X-Git-Url: http://pileus.org/git/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=6faa58a782103e5a7719c47f943c715c441496f4;hb=53293ee30678d3db753e51820cc554c0b2b1bd97;hp=18a727ab40258c1460073beb00cf30c9de20dcc6;hpb=06b618b03a13ca027e6ff5449adcabf194e6394c;p=~andy%2Ffetchmail diff --git a/README b/README index 18a727ab..6faa58a7 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,89 +1,68 @@ - The fetchmail announcement +fetchmail README +================ -fetchmail is a full-featured, robust, well-documented POP2, POP3, -APOP, and IMAP batch mail retrieval/forwarding utility intended to be -used over on-demand TCP/IP links (such as SLIP or PPP connections). -It retrieves mail from remote mail servers and forwards it to your -local (client) machine's delivery system, so it can then be be read by -normal mail user agents such as elm(1) or Mail(1). +Introduction +------------ -The fetchmail code was developed under Linux, but should be readily -portable to other Unix variants (it uses GNU autoconf). It has also -been ported to QNX; to build under QNX, see the header comments in the -Makefile. +Fetchmail is a free, full-featured, robust, well-documented remote mail +retrieval and forwarding utility intended to be used over on-demand TCP/IP +links (such as SLIP or PPP connections). It retrieves mail from remote mail +servers and forwards it to your local (client) machine's delivery system, so it +can then be be read by normal mail user agents such as mutt(1), elm(1) or +Mail(1). -The fetchmail program was originally authored (under the name -popclient) by Carl Harris . Eric S. Raymond, - took over development in June 1996 and subsequently -renamed the program `fetchmail' to reflect the addition of IMAP -support. See the distribution files NEWS for detailed information on -recent changes and NOTES for design notes. +Fetchmail supports all standard mail-retrieval protocols in use on the +Internet: POP3 (including some variants such as RPOP, APOP, KPOP), IMAP4rev1 +(also IMAP4, IMAP2bis), POP2, IMAP4, ETRN, and ODMR. On the output side, +fetchmail supports ESMTP/SMTP, LMTP, and invocation of a local delivery agent. -Before accepting responsibility for the popclient sources from Carl, I -had investigated and used and tinkered with every other UNIX -remote-mail forwarder I could find, including fetchpop1.9, -PopTart-0.9.3, get-mail, gwpop, pimp-1.0, pop-perl5-1.2, popc, -popmail-1.6 and upop. I learned from all of them, and fetchmail is a -carefully-thought-out attempt to render obsolete every other program -in its class. +Fetchmail also fully supports authentication via GSSAPI, Kerberos 4 and 5, +RFC1938 one-time passwords, Compuserve's POP3 with RPA, Microsoft's NTLM, Demon +Internet's SDPS, or CRAM-MD5 authentication a la RFC2195. -The fetchmail code appears to be stable and free of bugs affecting -normal operation (that is, retrieving from POP3 or IMAP and forwarding -via SMTP to sendmail). It will probably undergo substantial change -only if and when support for a new retrieval protocol or authentication -is added. +Fetchmail supports end-to-end encryption with OpenSSL, do read README.SSL for +details on fetchmail's configuration and README.SSL-SERVER for server-side +requirements. NOTE! To be compatible with earlier releases, fetchmail 6.3's +default behaviour is more relaxed than dictated by the standard - add options +such as --sslcertck to tighten certificate checking. -Here are fetchmail's main features. Those unique to fetchmail are marked -with **. +Portability +----------- - * **POP2, POP3, **APOP, **IMAP support. +The fetchmail code was developed under Linux, but has also been extensively +tested under the BSD variants, AIX, HP-UX versions 9 and 10, SunOS, Solaris, +NEXTSTEP, OSF 3.2, IRIX, and Rhapsody. - ** Support for Kerberos user authentication. +It should be readily portable to other Unix variants and Unix-like operating +systems (it uses GNU autoconf). It has been ported to Cygwin, LynxOS and BeOS +and will build there without special action. It has also been ported to QNX; +to build under QNX, see the header comments in the Makefile. It is reported to +build and run under AmigaOS. - ** Host is auto-probed for a working server if no protocol is - specified for the connection. Thus you don't need to know - what servers are running on your mail host in advance; the - verbose option will tell you which one succeeds. +Further reading +--------------- - ** Delivery via via SMTP to the client machine's port 25. This - means the retrieved mail automatically goes to the system - default MDA as if it were normal sender-initiated SMTP mail. +The INSTALL file describes how to configure and install fetchmail. - ** Timeout if server connection is dropped. +See the distribution files FEATURES for a full list of features, NEWS for +detailed information on recent changes, NOTES for design notes, and TODO for +a list of things that still need doing. If you want to hack on this code, +a list of known bugs and to-do items can be found in the file todo.html. - * Easy control via command line or free-format run control file. +Status, source code +------------------- - * Daemon mode -- fetchmail can be run in background to poll - one or more hosts at a specified interval. +The fetchmail code appears to be stable and free of bugs affecting normal +operation (that is, retrieving from POP3 or IMAP in single-drop mode and +forwarding via SMTP to sendmail). - * From:, To:, Cc:, and Reply-To: headers are rewritten so that - usernames relative to the fetchmail host become fully-qualified - Internet addresses. This enables replies to work correctly. - (Would be unique to fetchmail if I hadn't added it to fetchpop.) +You can get the code from the fetchmail home page: - * Strict conformance to relevant RFCs and good debugging options. - You could use fetchmail to test and debug server implementatations. + http://www.fetchmail.info/ - * Carefully written, comprehensive and up-to-date man page describing - not only modes of operation but also (**) how to interpret the most - common kinds of problems and what to do about deficient servers + http://fetchmail.berlios.de/ - * Rugged, simple, and well-tested code -- the author relies on it - every day and it has never lost mail, not even in experimental - versions. +Enjoy! - * Large user community -- fetchmail has inherited a significant - user base from Carl Harris's popclient community. This means - feedback is rapid, bugs get found and fixed rapidly. - -You can easily find the latest version of fetchmail from Eric's home page: - - http://www.ccil.org/~esr - -Just chase the link to Eric's Freeware Collection. Besides fetchmail, it -includes a tasty selection of Web authoring tools, programmer's aids, -graphics libraries, compilers for bizarre languages, games, and -miscellaneous interesting hacks. Enjoy! - - -- esr + -- esr, ma