X-Git-Url: http://pileus.org/git/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=d7e885cd812893218f8fe99e3efe0c6ed30175e2;hb=af18c5a62dff6a75ef77f8154d706596ebadd006;hp=8c7688e73f72b6d3f5c4a14808f716125bc6845f;hpb=195fbfab0a696660c9f3f0c7f74ecfa18ab11d76;p=~andy%2Ffetchmail diff --git a/README b/README index 8c7688e7..d7e885cd 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,110 +1,48 @@ 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 +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 elm(1) or Mail(1). -The fetchmail code was developed under Linux, but has also been -extensively tested under 4.4BSD, Solaris and NEXTSTEP. It should be -readily portable to other Unix variants (it uses GNU autoconf). It -has also been ported to QNX; to build under QNX, see the header -comments in the Makefile. - -Here are fetchmail's main features. Those unique to fetchmail -(relative to fetchpop1.9, PopTart-0.9.3, get-mail, gwpop, pimp-1.0, -pop-perl5-1.2, popc, popmail-1.6 and upop) are marked with **. - -Since 3.0: - - ** Support for ESMTP 8BITMIME and SIZE options. - -Since 2.0: - - ** Support for secure use with ssh. - - ** Mailserver passwords can be parsed out of your .netrc file. - - ** When forwarding mail via SMTP, fetchmail respects the 571 - "spam filter" response and discards any mail that triggers it. - - ** Transaction and error logging may optionally be done via syslog. - - ** (Linux only) Security option to permit fetchmail to poll a host - only when a point-to-point link to a particular IP address is up. - - ** RPOP support (restored; had been removed in 1.8). - -2.0 and earlier versions: - - * **POP2, POP3, **APOP, **RPOP, **IMAP2bis, **IMAP4 support. +Fetchmail supports all standard mail-retrieval protocols in use on the +Internet: POP2, POP3, RPOP, APOP, KPOP, IMAP2bis, IMAP4, IMAP4rev1 +ESMTP ETRN, and ODMR. 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. Fetchmail also supports end-to-end +encryption with OpenSSL. - ** Support for Kerberos user authentication (either MIT or Cygnus). - - ** 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. - - ** 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. - - ** Configurable timeout to detect if server connection is dropped. - - ** Support for retrieving and forwarding from multi-drop mailboxes - that is guaranteed not to cause mail loops. - - * Easy control via command line or free-format run control file. - - * Daemon mode -- fetchmail can be run in background to poll - one or more hosts at a specified interval. - - * 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.) - - * Strict conformance to relevant RFCs and good debugging options. - You could use fetchmail to test and debug server implementatations. - - * Message and header processing are 8-bit clean. - - * Carefully written, comprehensive and up-to-date man page describing - not only modes of operation but also (**) how to diagnose the most - common kinds of problems and what to do about deficient servers +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. - * Rugged, simple, and well-tested code -- the author relies on it - every day and it has never lost mail, not even in experimental - versions. +It should be readily portable to other Unix variants (it uses GNU +autoconf). It has been ported to 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. - * Large user community -- fetchmail has a large user base (the - author's beta list includes about two hundred people). This - means feedback is rapid, bugs get found and fixed rapidly. +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. The fetchmail code appears to be stable and free of bugs affecting normal operation (that is, retrieving from POP3 or IMAP in single-drop mode and forwarding via SMTP to sendmail). It will probably undergo substantial change only if and when support for a new retrieval -protocol or authentication mode is added. See the distribution files -NEWS for detailed information on recent changes and NOTES for design -notes. - -You can easily fetch the latest version of fetchmail via FTP from the -following FTP directory: +protocol or authentication mode is added. - ftp://ftp.ccil.org/pub/esr/fetchmail +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. -Or you can get it from Eric's home page: +You can get the code from the fetchmail home page: - http://www.ccil.org/~esr + http://fetchmail.berlios.de/ -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! +Enjoy! - -- esr + -- esr, ma