fetchmail is a full-featured IMAP and POP client which allows users to automatically download mail from remote IMAP and POP servers and save it into local mailboxes; there it can be accessed more easily. fetchmail can be installed using the mail/fetchmail port, and offers various features, some of which include:
Support of POP3, APOP, KPOP, IMAP, ETRN and ODMR protocols.
Ability to forward mail using SMTP, which allows filtering, forwarding, and aliasing to function normally.
May be run in daemon mode to check periodically for new messages.
Can retrieve multiple mailboxes and forward them based on configuration, to different local users.
While it is outside the scope of this document to explain
all of fetchmail's features, some
basic features will be explained. The
fetchmail utility requires a
configuration file known as .fetchmailrc
,
in order to run correctly. This file includes server information
as well as login credentials. Due to the sensitive nature of the
contents of this file, it is advisable to make it readable only by the owner,
with the following command:
%
chmod 600 .fetchmailrc
The following .fetchmailrc
serves as an
example for downloading a single user mailbox using
POP. It tells
fetchmail to connect to example.com
using a username of
joesoap
and a password of
XXX
. This example assumes that the user
joesoap
is also a user on the local
system.
poll example.com protocol pop3 username "joesoap" password "XXX"
The next example connects to multiple POP and IMAP servers and redirects to different local usernames where applicable:
poll example.com proto pop3: user "joesoap", with password "XXX", is "jsoap" here; user "andrea", with password "XXXX"; poll example2.net proto imap: user "john", with password "XXXXX", is "myth" here;
The fetchmail utility can be run in daemon
mode by running it with the -d
flag, followed
by the interval (in seconds) that
fetchmail should poll servers listed
in the .fetchmailrc
file. The following
example would cause fetchmail to poll
every 600 seconds:
%
fetchmail -d 600
More information on fetchmail can
be found at http://fetchmail.berlios.de/
.
All FreeBSD documents are available for download at http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/
Questions that are not answered by the
documentation may be
sent to <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>.
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