Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 Reference Manual page 186

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Using preferences in the
downloads it. It then delivers it to port 25 on the local machine, using the local MTA to place the
email in the correct user's spool file. If Procmail is available, it is launched to filter the email and
place it in a mailbox so that it can be read by an MUA.
11.3.3.1. Fetchmail Configuration Options
Although it is possible to pass all necessary options on the command line to check for email on
a remote server when executing Fetchmail, using a
desired the configuration options in the
the command is issued. It is possible to override these at the time Fetchmail is run by
fetchmail
specifying that option on the command line.
A user's
.fetchmailrc
global options — Gives Fetchmail instructions that control the operation of the program or provide
•
settings for every connection that checks for email.
server options — Specifies necessary information about the server being polled, such as the host-
•
name, as well as preferences for specific email servers, such as the port to check or number of
seconds to wait before timing out. These options affect every user using that server.
user options — Contains information, such as username and password, necessary to authenticate
•
and check for email using a specified email server.
Global options appear at the top of the
each of which designate a different email server that Fetchmail should check. User options follow
server options for each user account checking that email server. Like server options, multiple user
options may be specified for use with a particular server as well as to check multiple email accounts
on the same server.
Server options are called into service in the
or , that precedes any of the server information. The
poll skip
this server option when it is run, which checks for email using the specified user options. Any server
options after a
skip
Fetchmail is invoked. The
cause it only checks skipped servers when specifically invoked, and does not affect any currently
working configurations.
A sample
.fetchmailrc
set postmaster "user1"
set bouncemail
poll pop.domain.com proto pop3
user 'user1' there with password 'secret' is user1 here
poll mail.domain2.com
user 'user5' there with password 'secret2' is user1 here
user 'user7' there with password 'secret3' is user1 here
In this example, the global options specify that the user is sent email as a last resort (
option) and all email errors are sent to the postmaster instead of the sender (
action tells Fetchmail that this line contains a global option. Then, two email servers are specified,
set
one set to check using POP3, the other for trying various protocols to find one that works. Two users
are checked using the second server option, but all email found for any user is sent to
spool. This allows multiple mailboxes to be checked on multiple servers, while appearing in a single
MUA inbox. Each user's specific information begins with the
.fetchmailrc
.fetchmailrc
file contains three classes of configuration options:
.fetchmailrc
action, however, are not checked unless this server's hostname is specified when
option is useful when testing configurations in
skip
file looks similar to the following example:
file, Fetchmail checks for email on a remote server and
.fetchmailrc
file and those options are used each time
file, followed by one or more server options,
file by the use of a special option verb,
.fetchmailrc
user
Chapter 11. Email
file is much easier. Place any
action tells Fetchmail to use
poll
.fetchmailrc
bouncemail
action.
be-
postmaster
option). The
's mail
user1