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+<!doctype HTML public "-//W3O//DTD W3 HTML 3.2//EN">
+<HTML>
+<HEAD>
+<TITLE>Fetchmail Feature List</TITLE>
+<link rev=made href=mailto:esr@snark.thyrsus.com>
+<meta name="description" content="The fetchmail brag sheet.">
+<meta name="keywords" content="fetchmail, POP, POP3, IMAP, IMAP2bis, IMAP4">
+</HEAD>
+<BODY>
+<table width="100%" cellpadding=0><tr>
+<td width="30%">Back to <a href="index.html">Fetchmail Home Page</a>
+<td width="30%" align=center>To <a href="/~esr/sitemap.html">Site Map</a>
+<td width="30%" align=right>$Date: 1997/08/05 04:17:57 $
+</table>
+<HR>
+
+<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>Fetchmail Feature List</H1>
+
+Here are fetchmail's main features. Those unique to fetchmail
+are listed first. <P>
+
+<H2>Since 4.0:</H2>
+<UL>
+<LI> Support for responding with a one-time password when a POP3 server
+ issues an RFC1938-conforming OTP challenge. (Still experimental)
+</UL>
+
+<H2>Since 3.0:</H2>
+<UL>
+<LI> Support for IMAP RFC 1731 authentication with Kerberos v4.
+
+<LI> Support for multiple-folder retrieval in a single session
+ under IMAP.
+
+<LI> Following SMTP 571 response to a From line, fetchmail no longer
+ downloads the bodies of spam messages.
+
+<LI> Support for a `hunt list' of SMTP hosts.
+
+<LI> Support for ESMTP 8BITMIME and SIZE options.
+
+<LI> Support for ESMTP ETRN command.
+
+<LI> The stripcr & forcecr options to explicitly control carriage-return
+ stripping and LF->CRLF mapping before mail forwarding.
+</UL>
+
+<H2>Since 2.0:</H2>
+<UL>
+<LI> Support for secure use with ssh.
+
+<LI> Mailserver passwords can be parsed out of your .netrc file.
+
+<LI> When forwarding mail via SMTP, fetchmail respects the 571
+ "spam filter" response and discards any mail that triggers it.
+
+<LI> Transaction and error logging may optionally be done via syslog.
+
+<LI> (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.
+
+<LI> RPOP support (restored; had been removed in 1.8).
+</UL>
+
+<H2>2.0 and earlier versions:</H2>
+<UL>
+<LI> Support POP2, APOP, RPOP, IMAP2, IMAP2bis, IMAP3, IMAP4, IMAP4rev1. .
+
+<LI> Support for Kerberos V4 user authentication (either MIT or Cygnus).
+
+<LI> 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.
+
+<LI> Delivery 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.
+
+<LI> Configurable timeout to detect if server connection is dropped.
+
+<LI> Support for retrieving and forwarding from multi-drop mailboxes
+ that is guaranteed not to cause mail loops.
+
+<LI> Large user community -- fetchmail has a large user base (the
+ author's beta list includes well over two hundred people). This
+ means feedback is rapid, bugs get found and fixed rapidly.
+
+<LI> 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.
+
+<LI> Rugged, simple, and well-tested code -- the author relies on it
+ every day and it has never lost mail, not even in experimental
+ versions. (In the project's entire history there has only been
+ one recorded instance of lost mail, and that was due to a quirk
+ in some Microsoft code.)
+
+<LI> Strict conformance to relevant RFCs and good debugging options.
+ You could use fetchmail to test and debug server implementatations.
+</UL>
+
+<H2>Features in common with other remote-mail retrieval programs:</H2>
+
+The other programs I have checked include fetchpop1.9, PopTart-0.9.3,
+get-mail, gwpop, pimp-1.0, pop-perl5-1.2, popc, popmail-1.6 and upop.<P>
+
+<UL>
+<LI> Support for POP3.
+
+<LI> Easy control via command line or free-format run control file.
+
+<LI> Daemon mode -- fetchmail can be run in background to poll
+ one or more hosts at a specified interval.
+
+<LI> 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.)
+
+<LI> Message and header processing are 8-bit clean.
+</UL>
+
+<HR>
+<table width="100%" cellpadding=0><tr>
+<td width="30%">Back to <a href="index.html">Fetchmail Home Page</a>
+<td width="30%" align=center>To <a href="/~esr/sitemap.html">Site Map</a>
+<td width="30%" align=right>$Date: 1997/08/05 04:17:57 $
+</table>
+
+<P><ADDRESS>Eric S. Raymond <A HREF="mailto:esr@thyrsus.com">&lt;esr@snark.thyrsus.com&gt;</A></ADDRESS>
+</BODY>
+</BODY>
+</HTML>