X-Git-Url: http://pileus.org/git/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=6faa58a782103e5a7719c47f943c715c441496f4;hb=7f6138ffd4935043382ce5f867ee9e177e0a9787;hp=db092aa6b665c4e2a26eb0c28e14b61fdf920053;hpb=4d1a9910f0cf6c09d921825813a2b6d9e4e04dbb;p=~andy%2Ffetchmail diff --git a/README b/README index db092aa6..6faa58a7 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,43 +1,68 @@ - README for fetchmail +fetchmail README +================ -fetchmail is a full-featured, robust, well-documented POP2, POP3, APOP, and -IMAP batch mail retrieval 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, where it can then be be read by normal mail user agents such as -elm(1) or Mail(1). +Introduction +------------ -The fetchmail program was originally developed (under the name popclient) by -Carl Harris and now maintained by Eric S. Raymond -. See the file NEWS for a version history. +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 code was developed under Linux and should be readily portable -to other UNIX systems (it uses GNU autoconf). It has also been ported to -QNX; to build under QNX, see the header comments in the Makefile. +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. -You can find the latest version of fetchmail from Eric's home page +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. - http://www.ccil.org/~esr +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. -Features of fetchmail include: +Portability +----------- - * POP2, POP3, APOP, RPOP and IMAP support with auto-probing for a - server on the host if no protocol is specified. +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. - * Easy control via command line or free-format run control file. +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. - * Daemon mode -- fetchmail can be run in background to poll - one or more hosts at a specified interval. +Further reading +--------------- - * Delivery via via SMTP to the client machine's port 25 (or - optionally via either file-append with mandatory locking or an - MDA you specify). +The INSTALL file describes how to configure and install fetchmail. - * 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. +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. -There is a man page at fetchmail.man. A sample rc file is at sample.rcfile. -For a release history, see the file NEWS. - -- esr +Status, source code +------------------- + +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). + +You can get the code from the fetchmail home page: + + http://www.fetchmail.info/ + + http://fetchmail.berlios.de/ + +Enjoy! + + -- esr, ma