diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'fetchmail.man')
| -rw-r--r-- | fetchmail.man | 66 |
1 files changed, 58 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/fetchmail.man b/fetchmail.man index b2165186..5cab1cf5 100644 --- a/fetchmail.man +++ b/fetchmail.man @@ -408,19 +408,32 @@ Legal user options are norewrite .PP All options correspond to the obvious command-line arguments except -four: \fBis\fR, \fBto\fR, \fBpassword\fR and \fBskip\fR. +five: \fBis\fR, \fBto\fR, \fBpassword\fR, and \fBskip\fR. .PP -The \fBis\fR or \fIto\fR keywords associate a following local -username with the mailserver user name in the entry. They are intended -to be used in configurations where \fIfetchmail\fR runs as root and -retrieves mail for multiple local users. If no \fBis\fR or \fIto\fR -clause is present, the default local username is the calling user, -unless the calling user is root in which case it is the remote user -name of the current entry. +The \fBis\fR or \fIto\fR keywords associate the following local (client) +name(s) (or server-name to client-name mappings separated by =) with +the mailserver user name in the entry. +.PP +A single local name can be used to support redirecting your mail when +your username on the client machine is different from your name on the +mailserver. When there is only a single local name, mail is forwarded +to that username regardless of the message's To, Cc, and Bcc headers. +.PP +When there is more than one local name (or name mapping) the +\fIfetchmail\fR code does look at the To, Cc, and Bcc headers of +retrieved mail. When a declared mailserver username is recognized, its +local mapping is added to the list of local recipients. If +\fIfetchmail\fR cannot recognize any mailserver usernames, the default +recipient is the calling user, unless the calling user is root in +which case it is the remote user name of the current entry. .PP The \fBpassword\fR option requires a string argument, which is the password to be used with the entry's server. .PP +The \fBaliases\fR option declares names that are recognized as OK for +local delivery. Your local name is automatically one of these; the +aliases directive can be used to declare others. +.PP The \fBskip\fR option tells .I fetchmail not to query this host unless it is explicitly named on the command @@ -552,6 +565,21 @@ to be specifying multiple users per server unless running it as root pop-provider.net, which is probably not what you want). In any case, we strongly recommend always having an explicit \fBuser\fR clause when specifying multiple users for server. +.PP +Here's what a simple retrieval configuration for a multi-drop mailbox +looks like: + +.nf + server pop.provider.net: + user maildrop with pass secret1 to golux hurkle=happy snark here +.fi + +This says that the mailbox of account `maildrop' on the server is a +multi-drop box, and that messages in it should be parsed for the +server user names `golux', `hurkle', and `snark'. It further +specifies that `golux' and `snark' have the same name on the +client as on the server, but mail for server user `hurkle' should be +delivered to client user `happy'. .SH EXIT CODES To facilitate the use of .I fetchmail @@ -598,6 +626,19 @@ When .I fetchmail queries more than one host, the returned status is that of the last host queried. +.SH NOTE +Multiple local names can be used to support forwarding from a +"multi-drop" mailbox accumulating mail on the server for several +client-machine users. Local names can also be used to administer a +mailing list from the client side of a \fIfetchmail\fR collection. +Suppose your name is `esr', and you maintain a mailing list called +(say) "fetchmail-friends", and you want to keep the alias list on your +client machine. On your server, you can alias fetchmail-friends to +esr; then, in your \fI.fetchmailrc\fR, declare `to esr +fetchmail-friends here'. Then, when mail including that alias in any +of its recpient lines line gets fetched, the alias will be appended to +the list of recipients your SMTP listener sees. Therefore it will +undergo alias expansion locally. .SH AUTHORS .I fetchmail was originated (under the name `popclient') by Carl Harris at Virginia @@ -642,6 +683,15 @@ to the mailserver. This creates a risk that name/password pairs might be snaffled with a packet sniffer or more sophisticated monitoring software. .PP +Retrieval and forwarding from multi-drop server mailboxes is only as +reliable as your mail server host's DNS service. Each host +address part in each message of a multi-drop mailbox is checked +with +.BR gethostbyname (2) +to see if it's an alias of the mail server. If it is, but the +lookup fails due to network congestion or a crashed server, forwarding +will not get done correctly. +.PP Under Linux, if fetchmail is run in daemon mode with the network inaccessible, each poll leaves a socket allocated but in CLOSE state (this is visible in netstat(1)'s output). For some reason, these |