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getmail documentation
This is the documentation for getmail version 4. Version 4 includes
numerous changes from version 3.x; if you are using getmail version 3,
please refer to the documentation included with that version of the
software.
getmail is Copyright 1998-2004 Charles Cazabon. <getmail @
discworld.dyndns.org>
getmail is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2
(only). If you wish to obtain a license to distribute getmail under
other terms, please contact me directly.
Table of Contents
* getmail documentation
*
+ getmail documentation
+
o Features
o Differences from previous versions
o Requirements
o Obtaining getmail
o Installing getmail
o
# For the impatient
# Full installation instructions
# Installing from the RPM
# Installing directly from the source
#
@ Installing in the default location
@ Installing under an alternate prefix directory
@ Installing parts of the package to alternate
directories
# Installing the getmailcore package in a
non-standard location
# Building a binary package from the source
o getmail mailing lists
o
# getmail-users' mailing list
#
@ How to subscribe
@ How to unsubscribe
@ How to post
@ Archives of the getmail-users' mailing list
# Announcements List
#
@ How to subscribe
@ How to unsubscribe
@ How to post
@ Archives of the getmail announcements mailing
list
* getmail configuration
*
+ Configuring getmail
+
o Creating a getmail rc file
+ Running getmail
+
o Commandline options
o Using getmail as an MDA
* getmail troubleshooting
*
+ Troubleshooting problems
+
o Error messages
o Warning messages
o Unexpected Behaviour
* getmail frequently-asked questions (FAQs)
*
+ Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQs)
+
o About getmail
o Configuring getmail
o How do I ...
o Using getmail with other software
o I think I found this bug in getmail ...
Features
getmail is a mail retriever designed to allow you to get your mail
from one or more mail accounts on various mail servers to your local
machine for reading with a minimum of fuss. getmail is designed to be
secure, flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use. getmail is designed to
replace other mail retrievers such as fetchmail.
getmail version 4 includes the following features:
* simple to install, configure, and use
* retrieve virtually any mail
+ support for accessing mailboxes with the following protocols:
o POP3
o POP3-over-SSL
o IMAP4
o IMAP4-over-SSL
o SDPS (Demon UK's extensions to POP3)
+ support for single-user and domain mailboxes
+ retrieve mail from an unlimited number of mailboxes and
servers
+ can remember which mail it has already retrieved, and can be
set to only download new messages
* support for message filtering, classification, and annotation by
external programs like spam filters and anti-virus programs
* support for delivering messages to different destinations based on
the message recipient
* reliability
+ native safe and reliable delivery support for maildirs and
mboxrd files, in addition to delivery through arbitrary
external message delivery agents (MDAs)
+ does not destroy information by rewriting mail headers
+ does not cause mail loops by doing SMTP injection, and
therefore does not require that you run an MTA (like qmail or
sendmail) on your host
* written in Python, and therefore easy to extend or customize
+ a flexible, extensible architecture so that support for new
mail access protocols, message filtering operations, or
destination types can be easily added
+ cross-platform operation; getmail 4 should work on
Unix/Linux, Macintosh, and other platforms. Windows support
available under the free Cygwin package.
* winner of various software awards, including DaveCentral's "Best
of Linux"
Differences from previous versions
getmail version 4 has been completely rewritten. It is designed to
closely mimic the interface and user experience of getmail version 3,
but the new architecture necessitates some differences you will
notice:
* the getmail rc file (configuration file) format has changed. If
you are upgrading from version 3, you will need to write a new
configuration file based on the contents of your old one. The new
file format resembles the old in many ways. Each account you
retrieve mail from will require a separate rc file, but getmail
can operate with multiple rc files simultaneously if you wish to
retrieve mail from multiple accounts.
* support for protocols other than POP3/SDPS. IMAP support is now
included, and other protocols can be added with relative ease.
* support for SSL-encrypted protocols. The included POP3 and IMAP
retriever classes are complemented by SSL-enabled counterparts.
* messages can be filtered or annotated by external programs like
spam filters and anti-Microsoft-worm programs. Filters can cause
messages to be dropped completely.
* a flexible, extensible architecture. Additional classes for
handling new mail protocols, filter types, or destination
mailstores can be added without needing to modify the main script
at all. Feel free to contact me if you need a custom retriever,
filter, or destination class written, or if you want commercial
support for getmail.
Requirements
getmail version 4 requires Python version 2.3.3 or later. If you have
only an earlier version of Python available, you can install the
latest version without disturbing your current version, or use getmail
version 3, which requires only Python version 1.5.2 or later.
At the time of this writing, the current stable version of Python is
2.3.4. You can download that version from the page at
http://www.python.org/2.3.4/ . Binary packages are available for
RPM-based Linux systems, or building Python from source is typically
as easy as unpacking the source tarball, and running the following
commands:
./configure
make
make install
Since the above was written, Python 2.4 has been released. getmail 4
will work with that version of Python as well.
getmail 4 also requires that servers uniquely identify the messages
they provide (via the UIDL command) to getmail for full functionality.
Certain very old or broken POP3 servers may not be capable of this (I
have had only one report of such problems from among the tens of
thousands of people who have downloaded getmail 4 from my website and
from other archives), or may not implement the UIDL command at all,
and limited support is available for such servers via the
BrokenUIDLPOP3Retriever retriever class.
Obtaining getmail
Download getmail 4 from the official website main page at
http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/ .
Installing getmail
For the impatient
Installing getmail is very easy; just download the tarball
distribution, unpack it, change into the directory it unpacks into,
and run this command:
$ python setup.py install
That's all there is to it. 99.9% of users don't need a special
package/port/etc. If you'd like more details on install options, keep
reading.
Full installation instructions
Once you have downloaded or otherwise obtained getmail, unpack it. On
GNU-ish Unix-like systems, this means:
$ tar xzf getmail-version.tar.gz
On Macintosh systems, use a Zip-type archiver program to unpack the
tarball.
On SystemV-like Unix systems, you may instead need to break this down
into two steps:
$ gunzip getmail-version.tar.gz
$ tar xf getmail-version.tar
Then, change into the extracted getmail directory and start the build
process. The easiest installation method is to use the included
setup.py Python distutils script to build and install getmail
directly. Alternatively, you can build a binary package (i.e., an RPM
or similar managed software package) for your system from the source
package and install the resulting package, but the Python distutils
support for this is spotty at present.
Installing from the RPM
If you downloaded the RPM, you should be able to install it with the
following command:
$ rpm -ihv getmail-version-release.noarch.rpm
Installing directly from the source
To build and install directly from the included source, follow these
steps.
$ cd getmail-version
$ python setup.py build
When that completes in a few seconds, become root and then install the
software. You can install in the default location, or specify an
alternate location to install the software, or specify alternate
directories for only part of the package.
Installing in the default location
To install in the default location, become user root and install with
the following commands:
$ su
enter root password
# python setup.py install
This will, by default, install files into subdirectories under the
directory prefix, which is the directory that your Python installation
was configured to install under (typically /usr/local/ or /usr/, but
other values are sometimes used):
* the scripts getmail, getmail_maildir, and getmail_mbox will be
installed under prefix/bin/
* the Python package getmailcore (which implements all the
protocol-, filter-, and destination-specific code for getmail,
plus various other bits) will be installed under the site-specific
packages directory of your Python library directory. This
directory is prefix/lib/python-python-version/site-packages/.
* The documentation directory getmail-getmail-version will be
installed under prefix/doc/
* The manual pages for the three scripts will be installed under
prefix/man/
You can see a list of the default installation locations by running:
# python setup.py install --show-default-install-dirs
Installing under an alternate prefix directory
You can specify an alternate prefix directory by supplying the
--prefix option to the install command, like this:
# python setup.py install --prefix=path
This will install the various parts of the package in subdirectories
like in the default installation (see the section Installing in the
default location above), but under your specified prefix directory.
These alternate installations allow you to install the software
without root privileges (say, by installing under $HOME/). Note,
however, that the getmailcore package will not be in the default
Python module search path if you do this; see the section Installing
the getmailcore package in a non-standard location if you use this
option.
Installing parts of the package to alternate directories
If you only want to change the directory for some of the components,
use the following options:
* --install-lib=path specifies the directory the getmailcore package
is installed under (i.e., it will be installed as path/getmailcore
). See the section Installing the getmailcore package in a
non-standard location if you use this option.
* --install-scripts=path specifies the directory the three scripts
are installed under (i.e., they will be installed directly in
path/ ).
* --install-data=path specifies the directory the documentation is
installed under (i.e., the HTML and plaintext documentation will
be installed in the directory path/doc/getmail-getmail-version/,
and the man(1) pages will be installed in path/man/man1/.
For example, if your Python installation is located under /usr/
because it was installed as part of your OS, but you would like the
getmail scripts installed into /usr/local/bin/ instead of /usr/bin/,
while still letting the getmailcore package be installed under
/usr/lib/python-python-version/site-packages/, and the documentation
and man pages under /usr/doc/ and /usr/man/ you could use this command
to install:
# python setup.py --install-scripts=/usr/local/bin/
If you also wanted to locate the documentation and man pages under
/usr/local/ but still install the getmailcore package in the default
/usr/lib/python-python-version/site-packages/, you would instead use
this command to install:
# python setup.py --install-scripts=/usr/local/bin/ --install-data=/usr/local/
Installing the getmailcore package in a non-standard location
Note: if you use one of the above methods to install the getmailcore
package into a directory other than the default, the three scripts
(getmail, getmail_maildir, and getmail_mbox) will almost certainly be
unable to locate the required files from the getmailcore package,
because they will not be in a directory in the standard Python module
search path. You will need to do one of the following to make those
files available to the scripts:
* set the environment variable PYTHONPATH to tell Python where to
find the appropriate modules. See the documentation at the
Python.org website for details.
Note that setting PYTHONPATH in $HOME/.profile (or equivalent) is
not sufficient -- for instance, cron runs jobs in a simpler
environment, ignoring $HOME/.profile, and getmail would therefore
fail when run as a user cron job. It is strongly recommended that
you install the Python library files in the site-packages
directory which Python provides for exactly this reason.
* modify the scripts to explicitly tell Python where you've
installed them. Insert a line like this:
sys.path.append('/path/to/installation-directory')
containing the path to the directory you installed the getmailcore
directory in, somewhere below the line which reads
import sys
and before the first line which references getmailcore .
Building a binary package from the source
To build a binary package from the included source, run the following
command from inside the unpacked getmail source.
$ cd getmail-version
$ python setup.py bdist --format=package-format
The useful allowed values for package-format are:
* rpm -- build a .noarch.rpm file which can then be installed with
the rpm package manager.
* pkgtool -- build a package for the Sun Solaris pkgtool package
manager.
* sdux -- build a package for the HP/UX swinstall software
installer.
Ideally, if you use this method, it will result in a "built
distribution" binary package in a subdirectory named dist which can
then be installed using the appropriate system-specific tool. If you
have problems with this process, please do not ask me for assistance;
ask your OS vendor or the comp.lang.python newsgroup. The
install-directory-from-source process above is the only one I can
support, and it should work on all platforms.
You can discuss issues with building binary packages on the getmail
users' mailing list.
getmail mailing lists
getmail-users' mailing list
A mailing list has been set up to discuss getmail. Only subscribers
may post to the list.
The list is available for free getmail support from me and other
users, for discussions of bugs, configuration issues, documentation,
and other technical issues related to getmail.
How to subscribe
To subscribe to the list, send a blank email to <getmail-subscribe @
discworld.dnsalias.org> and follow the instructions in the message you
receive. Read and save the "welcome" message you receive when you
subscribe; it contains valuable instructions about how to use the
list.
How to unsubscribe
To un-subscribe from the list, send a blank email from the same
address you subscribed with to <getmail-unsubscribe @
discworld.dnsalias.org> and follow the instructions in the message you
receive.
How to post
Once you have subscribed to the list, you may post messages to the
list by sending them to <getmail @ discworld.dnsalias.org>. Complete
instructions for using the list are sent to you when you subscribe.
The list allows plaintext message bodies and plaintext attachments. Do
not attempt to send binary files (gzip, etc), HTML, or other types, as
they will be stripped from your message.
Note: please ensure you have read the documentation and Frequently
Asked Questions, and browsed/searched the mailing list archives before
posting a question to the mailing list.
Archives of the getmail-users' mailing list
There are browsable archives of the list at
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=getmail&r=1&w=2 and
http://news.gmane.org/gmane.mail.getmail.user . The GMANE getmail
users' archive is also available via NNTP if you prefer to read it
with a newsreader, rather than a web browser.
Announcements List
If you only want to be notified of new releases of getmail, an
announce-only list has been set up. The list is very low-volume; you
can expect to receive only a small number of messages per month.
All announcements are sent to both lists, so there is no need to
subscribe to the announcements list if you are on the discussion list.
How to subscribe
To subscribe to the list, send a blank email to
<getmail-announce-subscribe @ discworld.dnsalias.org> and follow the
instructions in the message you receive. Read and save the "welcome"
message you receive when you subscribe; it contains valuable
instructions about how to use the list.
How to unsubscribe
To un-subscribe from the list, send a blank email from the same
address you subscribed with to <getmail-announce-unsubscribe @
discworld.dnsalias.org> and follow the instructions in the message you
receive.
How to post
You cannot post messages directly to the announcements list. If you
feel you have an announcement regarding getmail which should be
distributed, send it to me and request that I send it to the
announcements list.
Archives of the getmail announcements mailing list
There is an archive of the announcements list at
http://news.gmane.org/gmane.mail.getmail.announce . The GMANE getmail
announcements archive is also available via NNTP if you prefer to read
it with a newsreader, rather than a web browser.
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