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Chapter 15. Email

While you can set up your

.fetchmailrc

file manually, it is much easier to let the included

fetch 

mailconf

program do it for you. However, when testing new configurations, it is usually easier to

edit the

.fetchmailrc

file directly.

As expected with a program that services such a mature network service as email and uses so many

protocols, Fetchmail contains many different global, server, and local options. Many of these options

are rarely used or only apply to very specific situations. The

fetchmail

man page explains each of

these options in detail, but the most common ones are listed here.

15.4.1.1. Global Options

Each global option should be placed on a single line after a

set

action.

  daemon

seconds

  Tells Fetchmail to automatically use daemon mode, where it will stay in

the background and poll for mail at the interval specified.

  postmaster

  Gives Fetchmail a local user to send mail to in case of delivery problems.

  syslog

  Tells Fetchmail to start logging error and status messages in the system's log file. By

default, this is

/var/log/maillog

.

15.4.1.2. Server Options

Place server options on their own line in

.fetchmailrc

after a

poll

or

skip

action.

  auth

auth type

  Specifies the type of authentication to be used. By default,

password

authentication is used, but some protocols support other types of authentication, including

ker 

beros_v5

,

kerberos_v4

, and

ssh

. If the

any

authentication type is used, Fetchmail will first try

methods that do not require a password, then methods that mask your password, and finally attempt

to send your password in the clear to authenticate to the server.

  interval

number

  Tells Fetchmail to only poll this server every

number

of times that

it checks for email on all configured servers. This option might be used with email servers where

you rarely receive messages.

  port

port number

  Overrides the default port number for a specified protocol.

  proto

protocol

  Tells Fetchmail to use a specific protocol, such as

pop3

or

imap

, to check

for messages on this server.

  timeout

seconds

  Configures Fetchmail to give up after a certain interval of server inac 

tivity. If this value is not set, a default of

300

seconds is assumed.

15.4.1.3. User Options

User options may be placed on their own lines beneath a server option or on the same line as the server

option. In either case, the user options follow the

user

option (defined below).

  fetchall

  Orders Fetchmail to download all messages in the queue, including messages that

have already been viewed. By default, Fetchmail only pulls down new messages.

  fetchlimit

number

  Only allows a certain number of messages to be retrieved before

stopping.

  flush

  Tells Fetchmail to delete all previously viewed messages in the queue before retrieving

new messages.