diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | fetchmail.man | 72 |
1 files changed, 39 insertions, 33 deletions
diff --git a/fetchmail.man b/fetchmail.man index 9bc45a13..c6c53949 100644 --- a/fetchmail.man +++ b/fetchmail.man @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ The program can gather mail from servers supporting any of the common mail-retrieval protocols: POP2, POP3, IMAP2bis, and IMAP4. It can also use the ESMTP ETRN extension. (The RFCs describing all these -protocols are listed below.) +protocols are listed at the end of this page.) .PP While .I fetchmail @@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ All these alternatives work in basically the same way (communicating with standard server daemons to fetch mail already delivered to a mailbox on the server) except ETRN. The ETRN mode allows you to ask a compliant ESMTP server (such as BSD sendmail at release 8.8.0 or -higher) to immediately open an sender-SMTP connection to your +higher) to immediately open a sender-SMTP connection to your client machine and begin forwarding any items addressed to your client machine in the server's queue of undelivered mail. .TP @@ -189,7 +189,7 @@ while delivering mail through an MDA. Some possible MDAs are "/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem", "/usr/lib/sendmail -oem", "/usr/bin/formail", and "/usr/bin/deliver". Local delivery addresses will be inserted into the MDA command wherever you place a %s. Do -\fInot\fR use an MDA like +\fInot\fR use an MDA invocation like "sendmail -oem -t" that dispatches on the contents of To/Cc/Bcc, it will create mail loops and bring the just wrath of many postmasters down upon your head. @@ -224,6 +224,7 @@ This option does not work with ETRN. Limit the number of messages accepted from a given server in a single poll. By default there is no limit. An explicit --fetchlimit of 0 overrides any limits set in your run control file. +This option does not work with ETRN. .SS Authentication Options .TP .B \-u name, --username name @@ -425,6 +426,14 @@ will, therefore, poll all the hosts described in your file (except those explicitly excluded with the `skip' verb) once every fifteen minutes. .PP +It is possible to set a polling interval +in your +.I ~/.fetchmailrc +file by saying `set demon <interval>', where <interval> is an +integer number of seconds. If you do this, fetchmail will always +start in daemon mode unless you override it with the command-line +option --daemon 0 or -d0. +.PP Only one daemon process is permitted per user; in daemon mode, .I fetchmail makes a per-user lockfile to guarantee this. The option @@ -476,14 +485,14 @@ The or --nodetach option suppresses detachment of the daemon process from its control terminal. This is primarily useful for debugging. .PP -Note that while running in daemon mode polling a POP server, transient -errors (such as DNS failures or sendmail delivery refusals) may force -the fetchall option on for the duration of the next polling cycle. -This is a robustness feature. It means that if a message is fetched -(and thus marked seen by the mailserver) but not delivered locally due -to some transient error, it will be re-fetched during the next poll -cycle. (The IMAP logic doesn't delete messages until they're -delivered, so this problem does not arise.) +Note that while running in daemon mode polling a POP2 or POP3 server, +transient errors (such as DNS failures or sendmail delivery refusals) +may force the fetchall option on for the duration of the next polling +cycle. This is a robustness feature. It means that if a message is +fetched (and thus marked seen by the mailserver) but not delivered +locally due to some transient error, it will be re-fetched during the +next poll cycle. (The IMAP logic doesn't delete messages until +they're delivered, so this problem does not arise.) .SH RETRIEVAL FAILURE MODES The protocols \fIfetchmail\fR uses to talk to mailservers are next to @@ -715,7 +724,7 @@ save it from having to do DNS lookups. The `localdomains' option allows you to declare a list of domains which fetchmail should consider local. When fetchmail is parsing address lines in multidrop modes, and a trailing segment of a host -name matches a declared local doman, that address is passed through +name matches a declared local domain, that address is passed through to the listener or MDA unaltered (local-name mappings are \fInot\fR applied). .PP @@ -802,7 +811,7 @@ followed by a string sets the same global specified by --logfile. A command-line --logfile option will override this. Also, `set daemon' sets the poll interval as --daemon does. This can be overridden by a command-line --daemon option; in particular --daemon 0 can be used -to force foreground operation. Finally, `set syslog' set\nds log +to force foreground operation. Finally, `set syslog' sends log messages to syslogd(8). .PP Basic format is: @@ -868,32 +877,18 @@ by individual server descriptions. So, you could write: It's possible to specify more than one user per server (this is only likely to be useful when running fetchmail in daemon mode as root). -The `user' keyword leads off a user description, and every user -description except optionally the first one must include it. If the -first description lacks the `user' keyword, the name of the invoking -user is used (in a future version, the option to omit the `user' -keyword may be removed). Here's a contrived example: +The `user' keyword leads off a user description, and every user specification +in a multi-user entry must include it. Here's an example: .nf poll pop.provider.net proto pop3 port 3111 - pass gumshoe user jsmith with pass secret1 is smith here user jones with pass secret2 is jjones here .fi -This says that the user invoking \fIfetchmail\fR has the same username -on pop.provider.net, and password `gumshoe' there. It also associates -the local username `smith' with the pop.provider.net username `jsmith' -and the local username `jjones' with the pop.provider.net username -`jones'. -.PP -This example is contrived because, in practice, you are very unlikely -to be specifying multiple users per server unless running it as root -(thus the `pass gumshoe' would try to fetch root's mail on -pop-provider.net, which is probably not what you want). In any case, -we strongly recommend always having an explicit \&`user' clause when -specifying multiple users per mailserver. In a future version, the -option not to explicitly declare the username may be removed. +This associates the local username `smith' with the pop.provider.net +username `jsmith' and the local username `jjones' with the +pop.provider.net username `jones'. .PP Here's what a simple retrieval configuration for a multi-drop mailbox looks like: @@ -1001,6 +996,14 @@ recipient address on it. Unless .I fetchmail can deduce an envelope address, such mail will only go to the account running fetchmail (probably root). +.PP +If you're tempted to use +.I fetchmail +to retrieve mail for multiple users via POP or IMAP, think again. +It would be smarter to just let it sit in the mailserver's queue and +use ETRN mode to trigger SMTP sends periodically (of course, this +means you have to poll more frequently than the mailserver's expiry +period). If you can't arrange this, try setting up a UUCP feed. .SS Speeding Up Multidrop Checking Normally, when multiple user are declared @@ -1047,7 +1050,10 @@ There was a syntax error in the arguments to .IP 6 The run control file had bad permissions. .IP 7 -There was an error condition reported by the server (POP3 only). +There was an error condition reported by the server. Can also +fire if +.I fetchmail +timed out while waiting for the server. .IP 8 Exclusion error. This means .I fetchmail |