Chapter 15. Email

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  limit

max number bytes

  Allows you to specify that only messages below a particular

size may be retrieved. This option is useful with slow network links, when a large message will take

too long to download.

  password ' password '

  Specifies the password to be used for this user.

  preconnect " command "

  Tells Fetchmail to execute the specified command before retriev 

ing messages for this user.

  postconnect " command "

  Tells Fetchmail to execute the specified command after retriev 

ing messages for this user.

  ssl

  Allows Fetchmail to collect the message via an encrypted SSL connection, if the server

supports this.

  user " username "

  Sets the username used by Fetchmail to retrieve messages. This option

should be listed before any other user options.

15.4.2. Fetchmail Command Options

Most of the Fetchmail options that may be used on the command line, when executing the

fetchmail

command, mirror the

.fetchmailrc

configuration options. This is done so that Fetchmail may be

used with or without a configuration file. Most users will not use these options on the command line,

as it is easier to leave them in the

.fetchmailrc

file to be used whenever Fetchmail is run.

However, there are times when you may want to run the

fetchmail

command with other options for

a particular purpose. As any options specified at the command line override configuration file options,

you can also issue command options to temporarily override a

.fetchmailrc

setting that is causing

an error.

15.4.2.1. Informational or Debugging Options

Certain options used after the

fetchmail

command can provide you with important information.

    configdump

  Displays every possible option based on information from

.fetchmailrc

and

Fetchmail defaults. No email is retrieved for any users when using this option.

   s

  Executes Fetchmail in silent mode, preventing any messages, other than errors, from appear 

ing after the

fetchmail

command.

   v

  Executes Fetchmail in verbose mode, displaying every communication between Fetchmail

and the remote email servers.

   V

  Causes Fetchmail to display detailed version information, list its global options, and show

settings to be used with each user, including the email protocol and authentication method. No

email is retrieved for any users when using this option.

15.4.2.2. Special Options

These options are occasionally useful for overriding defaults often found in the

.fetchmailrc

file.

   a

  Tells Fetchmail to download all messages from the remote email server, whether new or

previously viewed. By default, Fetchmail will only download new messages.

   k

  Causes Fetchmail to leave the messages on the remote email server after downloading them.

This option overrides the default behavior of deleting messages after downloading them.

   l

max number bytes

  Tells Fetchmail to not download any messages over a particular

size and leave them on the remote email server.