
Summary of Features

     * Retrieve mail from an unlimited number of POP3 mailboxes and
       servers.
     * Support for multidrop or domain mailboxes.
     * Safe and reliable delivery to qmail-style Maildirs and
       mboxrd-format mboxes, as well as program (pipe) delivery.
     * 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.
     * Can remember which mail it has already retrieved, and can be set
       to only download new messages.
     * Written in Python, and therefore easy to extend.
     * Simple to install, configure, and use.
     * Won DaveCentral's "Best of Linux" award on 13 January 2000.
       
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getmail Requirements

     * Python version 1.5.2 or higher.
     * A configuration/data directory. By default, getmail looks for a
       directory named ".getmail" in your home directory. You can specify
       an alternative location with the --getmaildir or -g option.
     * getmail must have write permission to the Maildirs and mbox files
       you are delivering to. This can be done by making the various
       destinations group writable, by only delivering to destinations
       owned by the user getmail is running as, or by running getmail as
       root. When delivering to Maildirs, getmail will attempt to chown
       any files it creates to the owner of the Maildir.
       
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Changes From Version 1.x to Version 2

   This is a list of major changes between version 1.x and version 2 of
   getmail. For a list of incremental changes since the relase of version
   2.0, please see the changelog.
     * Completely rewritten for better modularity, configurability, and
       reliability.
     * Uses version 2.0 of my ConfParser module, which has also been
       completely rewritten. It now provides virtually 100% of the
       functionality of Python's standard ConfigParser module, but
       without any of the limitations. This removes the limitation of
       configuration values not being able to contain "#" characters.
     * Will not deliver the same message to any destination more than
       once, even if it matches recipient addresses multiple times.
     * getmail now attempts to deliver a message immediately after
       retrieving it, instead of retrieving all messages from a given
       POP3 mailbox and delivering in batches.
     * No more "tmpmail.*" files to prevent lost mail in the event of a
       delivery failure. If a delivery fails for any reason, getmail will
       issue an RSET command to the POP3 server and gracefully continue
       with the next configured POP3 account
     * getmail adds a "Received:" header and a "Delivered-To:" header to
       each message it retrieves.
     * Local addresses to search for are now specified with Perl-style
       extended regular expressions. If you don't know regular
       expressions, don't worry -- plain text addresses will mostly work
       fine.
     * Uses Timothy O'Malley's timeoutsocket module, if available, to
       gracefully handle poor ISP connections and unreliable mail
       servers. The timeout value is configurable on a per-mailbox basis.
     * getmail can be configured to log message retrieval and delivery to
       a separate file for system logging purposes.
     * POP3 accounts and delivery destinations can no longer be specified
       on the commandline; they must be placed in a getmailrc file.
     * Commandline options can also be placed in the getmailrc file for
       persistent use. The GETMAILOPTS environment variable is no longer
       used.
     * getmail defaults to using "~/.getmail/" as its configuration and
       data directory, and "~/.getmail/getmailrc" as its configuration
       file. This can be overridden from the commandline. If overridden,
       tilde expansion is performed on these arguments.
     * getmail will now work properly with POP3 servers which do not
       implement the UIDL command, although it will not be able to
       determine which messages it has already retrieved.
     * getmail now properly handles POP3 servers which return additional
       information after a LIST command.
     * All exceptions are now classes, and will therefore continue to
       work with future versions of Python which remove string
       exceptions.
     * Destination Maildir and mbox paths have tilde expansion performed
       on them, for easier configuration.
     * getmailrc file format is simpler and yet more flexible.
       
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getmail Mailing List

   A mailing list has been set up to discuss getmail. Send a blank email
   to <getmail-subscribe @ discworld.dnsalias.org> to subscribe to the
   list.
   Similarly, to unsubscribe, send mail from the same address you
   subscribed with to <getmail-unsubscribe @ discworld.dnsalias.org>.
   Note: you are expected to have read the documentation and Frequently
   Asked Questions before posting a question to the mailing list.
