Fetchmail

<h2 id="design">Design</h2>
<p>By design, Fetchmail's only means of delivering messages is by submitting them to the local MTA/<a href="/facts/Message_transfer_agent/9SJG5sbb">Message transfer agent</a> or invoking a <a href="/facts/Mail_delivery_agent/Syntl05o">mail delivery agent</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> like <a href="/facts/Procmail/88LdCU1q">procmail</a>, <a href="/facts/Maildrop/cMxHMmgX">maildrop</a>, or <a href="/facts/Sendmail/NBXSd1JA">sendmail</a>; delivering directly to mail folders such as <a href="/facts/Maildir/styR8olS">maildir</a> is not supported.
</p><p>It is a <a href="/facts/C_(programming_language)/Ky2No763">C program</a> evolved by gradual mutation from an ancestor already written in C.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a>
</p><p><a href="/facts/Dan_Bernstein/KQLuMRTx">Dan Bernstein</a>, <a href="/facts/Getmail/TfCNze09">getmail</a> creator Charles Cazabon and <a href="/facts/FreeBSD/RKsFTm7F">FreeBSD</a> developer Terry Lambert, have criticized Fetchmail's design,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> its number of security holes,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> and that it was prematurely put into "maintenance mode". In 2004, a new team of maintainers took over Fetchmail development,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> and laid out development plans that broke with design decisions that Eric Raymond had made in earlier versions.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a>
</p>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul>
<li>Free and open-source software portal</li></ul>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Mail_retrieval_agent/9B6bt3HB">Mail retrieval agent</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Getmail/TfCNze09">getmail</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Fdm_(software)/5oVse8PF">fdm</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/OfflineIMAP/mcvLB37p">OfflineIMAP</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="http://www.fetchmail.info/">Official website</a></li>
<li><a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/fetchmail/">Fetchmail at SourceForge</a></li></ul>
<p><a href="https://sourceforge.net/directory/os:windows/?q=fetchmail">https://sourceforge.net/directory/os:windows/?q=fetchmail</a>
</p>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Raymond, Eric. "Eric S. Raymond's former Design Notes On Fetchmail". Retrieved 2007-04-03. <a href="http://www.fetchmail.info/esrs-design-notes.html" target="_blank">http://www.fetchmail.info/esrs-design-notes.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"...or into an MDA program...", Section G1, The Fetchmail FAQ. <a href="http://www.fetchmail.info/fetchmail-FAQ.html" target="_blank">http://www.fetchmail.info/fetchmail-FAQ.html</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>Richardson, Anthony (2004). "An Online Unix System Programming Course For Computer Engineering Students". 2004 Annual Conference Proceedings. ASEE Conferences: 9.197.1–9.197.10. doi:10.18260/1-2--13866. <a href="https://doi.org/10.18260%2F1-2--13866" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.18260%2F1-2--13866</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>Lambert, Terry. "UUCP must stay; fetchmail sucks (was list 'o things)". Retrieved 2007-04-05. <a href="http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=585008+0+archive/2001/freebsd-arch/20010218.freebsd-arch" target="_blank">http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=585008+0+archive/2001/freebsd-arch/20010218.freebsd-arch</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:5"><p>Cazabon, Charles. "getmail frequently asked questions". Retrieved 2007-04-05. <a href="http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/faq.html#faq-about-why" target="_blank">http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/faq.html#faq-about-why</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:6"><p>"Developer History". Retrieved 2007-04-05. <a href="http://www.fetchmail.info/" target="_blank">http://www.fetchmail.info/</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:7"><p>"Design Notes On Fetchmail". Retrieved 2007-04-05. <a href="http://www.fetchmail.info/design-notes.html" target="_blank">http://www.fetchmail.info/design-notes.html</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Fetchmail open-in-new

Fetchmail