The Fetchmail Project

I am running Gentoo Linux and upgraded fetchmail last
weekend to version 6.2.3. It passes mail off to
procmail version 3.22-r6.

Nothing has changed in my mail configuration. It polls
a pop3 server at 30 second intervals via a cable modem
and downloads everything locally. Here is my .fetchmailrc

# Configuration created Fri May 24 08:02:19 2002 by
fetchmailconf
set postmaster "jcunningham"
set bouncemail
set no spambounce
set properties ""
poll <my.isp> with proto POP3
user 'jeffrey' there with password '<password>'
is 'jeffrey' here
options fetchall stripcr warnings 3600 mda
'/usr/bin/procmail -f -'

For years this has worked just fine. After the upgrade
a particular email (spam) "stuck" on the pop3 server
and would not be deleted after it was read by
fetchmail. So, every polling interval fetchmail treats
it like a new email, causing it to multiply downstream.
24x120 copies of this email a day.

The problem email has an invalid header - it has no
date and no message ID. Before the upgrade, fetchmail
could handle these - I've seen them before. Now, it
appears, it cannot.

Here is the full header of one of these emails (from
downstream, after it has been tagged by bogofilter as
spam):

Return-Path: <adlung7@hotmail.com>
Delivered-To:
cunningham.net%jeffrey@cunningham.net Received: from
mail.cunningham.net.criticalpath.net
[209.231.81.83] by localhost
with POP3 (fetchmail-6.2.3) for jeffrey@localhost
(single-drop);
Wed, 30 Jul 2003 07:58:43 -0700 (PDT) Received:
(cpmta 10901 invoked
from network); 21 Jul 2003 22:51:37 -0700
Received: from
81.248.149.186 (HELO
ALagny-110-1-7-186.w81-248.abo.wanadoo.fr) by
smtp.c000.snv.cp.net (209.228.33.183) with SMTP;
21 Jul 2003
22:51:37 -0700 X-Received: 22 Jul 2003 05:51:37
GMT From: "Rupert"
<adlung7@hotmail.com>
To: <jeffrey@cunningham.net>
Subject: thank-you
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="windows-1251"
X-Bogosity: Yes, tests=bogofilter,
spamicity=0.999647,
version=0.13.7.2

If I move this email (via webmail interface) to some
other directory on my pop3 server than the inbox, it
fixes the problem - normal email and normal spam is
handled as before. If I move it back to the inbox it
breaks it again. I have about four of these types of
"fetchmail-breaker" emails in a problem directory that
I test with.

Here is a section of the log showing one repetition:

Jul 31 08:24:23 [fetchmail] 1 message for jeffrey at
getmail.cunningham.net (3321 octets).
Jul 31 08:24:23 [fetchmail] reading message
jeffrey@mail.cunningham.net.criticalpath.net:1 of 1
(3321 octets)
Jul 31 08:24:23 [fetchmail] incorrect header line found
while scanning headers
Jul 31 08:24:23 [fetchmail] message delimiter found
while scanning headers
Jul 31 08:24:23 [bogofilter] X-Bogosity: Yes,
spamicity=0.999747, version=0.13.7.2, register-s, 40
words, 1 messages
Jul 31 08:24:23 [fetchmail] flushed
Jul 31 08:24:23 [fetchmail] client/server protocol
error while fetching from getmail.cunningham.net
Jul 31 08:24:23 [fetchmail] Query status=4 (PROTOCOL)
Jul 31 08:24:23 [fetchmail] sleeping at Thu, 31 Jul
2003 08:24:23 -0700 (PDT)
Jul 31 08:25:23 [fetchmail] awakened at Thu, 31 Jul
2003 08:25:23 -0700 (PDT)
Jul 31 08:25:27 [fetchmail] 1 message for jeffrey at
getmail.cunningham.net (3321 octets).
Jul 31 08:25:27 [fetchmail] reading message
jeffrey@mail.cunningham.net.criticalpath.net:1 of 1
(3321 octets)
Jul 31 08:25:27 [fetchmail] incorrect header line found
while scanning headers
Jul 31 08:25:27 [fetchmail] message delimiter found
while scanning headers
Jul 31 08:25:27 [bogofilter] X-Bogosity: Yes,
spamicity=0.999778, version=0.13.7.2, register-s, 40
words, 1 messages
Jul 31 08:25:27 [fetchmail] flushed

In case you think it is relevant, here is my
.procmailrc file:

VERBOSE=on
SHELL=/bin/sh
LINEBUF=4096
PATH=$HOME/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
MAILDIR=${HOME}/Mail
LOCKEXT=.lock
DEFAULT=${MAILDIR}/inbox
LOGFILE=${HOME}/procmail.log
ADMINFOLDER=${MAILDIR}/admin
BULKFOLDER=${MAILDIR}/bulk
FORMAIL=/usr/bin/formail
SENDMAIL=/usr/sbin/sendmail
## First run stuff through bogofilter
:0fw
| bogofilter -u -e -p -l
## If bogofilter fails, throw the mail back into
the pipe ## e=only
execute if preceeding recipe executed and failed
:0e
{ EXITCODE=75 HOST }
## if its spam, put it in the caught folder
:0:.caught-bogo
* ^X-Bogosity: Yes
| rcvstore +spam/caught-bogo
## If it passed, try it through spamassassin.
:0 fw
* < 256000
| /usr/bin/spamassassin
## Mails with a score of 15 or higher are almost
certainly spam
(with 0.05% ## false positives according to
rules/STATISTICS.txt).
Let's put them in a ## different mbox. (This one
is optional.)
:0:.caught-sa
* ^X-Spam-Level: \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
| rcvstore +spam/caught-sa
## All mail tagged as spam (eg. with a score
higher than the set
threshold) ## is moved to "probably-spam".
:0:.caught-sa-maybe
* ^X-Spam-Status: Yes
| rcvstore +spam/caught-sa-maybe
###
## Accept all the rest to default mailbox
:0:.inbox
| rcvstore +inbox

If there is anything else I can give you to help solve
this, let me know.

-Jeff Cunningham
jeffrey@cunningham.net