X-Git-Url: http://pileus.org/git/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=f64c7ab1b3d4038faddbf4b881abcee5a2ee7fea;hb=98cfcef26048bba06975e68a1aad05a8bac0d65d;hp=3947f9c1fa06d1f25b1e578940ccd2e8f800b4f9;hpb=65179f921d37756ed89e1ef7965e13bd5f319650;p=~andy%2Ffetchmail diff --git a/README b/README index 3947f9c1..f64c7ab1 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,113 +1,62 @@ - fetchmail README +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 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. +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). -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 **. +Fetchmail supports all standard mail-retrieval protocols in use on the +Internet: POP3 (including some variants such as APOP, KPOP), IMAP4rev1 +(also IMAP4, IMAP2bis), IMAP4, ETRN, and ODMR. On the output side, +fetchmail supports ESMTP/SMTP, LMTP, and invocation of a local delivery agent. -Since 3.0: +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. - ** Support for ESMTP 8BITMIME and SIZE options. +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. - ** The stripcr option to explicitly control carriage-return - stripping before mail forwarding. +Portability +----------- -Since 2.0: +The fetchmail code was developed under Linux, but has also been tested under +Cygwin, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris. It should be readily portable to other IEEE +Std 1003.1 (2001 or later) compliant operating systems. - ** Support for secure use with ssh. +Further reading +--------------- - ** Mailserver passwords can be parsed out of your .netrc file. +The INSTALL file describes how to configure and install fetchmail. - ** When forwarding mail via SMTP, fetchmail respects the 571 - "spam filter" response and discards any mail that triggers it. +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. - ** Transaction and error logging may optionally be done via syslog. +Status, source code +------------------- - ** (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. +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). - ** RPOP support (restored; had been removed in 1.8). +You can get the code from the fetchmail home page: -2.0 and earlier versions: + http://www.fetchmail.info/ - * **POP2, POP3, **APOP, **RPOP, **IMAP2bis, **IMAP4 support. + http://fetchmail.berlios.de/ - ** Support for Kerberos user authentication (either MIT or Cygnus). +Enjoy! - ** 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 - - * Rugged, simple, and well-tested code -- the author relies on it - every day and it has never lost mail, not even in experimental - versions. - - * 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. - -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: - - ftp://ftp.ccil.org/pub/esr/fetchmail - -Or you can get it 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