESMTP ETRN option.
.RE
+.P
All these alternatives work in basically the same way (communicating
with standard server daemons to fetch mail already delivered to a
mailbox on the server) except ETRN. The ETRN mode allows you to ask a
described in RFC1725). Use with `keep' to use a mailbox as a baby
news drop for a group of users.
.TP
-.B \-P, --port
+.B \-P, --port <portnumber>
(Keyword: port)
The port option permits you to specify a TCP/IP port to connect on.
This option will seldom be necessary as all the supported protocols have
well-established default port numbers.
+.TP
+.B \--principal <principal>
+(Keyword: principal)
+The principal option permits you to specify a service principal for
+mutual authentication. This is applicable to POP3 or IMAP with Kerberos
+authentication.
.TP
-.B \-t, --timeout
+.B \-t, --timeout <seconds>
(Keyword: timeout)
The timeout option allows you to set a server-nonresponse
timeout in seconds. If a mailserver does not send a greeting message
\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
-will report.
+will report. If a given connection receives too many timeouts in
+succession, fetchmail will consider it wedged and stop retrying,
+the calkling user will be notified by email if this happens.
+.TP
+.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
+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 promitive, and these token must
+be bounded by whitespace or beginning of string or end of string).
+Fetchmail will write to the plugin's stdin and read from the plugin's
+stdout.
.TP
-.B \-r folder, --folder folder
+.B \--plugout <command>
+(Keyword: plugout)
+Identical to the plugin option above, but this one is used for the SMTP
+connections (which will probably not need it, so it has been separated
+from plugin).
+.TP
+.B \-r <name>, --folder <name>
(Keyword: folder[s])
Causes a specified non-default mail folder on the mailserver (or
comma-separated list of folders) to be retrieved. The syntax of the
folder name is server-dependent. This option is not available under
POP3 or ETRN.
+.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. 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.
+.TP
+.B \--sslcert <name>
+(Keyword: sslcert)
+Specifies the file name of the client side public SSL certificate. Some
+SSL encrypted servers may require client side keys and certificates for
+authentication. In most cases, this is optional. This specifies
+the location of the public key certificate to be presented to the server
+at the time the SSL session is established. It is not required (but may
+be provided) if the server does not require it. Some servers may
+require it, some servers may request it but not require it, and some
+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.
+.TP
+.B \--sslkey <name>
+(Keyword: sslkey)
+Specifies the file name of the client side private SSL key. Some SSL
+encrypted servers may require client side keys and certificates for
+authentication. In most cases, this is optional. This specifies
+the location of the private key used to sign transactions with the server
+at the time the SSL session is established. It is not required (but may
+be provided) if the server does not require it. Some servers may
+require it, some servers may request it but not require it, and some
+servers may not request it at all. It may be the same file
+as the public key (combined key and certificate file) but this is not
+recommended. If a password is required to unlock the key, it will be
+prompted for at the time just prior to establishing the session to the
+server. This can cause some complications in daemon mode.
.SS Delivery Control Options
.TP
-.B \-S host, --smtphost host
+.B \-S <hosts>, --smtphost <hosts>
(Keyword: smtp[host])
Specify a hunt list of hosts to forward mail to (one or more
hostnames, comma-separated). In ETRN mode, set the host that the
mailserver is asked to ship mail to. Hosts are tried in list order;
the first one that is up becomes the forwarding or ETRN target for the
-current run. In ETRN mode, the FQDN of the machine running fetchmail
-is added to the end of the list as an invisible default; in all other
-modes `localhost' is added to the end of the list as an invisible
-default. Each hostname may have a '/'-delimited suffix specifying a
-port or service to forward to; the default is 25 (or "smtp" under IPv6).
+current run. Normally, `localhost' is added to the end of the list as
+an invisible default. However, when using ETRN mode or Kerberos
+preauthentication, 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).
+Example:
+
+ --smtphost server1,server2/2525,server3
+
.TP
-.B \-D domain, --smtpaddress domain
+.B \-D <domain>, --smtpaddress <domain>
(Keyword: smtpaddress)
Specify the domain to be put 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.
.TP
-.B \-Z nnn, --antispam nnn[,nnn[,nnn...]]
+.B --smtpname <user@domain>
+(Keyword: smtpname)
+Specify the domain and user to be put in RCPT TO lines shipped to SMTP.
+The default user is the current local user.
+.TP
+.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
this option. For the command-line option, the list values should
be comma-separated.
.TP
-.B \-m, \--mda
+.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. If \fIfetchmail\fR
-is running as root, it sets its userid to that of the target user
-while delivering mail through an MDA. Some possible MDAs are
-"/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem", "/usr/lib/sendmail -oem",
-"/usr/bin/formail", and "/usr/bin/deliver". 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. Do
-\fInot\fR use an MDA invocation like
-"sendmail -oem -t" that dispatches on the contents of To/Cc/Bcc, it
-will create mail loops and bring the just wrath of many postmasters
+forwarded to port 25) with the -mda or -m option. Be aware that this
+disables some valuable resource-exhaustion checks and error handling
+provided by SMTP listeners; it's not a good idea unless running an
+SMTP listener is impossible. If \fIfetchmail\fR is running as root,
+it sets its userid to that of the target user while delivering mail
+through an MDA. Some possible MDAs are "/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -f %F
+%T", "/usr/bin/deliver" and "/usr/bin/procmail -d %T" (but the latter
+is usually redundant as it's what SMTP listeners usually forward
+to). 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. Do \fInot\fR use an MDA invocation
+like "sendmail -oem -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.
+.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.
+.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
+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
+MAILBOXES below apply.
.SS Resource Limit Control Options
.TP
-.B \-l, --limit
+.B \-l <maxbytes>, --limit <maxbytes>
(Keyword: limit)
Takes a maximum octet size argument. Messages larger than this size
-will not be fetched, not be marked seen, and will be left on the
-server (in foreground sessions, the progress messages will note that
-they are "oversized"). 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 in interactive mode. It may not be used
-with daemon mode, as users would never receive a notification that
-messages were waiting. This option does not work with ETRN.
+will not be fetched and will be left on the server (in foreground
+sessions, the progress messages will note that they are "oversized").
+If the fetch protocol permits (in particular, under IMAP or POP3
+without the fetchall option) the message will not be marked seen 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. In daemon mode,
+oversize notifications are mailed to the calling user (see the
+--warnings option). This option does not work with ETRN.
+.TP
+.B \-w <interval>, --warnings <interval>
+(Keyword: warnings)
+Takes an interval in seconds. When you call
+.I fetchmail
+with a `limit' option in daemon mode, this controls the interval at
+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
+suppressed until after the warning interval elapses (it will take
+place at the end of the first following poll).
.TP
-.B -b, --batchlimit
+.B -b <count>, --batchlimit <count>
(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
prompt. MTAs like \fIqmail\fR(8) and \fIsmail\fR(8) may wait till the
delivery socket is shut down to deliver. This may produce annoying
delays when
-.IR fetchmail (8)
+.I fetchmail
is processing very large batches. Setting the batch limit to some
nonzero size will prevent these delays.
This option does not work with ETRN.
.TP
-.B -B, --fetchlimit
+.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
overrides any limits set in your run control file.
This option does not work with ETRN.
.TP
-.B -e, --expunge
-(keyword: expunge)
-When talking to an IMAP server,
+.B -e <count>, --expunge <count>
+(keyword: expunge)
+Arrange for deletions to be made final after a given number of
+messages. Under POP2 or POP3, fetchmail cannot make deletions final
+without sending QUIT and ending the session -- with this option on,
+fetchmail will break a long mail retrieval session into multiple
+subsessions, 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,
.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
expunges less frequently. If you specify this option to an integer N,
it tells
.I fetchmail
-to only issue expunges on every Nth delete. An argument
-of zero suppresses expunges entirely (so no expunges at all will be
-done until the end of run).
-This option does not work with ETRN, POP2, or POP3.
+to only issue expunges on every Nth delete. An argument of zero
+suppresses expunges entirely (so no expunges at all will be done until
+the end of run). This option does not work with ETRN.
.SS Authentication Options
.TP
-.B \-u name, --username name
+.B \-u <name>, --username <name>
(Keyword: user[name])
Specifies the user identification to be used when logging in to the mailserver.
The appropriate user identification is both server and user-dependent.
.I fetchmail.
See USER AUTHENTICATION below for a complete description.
.TP
-.B \-I specification, --interface specification
+.B \-I <specification>, --interface <specification>
(Keyword: interface)
Require that a specific interface device be up and have a specific local
IP address (or range) before polling. Frequently
The field after the second slash is a mask which specifies a range of
IP addresses to accept. If no mask is present 255.255.255.255 is
assumed (i.e. an exact match). This option is currently only supported
-under Linux.
+under Linux and FreeBSD. Please see the
+.B monitor
+section for below for FreeBSD specific information.
.TP
-.B \-M interface, --monitor interface
+.B \-M <interface>, --monitor <interface>
(Keyword: monitor)
Daemon mode can cause transient links which are automatically taken down
after a period of inactivity (e.g. PPP links) to remain up
indefinitely. This option identifies a system TCP/IP interface to be
monitored for activity. After each poll interval, if the link is up but
no other activity has occurred on the link, then the poll will be
-skipped. This option is currently only supported under Linux.
+skipped. However, when fetchmail is woken up by a signal, the
+monitor check is skipped and the poll goes through unconditionally.
+This option is currently only supported under Linux and FreeBSD.
+For the
+.B monitor
+and
+.B interface
+options to work for non root users under FreeBSD, the fetchmail binary
+must be installed SGID kmem. This would be a security hole, but
+fetchmail runs with the effective GID set to that of the kmem group
+.I only
+when interface data is being collected.
.TP
-.B \-A, --auth
-(Keyword: auth[enticate])
+.B --preauth <type>
+(Keyword: preauth[enticate])
This option permits you to specify a preauthentication type (see USER
AUTHENTICATION below for details). The possible values are
\&`\fBpassword\fR', `\fBkerberos_v5\fR' and `\fBkerberos\fR' (or, for
-excruciating exactness, `\fBkerberos_v4\fR'). This option is provided
-primarily for developers; choosing KPOP protocol automatically selects
-Kerberos preauthentication, and all other alternatives use password
+excruciating exactness, `\fBkerberos_v4\fR'), and \fBssh\fR. Use
+\fBssh\fR to suppress fetchmail's normal inquiry for a password when
+you are using an end-to-end secure connection such as an ssh tunnel.
+Other values of this option are provided primarily for developers;
+choosing KPOP protocol automatically selects Kerberos
+preauthentication, and all other alternatives use password
authentication (though APOP uses a generated one-time key as the
password and IMAP-K4 uses RFC1731 Kerberos v4 authentication). This
option does not work with ETRN.
.SS Miscellaneous Options
.TP
-.B \-f pathname, --fetchmailrc pathname
+.B \-f <pathname>, --fetchmailrc <pathname>
Specify a non-default name for the
.I .fetchmailrc
-run control file. Unless the --version option is also on, the file must have
-permissions no more open than 0600 (u=rw,g=,o=) or else be /dev/null.
+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
+argument must have permissions no more open than 0600 (u=rw,g=,o=) or
+else be /dev/null.
.TP
-.B \-i pathname, --idfile pathname
+.B \-i <pathname>, --idfile <pathname>
(Keyword: idfile)
Specify an alternate name for the .fetchids file used to save POP3
UIDs.
not a good idea to actually turn off rewrite.)
When using ETRN, the rewrite option is ineffective.
.TP
-.B -E, --envelope
+.B -E <line>, --envelope <line>
(Keyword: envelope)
This option changes the header
.I fetchmail
unless you have globally disabled Received parsing with `no envelope'
in the \fI.fetchmailrc\fR file.
.TP
-.B -Q, --qvirtual
+.B -Q <prefix>, --qvirtual <prefix>
(Keyword: qvirtual)
The string prefix assigned to this option will be removed from the user
name found in the header specified with the \fIenvelope\fR option
a data structure assignment in the language Python. This option
is meant to be used with an interactive
.I ~/.fetchmailrc
-editor written in Python.
+editor like
+.IR fetchmailconf ,
+written in Python.
.SH USER AUTHENTICATION AND ENCRYPTION
Every mode except ETRN requires authentication of the client.
.I .netrc
file in your home directory before requesting one interactively; if an
entry matching the mailserver is found in that file, the password will
-be used. See the
+be used. Fetchmail first looks for a match on poll name; if it finds none,
+it checks for a match on via name. See the
.IR ftp (1)
man page for details of the syntax of the
.I .netrc
If your \fIfetchmail\fR was built with Kerberos support and you specify
Kerberos preauthentication (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.
+ticket from the mailserver at the start of each query. Note: if
+either the pollnane or via name is `hesiod', fetchmail will try to use
+Hesiod to look up the mailserver.
.PP
If you use IMAP-K4, \fIfetchmail\fR will expect the IMAP server to have
RFC1731-conformant AUTHENTICATE KERBEROS_V4 capability, and will use it.
from your principal name 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,
+fetchmail will notice this and skip the normal authentication step.
+This could be useful, e.g. if you start imapd explicitly using ssh.
+In this case you can declare the preauthentication value `ssh' on that
+site entry to stop \fI.fetchmail\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
avoids sending secrets over the net unencrypted.
.PP
-Compuserve's RPA authentication (similar to APOP) is supported. If
-you are using POP3, and the RPA code has been compiled into your
-binary, and you query a server in the Compuserve csi.com domain,
-\fIfetchmail\fR will try to perform an RPA pass-phrase authentication
-instead of sending over the password en clair.
+Compuserve's RPA authentication (similar to APOP) is supported. If you
+compile in the support, \fIfetchmail\fR will try to perform an RPA pass-phrase
+authentication instead of sending over the password en clair if it
+detects "@compuserve.com" in the hostname.
+.PP
+Microsoft's NTLM authentication (used by Microsoft Exchange) is
+supported. If you compile in the support, \fIfetchmail\fR will try to
+perform an NTLM authentication (instead of sending over the
+password en clair) whenever the server returns AUTH=NTLM in its
+capability response. Note: if you 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.
.PP
If you are using IPsec, the -T (--netsec) option can be used to pass
an IP security request to be used when outgoing IP connections are
in the .fetchmailrc file. In either case, the option value is a
string in the format accepted by the net_security_strtorequest()
function of the inet6_apps library.
+.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.
+.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
+requested by the server, the client certificate is sent to the server for
+validation. Some servers may require a valid client certificate and may
+refuse connections if a certificate is not provided or if the certificate
+is not valid. Some servers may require client side certificates be signed
+by a recognized Certifying Authority. The format for the key files and
+the certificate files is that required by the underlying SSL libraries
+(OpenSSL in the general case).
.SH DAEMON MODE
The
-.B --daemon
+.B --daemon <interval>
or
-.B -d
+.B -d <interval>
option runs
.I fetchmail
in daemon mode. You must specify a numeric argument which is a
Normally, calling fetchmail with a daemon in the background sends a
wakeup signal to the daemon, forcing it to poll mailservers
immediately. (The wakeup signal is SIGHUP if fetchmail is running as
-root, SIGUSR1 otherwise.)
+root, SIGUSR1 otherwise.) The wakeup action also clears any `wedged'
+flags indicating that connections have wedged due to failed
+authentication or multiple timeouts.
.PP
The option
.B --quit
will kill a running daemon process instead of waking it up (if there
-is no such option,
+is no such process,
.I fetchmail
notifies you). If the --quit option is the only command-line option,
that's all there is to it.
options specify in combination with the rc file.
.PP
The
-.B -L
+.B -L <filename>
or
-.B --logfile
+.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
indicate the status of the daemon and the results while fetching mail
from the server(s).
Error messages for command line options and parsing the \fI.fetchmailrc\fR
-file are still written to stderr, or the specified log file if the
+file are still written to stderr, or to the specified log file.
The
.B --nosyslog
option turns off use of
.IR syslog (3),
assuming it's turned on in the
.I .fetchmailrc
-file.
+file, or that the
.B -L
or
-.B --logfile
+.B --logfile <file>
option was used.
.PP
The
locally due to some transient error, it will be re-fetched during the
next poll cycle. (The IMAP logic doesn't delete messages until
they're delivered, so this problem does not arise.)
+.PP
+If you touch or change the
+.I .fetchmailrc
+file while fetchmail is running in daemon mode, this will be detected
+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
+.I .fetchmailrc
+file's syntax, the new instance will softly and silently vanish away
+on startup.
.SH ADMINISTRATIVE OPTIONS
.PP
The
-.B --postmaster
+.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 fetchmail.
If the invoking user is root, then the default of this option is
the user `postmaster'.
.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.
+.PP
The
.B --invisible
option (keyword: set invisible) tries to make fetchmail invisible.
is on, the Received header is suppressed and fetchmail tries to spoof
the MTA it forwards to into thinking it came directly from the
mailserver host.
+.PP
+The
+.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.
.SH RETRIEVAL FAILURE MODES
The protocols \fIfetchmail\fR uses to talk to mailservers are next to
bulletproof. In normal operation forwarding to port 25, no message is
ever deleted (or even marked for deletion) on the host until the SMTP
listener on the client has acknowledged to \fIfetchmail\fR that the
-message has been accepted for delivery. When forwarding to an MDA,
-however, there is more possibility of error (because there's no way
-for fetchmail to get a reliable positive acknowledgement from the MDA).
+message has been accepted for delivery or rejected due to a spam
+block. When forwarding to an MDA, however, there is more possibility
+of error (because there's no way for fetchmail to get a reliable
+positive acknowledgement from the MDA).
.PP
The normal mode of \fIfetchmail\fR is to try to download only `new'
messages, leaving untouched (and undeleted) messages you have already
it may treat some old messages as new and vice versa. The only
real fix for this problem is to switch 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
+undocumented response that causes fetchmail to spuriously report "No
+mail".
+.PP
The IMAP code uses the presence or absence of the server flag \eSeen
to decide whether or not a message is new. Under Unix, it counts on
your IMAP server to notice the BSD-style Status flags set by mail user
.SH SPAM FILTERING
Many SMTP listeners allow administrators to set up `spam filters' that
-block unsolicited email from specified domains. A MAIL FROM line that
+block unsolicited email from specified domains. A MAIL FROM or DATA line that
triggers this feature will elicit an SMTP response which
(unfortunately) varies according to the listener.
.PP
move to 550 soon.
.PP
The
+.I postfix
+MTA runs 554 as an antispam response.
+.PP
+The
.I fetchmail
code recognizes and discards the message on any of a list of responses
-that defaults to [571, 550, 501] but can be set with the `antispam'
-option. This is the
+that defaults to [571, 550, 501, 554] but can be set with the `antispam'
+option. This is one of the
.I only
-circumstance under which fetchmail ever discards mail.
-.P
+three circumstance under which fetchmail ever discards mail (the others
+are the 552 and 553 errors described below, and the suppression of
+multidropped messages with a message-ID already seen).
+.PP
If
.I fetchmail
is fetching from an IMAP server, the antispam response will be detected and
the message rejected immediately after the headers have been fetched,
without reading the message body. Thus, you won't pay for downloading
spam message bodies.
+.PP
+Mail that is spam-blocked triggers an RFC1892 bounce message informing
+the originator that we do not accept mail from it.
+
+.SH SMTP/ESMTP ERROR HANDLING
+Besides the spam-blocking described above,fetchmail takes special
+actions on the following SMTP/ESMTP error responses
+.TP 5
+452 (insufficient system storage)
+Leave the message in the server mailbox for later retrieval.
+.TP 5
+552 (message exceeds fixed maximum message size)
+Delete the message from the server. Send bounce-mail to the originator.
+.TP 5
+553 (invalid sending domain)
+Delete the message from the server. Send bounce-mail to the originator.
+.PP
+Other errors trigger bounce mail back to the originator.
.SH THE RUN CONTROL FILE
The preferred way to set up fetchmail is to write a
-\&\fI.fetchmailrc\fR file in your home directory. When there is a
-conflict between the command-line arguments and the arguments in this
-file, the command-line arguments take precedence.
+\&\fI.fetchmailrc\fR file in your home directory (you may do this
+directly, with a text editor, or indirectly via \fIfetchmailconf\fR).
+When there is a conflict between the command-line arguments and the
+arguments in this file, the command-line arguments take precedence.
.PP
To protect the security of your passwords, when --version is not on
your \fI~/.fetchmailrc\fR may not have more than 0600 (u=rw,g=,o=) permissions;
safely, or easily disable entries for hosts that are temporarily down.)
.PP
.SS Keyword/Option Summary
-Here are the legal server options. Keyword suffixes enclosed in
+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.
+Here are the legal global options:
+
+.TS
+l l lw34.
+Keyword Opt Function
+_
+set daemon \& T{
+Set a background poll interval in seconds
+T}
+set postmaster \& T{
+Give the name of the last-resort mail recipient
+T}
+set no bouncemail \& T{
+Direct error mail to postmaster rather than sender
+T}
+set logfile \& T{
+Name of a file to dump error and status messages to
+T}
+set idfile \& T{
+Name of the file to store UID lists in
+T}
+set syslog \& T{
+Do error logging through syslog(3).
+T}
+set nosyslog \& T{
+Turn off error logging through syslog(3).
+T}
+set properties \& T{
+String value is ignored by fetchmail (may be used by extension scripts)
+T}
+.TE
+
+Here are the legal server options:
+
.TS
l l lw34.
Keyword Opt Function
Specify protocol (case insensitive):
POP2, POP3, IMAP, IMAP-K4, IMAP-GSS, APOP, KPOP
T}
+local[domains] \& T{
+Specify domain(s) to be regarded as local
+T}
port -P T{
Specify TCP/IP service port
T}
Set preauthentication type (default `password')
T}
timeout -t T{
-Server inactivity timout in seconds (default 300)
+Server inactivity timeout in seconds (default 300)
T}
envelope -E T{
Specify envelope-address header name
monitor -M T{
Specify IP address to monitor for activity
T}
+plugin \& T{
+Specify command through which to make server connections.
+T}
+plugout \& T{
+Specify command through which to make listener connections.
+T}
dns \& T{
Enable DNS lookup for multidrop (default)
T}
no uidl \& T{
Turn off POP3 use of client-side UIDLs (default)
T}
+interval \& T{
+Only check this site every N poll cycles; N is a numeric argument.
+T}
.TE
Here are the legal user options:
pass[word] \& T{
Specify remote account password
T}
+ssl T{
+Connect to server over the specified base protocol using SSL encryption
+T}
+sslcert T{
+Specify file for client side public SSL certificate
+T}
+sslkey T{
+Specify file for client side private SSL key
+T}
folder -r T{
Specify remote folder to query
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{
Specify what SMTP returns are interpreted as spam-policy blocks
T}
mda -m T{
Specify MDA for local delivery
T}
+bsmtp -o T{
+Specify BSMTP batch file to append to
+T}
preconnect \& T{
Command to be executed before each connection
T}
dropstatus \& T{
Strip Status and X-Mozilla-Status lines out of incoming mail
T}
+dropdelivered \& T{
+Strip Delivered-To lines out of incoming mail
+T}
mimedecode \& T{
Convert quoted-printable to 8-bit in MIME messages
T}
+idle \& T{
+Idle waiting for new messages after each poll (IMAP only)
+T}
no keep -K T{
Delete seen messages from server (default)
T}
no dropstatus \& T{
Don't drop Status headers (default)
T}
+no dropdelivered \& T{
+Don't drop Delivered-To headers (default)
+T}
no mimedecode \& T{
Don't convert quoted-printable to 8-bit in MIME messages (default)
T}
+no idle \& T{
+Don't idle waiting for new messages after each poll (IMAP only)
+T}
limit -l T{
Set message size limit
T}
+warnings -w T{
+Set message size warning interval
+T}
batchlimit -b T{
-Max # messages to fetch in single connect
+Max # messages to forward in single connect
T}
fetchlimit -B T{
-Max # messages to forward in single connect
+Max # messages to fetch in single connect
T}
expunge -e T{
-Perform an expunge on every #th message (IMAP only)
-T}
-syslog \& T{
-Do error logging through syslog(3).
+Perform an expunge on every #th message (IMAP and POP3 only)
T}
-nosyslog \& T{
-Turn off error logging through syslog(3).
+properties \& T{
+String value is ignored by fetchmail (may be used by extension scripts)
T}
.TE
.PP
.PP
All options correspond to the obvious command-line arguments, except
the following: `via', `interval', `aka', `is', `to', `dns'/`no dns',
-`checkalias'/`no checkalias',
-\&`password', \&`preconnect', \&`postconnect', `localdomains',
-\&`stripcr'/`no stripcr', \&`forcecr'/`no forcecr', `pass8bits'/`no
-pass8bits' `dropstatus/no dropstatus', `mimedecode/no mimedecode',
-and `no envelope'.
+`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'.
.PP
The `via' option is for use with ssh, or if you want to have more
than one configuration pointing at the same site. If it is present,
matching addresses are handled.
.PP
If \fIfetchmail\fR cannot match any mailserver usernames or
-localdomain addresses, the default recipient is the value of the
-`postmaster' global option if that has been set; otherwise it's the
-calling user (as set by the USER or LOGNAME variable in the
-environment).
+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).
.PP
The `dns' option (normally on) controls the way addresses from
multidrop mailboxes are checked. On, it enables logic to check each
.IR fetchmail ,
while processing a multidrop mailbox, grovels through message headers
looking for names of the mailserver, pre-declaring common ones can
-save it from having to do DNS lookups.
+save it from having to do DNS lookups. Note: the names you give
+as arguments to `aka' are matched as suffixes -- if you specify
+(say) `aka netaxs.com', this will match not just a hostnamed
+netaxs.com, but any hostname that ends with `.netaxs.com'; such as
+(say) pop3.netaxs.com and mail.netaxs.com.
.PP
The `localdomains' option allows you to declare a list of domains
which fetchmail should consider local. When fetchmail is parsing
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 wether 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
+domain. Use with caution.
+.PP
The `mimedecode' option controls whether MIME messages using the
-quoted-printable encoding are automatically converted into pure
-8-bit data. If you are delivering mail to an ESMTP-capable,
-8-bit-clean listener (that includes all of the major programs
-like sendmail), then this will automatically convert quoted-printable
-message headers and data into 8-bit data, making it easier to
-understand when reading mail. If your e-mail programs know how to
-deal with MIME messages, then this option is not needed.
+quoted-printable encoding are automatically converted into pure 8-bit
+data. If you are delivering mail to an ESMTP-capable, 8-bit-clean
+listener (that includes all of the major MTAs like sendmail), then
+this will automatically convert quoted-printable message headers and
+data into 8-bit data, making it easier to understand when reading
+mail. If your e-mail programs know how to deal with MIME messages,
+then this option is not needed. The mimedecode option is off by
+default, because doing RFC2047 conversion on headers throws away
+character-set information and can lead to bad results if the encoding
+of the headers differs from the body encoding.
+.PP
+The `idle' option is usable only with IMAP servers supporting the
+RFC2177 IDLE command extension. If it is enabled, and fetchmail
+detects that IDLE is supported, an IDLE will be issued at the end
+of each poll. This will tell the IMAP server to hold the connection
+open and notify the client when new mail is available. If you need to
+poll a link frequently, IDLE can save bandwidth by eliminating TCP/IP
+connects and LOGIN/LOGOUT sequences. On the other hand, an IDLE
+connection will eat almost akll 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.
+.PP
+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
+associated with a user entry readily available to a Python script.
.PP
.SS Miscellaneous Run Control Options
The words `here' and `there' have useful English-like
imap (or IMAP)
imap-k4 (or IMAP-K4)
imap-gss (or IMAP-GSS)
+ imap-crammd5 (or IMAP-CRAMMD5)
+ imap-login (or IMAP-LOGIN)
apop (or APOP)
kpop (or KPOP)
Specifying `kpop' sets POP3 protocol over port 1109 with Kerberos V4
preauthentication. These defaults may be overridden by later options.
.PP
-There are currently three global option statements; `set logfile'
+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. Finally, `set syslog' sends log
-messages to syslogd(8).
+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 INTERACTION WITH RFC 822
When trying to determine the originating address of a message,
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 adress. If the mail is addressed to more than one recipient,
-the Received line won't contain any information regarding recipient adresses.
+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 exists, they should contain the final recipients and
have precedence over their To:/Cc:/Bcc: counterparts. If the Resent-*
lines doesn't exist, the To:, Cc:, Bcc: and Apparently-To: lines are
-looked for. (The presence of a Resent-To: is taken to impluy 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).
Example:
.nf
- poll pop.provider.net protocol pop3 username jsmith password secret1
+ poll pop.provider.net protocol pop3 username "jsmith" password "secret1"
.fi
.PP
Or, using some abbreviations:
.nf
- poll pop.provider.net proto pop3 user jsmith password secret1
+ poll pop.provider.net proto pop3 user "jsmith" password "secret1"
.fi
.PP
Multiple servers may be listed:
.nf
- poll pop.provider.net proto pop3 user jsmith pass secret1
- poll other.provider.net proto pop2 user John.Smith pass My^Hat
+ poll pop.provider.net proto pop3 user "jsmith" pass "secret1"
+ poll other.provider.net proto pop2 user "John.Smith" pass "My^Hat"
.fi
Here's a version of those two with more whitespace and some noise words:
.nf
poll pop.provider.net proto pop3
- user jsmith, with password secret1, is jsmith here;
+ user "jsmith", with password secret1, is "jsmith" here;
poll other.provider.net proto pop2:
- user John.Smith, with password My^Hat, is John.Smith here;
+ user "John.Smith", with password "My^Hat", is "John.Smith" here;
.fi
This version is much easier to read and doesn't cost significantly
.nf
poll mail.provider.net with proto pop3:
- user jsmith there has password "u can't krak this"
+ user "jsmith" there has password "u can't krak this"
is jws here and wants mda "/bin/mail"
.fi
.nf
defaults proto pop3
- user jsmith
+ user "jsmith"
poll pop.provider.net
- pass secret1
+ pass "secret1"
poll mail.provider.net
- user jjsmith there has password secret2
+ user "jjsmith" there has password "secret2"
.fi
It's possible to specify more than one user per server (this is only
.nf
poll pop.provider.net proto pop3 port 3111
- user jsmith with pass secret1 is smith here
- user jones with pass secret2 is jjones here
+ user "jsmith" with pass "secret1" is "smith" here
+ user jones with pass "secret2" is "jjones" here
.fi
This associates the local username `smith' with the pop.provider.net
mailhost.net sleep 20 </dev/null >/dev/null";
.fi
+.PP
+Here's an another example configuration using ssh and the plugin option.
+The queries are made directly on the stdin and stdout of imapd via ssh.
+Note that in this setup, IMAP authentication can be skipped.
+
+.nf
+poll mailhost.net with proto imap and preauth ssh:
+ plugin "ssh %h /usr/sbin/imapd";
+.fi
+
.SH THE USE AND ABUSE OF MULTIDROP MAILBOXES
Use the multiple-local-recipients feature with caution -- it can bite.
Also note that all multidrop features are ineffective in ETRN mode.
+Also, note that in multidrop mode duplicate mails are suppressed. A
+piece of mail is considered duplicate if it has the same message-ID as
+the message immediately preceding and more than one addressee. Such
+runs of messages may be generated when copies of a message addressed
+to multiple users are delivered to a multidrop box.
+
.SS Header vs. Envelope addresses
The fundamental problem is that by having your mailserver toss several
peoples' mail in a single maildrop box, you may have thrown away
header (when it exists) is often `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 recopients) to all receivers of the
+recipients (including blind-copy recipients) to all receivers of the
messages; it is therefore regarded by some administrators as a
security/privacy problem.
.PP
.I fetchmail
are as follows:
.IP 0
-One or more messages were successfully retrieved.
+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
on the server but not selected for retrieval.)
.IP 2
-An error was encountered when attempting to open a socket for the POP
-connection. If you don't know what a socket is, don't worry about it --
-just treat this as an 'unrecoverable error'.
+An error was encountered when attempting to open a socket to retrieve
+mail. If you don't know what a socket is, don't worry about it --
+just treat this as an 'unrecoverable error'. This error can also be
+because a protocol fetchmail wants to use is not listed in /etc/services.
.IP 3
The user authentication step failed. This usually means that a bad
-user-id, password, or APOP id was specified.
+user-id, password, or APOP id was specified. Or it may mean that you
+tried to run fetchmail under circumstances where it did not have
+standard input attached to a terminal and could not prompt for a
+missing password.
.IP 4
Some sort of fatal protocol error was detected.
.IP 5
or some similar text containing the word "lock".
.IP 10
The
-.I fetchmail.
+.I fetchmail
run failed while trying to do an SMTP port open or transaction.
.IP 11
Fatal DNS error. Fetchmail encountered an error while performing
a DNS lookup at startup and could not proceed.
.IP 12
+BSMTP batch file could not be opened.
+.IP 13
+Poll terminated by a fetch limit (see the --fetchlimit option).
+.IP 23
Internal error. You should see a message on standard error with
details.
.PP
that of the last host queried.
.SH AUTHOR
-Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>.
+Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>. Too many other people to
+name here have contributed code and patches.
This program is descended from and replaces
.IR popclient ,
-by Carl Harris <ceharris@mal.com>; the internals are quite different,
+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.
(used only with newer RFC1725-compliant POP3 servers supporting the
UIDL command).
.TP 5
+~/.fetchmail.pid
+lock file to help prevent concurrent runs (non-root mode).
+.TP 5
~/.netrc
your FTP run control file, which (if present) will be searched for
passwords as a last resort before prompting for one interactively.
.TP 5
-~/.fetchmail.pid
-lock file to help prevent concurrent runs (non-root mode).
-.TP 5
/var/run/fetchmail.pid
lock file to help prevent concurrent runs (root mode, Linux systems).
.TP 5
lock file to help prevent concurrent runs (root mode, systems without /var/run).
.SH ENVIRONMENT
-For correct initialization,
-.I fetchmail
-requires either that both the USER and HOME environment variables are
-correctly set, or that \fBgetpwuid\fR(3) be able to retrieve a password
-entry from your user ID.
+If the FETCHMAILUSER variable is set, it is used as the name of the
+calling user (default local name) for purposes such as mailing error
+notifications. Otherwise, if either the LOGNAME or USER variable is
+correctly set (e.g. the corresponding UID matches the session user ID)
+then that name is used as the default local name. Otherwise
+\fBgetpwuid\fR(3) must be able to retrieve a password entry for the
+session ID (this elaborate logic is designed to handle the case of
+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 theirt names). The
+\&.netrc file is looked for in the the invoking user's home directory
+regardless of FETCHMAILHOME's setting.
.SH SIGNALS
If a
whichever of these is appropriate to wake it up.
.SH BUGS AND KNOWN PROBLEMS
-Enabling the `mimedecode' option (which defaults to off) may render
-invalid any PGP signatures attached to mail with quoted-printable headers.
-This bug will be fixed in a future version.
-.P
The RFC822 address parser used in multidrop mode chokes on some
@-addresses that are technically legal but bizarre. Strange uses of
quoting and embedded comments are likely to confuse it.
.PP
-Use of any of the supported protocols other than POP3 with OTP or RPA, APOP,
-KPOP, IMAP-K4, IMAP-GSS, or ETRN 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, the
---interface option can be used to restrict polling to availability of
-a specific interface device with a specific local IP address, but
-snooping is still possible if (a) either host has a network device
-that can be opened in promiscuous mode, or (b) the intervening network
-link can be tapped.
+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).
+.PP
+Use of any of the supported protocols other than POP3 with OTP or RPA,
+APOP, KPOP, IMAP-K4, IMAP-GSS, IMAP-CRAMMD5, or ETRN 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 availability of a specific interface device
+with a specific local IP address, but snooping is still possible if
+(a) either host has a network device that can be opened in promiscuous
+mode, or (b) the intervening network link can be tapped.
.PP
Use of the %F or %T escapes in an mda option could open a security
hole, because they pass text manipulable by an attacker to a shell
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 requires that port 25 of localhost
+be available for sending mail via SMTP.
+.PP
+If you modify a
+.I .fetchmailrc
+while a background instance is running and break the syntax, the
+background instance will die silently. Unfortunately, it can't
+die noisily because we don't yet know whether syslog should be enabled.
+.PP
+The RFC 2177 IDLE support is flaky. It sort of works, but may generate
+spurious socket error messages or silently hang in the presence of
+various network or server errors.
+.PP
+The combination of using a remote name with embedded spaces and POP3
+UIDs will not work; the UIDL-handling code will core-dump while trying
+to read in what it sees as malformed .fetchids lines, typically
+on the second poll after startup.
+.PP
+The UIDL code is generally flaky and tends to lose its state on errors
+and line drops (so that old messages are re-seen). If this happens to
+you, switch to IMAP4.
+.PP
+The `principal' option only handles Kerberos IV, not V.
+.PP
Send comments, bug reports, gripes, and the like to the
fetchmail-friends list <fetchmail-friends@ccil.org>. An HTML FAQ is
available at the fetchmail home page; surf to
`fetchmail' in their titles.
.SH SEE ALSO
-elm(1), mail(1), sendmail(8), popd(8), imapd(8)
+mutt(1), elm(1), mail(1), sendmail(8), popd(8), imapd(8)
.SH APPLICABLE STANDARDS
.TP 5
SMTP/ESMTP:
RFC 821, RFC 1869, RFC 1652, RFC 1870, RFC1983, RFC 1985
.TP 5
mail:
-RFC 822
+RFC 822, RFC 1892, RFC 1894
.TP 5
POP2:
RFC 937
.TP 5
POP3:
-RFC 1081, RFC 1225, RFC 1460, RFC 1725, RFC 1939
+RFC 1081, RFC 1225, RFC 1460, RFC 1725, RFC 1939, RFC 1957, RFC2195, RFC 2449
.TP 5
APOP:
RFC 1460, RFC 1725, RFC 1939
IMAP2/IMAP2BIS:
RFC 1176, RFC 1732
.TP 5
-IMAP4:
-RFC 1730, RFC 1731, RFC 1732, RFC 2060, RFC 2061
+IMAP4/IMAP4rev1:
+RFC 1730, RFC 1731, RFC 1732, RFC 2060, RFC 2061, RFC 2195, RFC 2177,
+RFC 2683
.TP 5
ETRN:
RFC 1985
.TP 5
OTP:
RFC 1938
+.TP 5
+LMTP:
+RFC 2033
projects / ~andy / fetchmail / blobdiff