fetchmail-users — User questions and discussion

[Fetchmail-users] The 6.6.3 release of fetchmail is available (fixes compilation with OpenSSL 4.0.0-beta1)

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

The 6.6.3 release of fetchmail is now available at the usual locations,
including <https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/fetchmail/branch_6.6/>.

The source archive is available at:
<https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/fetchmail/branch_6.6/fetchmail-6.6.3.tar.xz/download>

The detached GnuPG signature is available at:
<https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/fetchmail/branch_6.6/fetchmail-6.6.3.tar.xz.asc/download>

The SHA256 hashes for the tarballs are:
SHA2-256(fetchmail-6.6.3.tar.xz)= 246e5fc0e35c93dde1a3fb66778e3ab700e16809232e4959c508b91214374bb2


Here are the release notes (and no, there is no April prank implied):

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fetchmail-6.6.3 (released 2026-04-01, 32388 LoC):

## COMPATIBILITY:
* fetchmail can now be built with OpenSSL 4.0.0 (tested as of -beta1).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: [Fetchmail-users] Fetchmail not working and putting errors in maillog

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Am 06.01.26 um 03:17 schrieb Al:
> Hi,
>
> I hope that I someone can help me. I am trying to use fetchmail with 
> fetchmail.pl. I am running as the vmail user and this is the errors I 
> see in my mail log:
>
> fetchmail-all[19497]: fetch me...@ya... for me...@my...
> fetchmail[19498]: 9955 messages for me...@ya... at pop.mail.yahoo.com 
> (1982615899 octets).
> fetchmail[19498]: reading message 
> me...@ya...@any-jpop.mail.gm0.yahoodns.net:1 of 9955 (34082 octets) 
> (log message incomplete)
> fetchmail[19498]: Cannot switch effective user id to 2001: Operation 
> not permitted
> fetchmail[19498]: MDA error while fetching from 
> jea...@ya...@pop.mail.yahoo.com
> fetchmail[19498]: Query status=6 (IOERR)
>
> I have tried to find a solution, but I am unable to solve this error. 
> Dovecot does deliver email that are received from postfix after I 
> added virtualmail to the dovecot group.


Your MDA cannot switch to user ID 2001 what- or whoever that is. No 
configuration shown, so we can't help you yet.


>
> Please let me know if other information is needed.

Yes, please... but that's a FAQ with a FGA... 
<https://www.fetchmail.info/fetchmail-FAQ.html#G3>

[Fetchmail-users] Fetchmail not working and putting errors in maillog

[Al <al...@da...>]

Hi,

I hope that I someone can help me. I am trying to use fetchmail with 
fetchmail.pl. I am running as the vmail user and this is the errors I 
see in my mail log:

fetchmail-all[19497]: fetch me...@ya... for me...@my...
fetchmail[19498]: 9955 messages for me...@ya... at pop.mail.yahoo.com 
(1982615899 octets).
fetchmail[19498]: reading message 
me...@ya...@any-jpop.mail.gm0.yahoodns.net:1 of 9955 (34082 octets) 
(log message incomplete)
fetchmail[19498]: Cannot switch effective user id to 2001: Operation not 
permitted
fetchmail[19498]: MDA error while fetching from 
jea...@ya...@pop.mail.yahoo.com
fetchmail[19498]: Query status=6 (IOERR)

I have tried to find a solution, but I am unable to solve this error. 
Dovecot does deliver email that are received from postfix after I added 
virtualmail to the dovecot group.

Please let me know if other information is needed.

Kind Regards,
Al

Re: [Fetchmail-users] Problems with downloads from hotmail

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Am 01.01.26 um 16:22 schrieb Ian Neal:
> Hi,
>
> Attaching gzip'd so it the file doesn't get mangled in transit.
>
Thanks.

It's not the BOM that is the issue, but that the header ends prematurely 
after the From: line, unless that's an artifact introduced by redacting 
the header. Between the From and next Received headers, there are two 0a 
characters (line feed, see offset/line 260, below), meaning a blank 
line, technically the header ends there. I don't see either of those two 
should have been created by fetchmail. Fetchmail itself does not add 
byte order marks.

Does this happen for @updates.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk only or all 
messages?

Can I see a fetchmail -vv log trying to obtain one of these failing 
messages, too?


00000230: 4d54 290a 4672 6f6d 3a20 7a7a 7a7a 7a40  MT).From: zzzzz@
00000240: 7570 6461 7465 732e 7765 7374 6d69 646c updates.westmidl
00000250: 616e 6473 7261 696c 7761 792e 636f 2e75 andsrailway.co.u
00000260: 6b0a 0aef bbbf 5265 6365 6976 6564 3a20 k.....Received:
00000270: 6672 6f6d 2044 5532 5031 3932 4d42 3231  from DU2P192MB21
00000280: 3639 2e45 5552 5031 3932 2e50 524f 442e 69.EURP192.PROD.



> Regards,
>
> Ian
>
> On 01/01/2026 1:10 pm, Matthias Andree wrote:
>> Hi Ian,
>>
>> where exactly is the BOM? Can you show an example? Feel free to 
>> replace any printable character by x to mask private information.
>>
>> POP3 and IMAP headers clearly are not UTF-8 or UTF-16 according to 
>> standards, so a provider's inserting 0xFF or 0xFE characters is a 
>> blatant violation of the protocol and I guess not just fetchmail will 
>> have trouble with that.
>>
>>
>> Am 31. Dezember 2025 18:09:15 UTC schrieb Ian Neal 
>> <ian...@gm...>:
>>
>>     Hi, I currently use fetchmail 7.0.0-alpha13 running on Fedora 42
>>     to pull emails down from hotmail with OAuth2 and delivery to my
>>     local dovecot email server. Up until the last few weeks I've not
>>     had any issues with downloading emails, but now I've started
>>     having an issue where an <feff> character gets inserted just
>>     before the start of the main header (so after the local part
>>     inserted by fetchmail). My fetchmailrc file is along the lines
>>     of: poll pop-mail.outlook.com proto POP3 port 995 auth
>>     oauthbearer username "use...@ho..." passwordfile
>>     "fetchmail-token" is "user" here nokeep fetchall sslmode wrapped
>>     sslcertck Anyone got any ideas/suggestions? Thanks, Ian
>>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>     Fetchmail-users mailing list
>>     Fet...@li...
>>     https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fetchmail-users
>>
>

-- 
Matthias Andree

Re: [Fetchmail-users] Problems with downloads from hotmail

[Ian N. <ian...@gm...>]

Hi,

Attaching gzip'd so it the file doesn't get mangled in transit.

Regards,

Ian

On 01/01/2026 1:10 pm, Matthias Andree wrote:
> Hi Ian,
>
> where exactly is the BOM? Can you show an example? Feel free to 
> replace any printable character by x to mask private information.
>
> POP3 and IMAP headers clearly are not UTF-8 or UTF-16 according to 
> standards, so a provider's inserting 0xFF or 0xFE characters is a 
> blatant violation of the protocol and I guess not just fetchmail will 
> have trouble with that.
>
>
> Am 31. Dezember 2025 18:09:15 UTC schrieb Ian Neal 
> <ian...@gm...>:
>
>     Hi, I currently use fetchmail 7.0.0-alpha13 running on Fedora 42
>     to pull emails down from hotmail with OAuth2 and delivery to my
>     local dovecot email server. Up until the last few weeks I've not
>     had any issues with downloading emails, but now I've started
>     having an issue where an <feff> character gets inserted just
>     before the start of the main header (so after the local part
>     inserted by fetchmail). My fetchmailrc file is along the lines of:
>     poll pop-mail.outlook.com proto POP3 port 995 auth oauthbearer
>     username "use...@ho..." passwordfile "fetchmail-token" is
>     "user" here nokeep fetchall sslmode wrapped sslcertck Anyone got
>     any ideas/suggestions? Thanks, Ian
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     Fetchmail-users mailing list Fet...@li...
>     https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fetchmail-users
>

Re: [Fetchmail-users] Problems with downloads from hotmail

[Carlos E. R. <rob...@te...>]

On 2026-01-01 15:00, Ian Neal wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've attached a trimmed down redacted version of one such email. 
> Hopefully you can see it is at the top of the original message with the 
> fetchmail rewrite above it.
> 

I think you have to attach as binary (for instance, as a gzipped file). If you send it as text, it can be interpreted in transit.


00000000 52 65 74 75 │ 72 6E 2D 50 │ 61 74 68 3A │ 20 3C 7A 7A │ 7A 7A 7A 40 │ 75 70 64 61 │ 74 65 73 2E  Return-Path: <zzzzz@updates.
0000001C 77 65 73 74 │ 6D 69 64 6C │ 61 6E 64 73 │ 72 61 69 6C │ 77 61 79 2E │ 63 6F 2E 75 │ 6B 3E 0A 58  westmidlandsrailway.co.uk>.X
00000038 2D 4F 72 69 │ 67 69 6E 61 │ 6C 2D 54 6F │ 3A 20 75 73 │ 65 72 40 6C │ 6F 63 61 6C │ 68 6F 73 74  -Original-To: user@localhost
00000054 0A 44 65 6C │ 69 76 65 72 │ 65 64 2D 54 │ 6F 3A 20 75 │ 73 65 72 40 │ 6C 6F 63 61 │ 6C 68 6F 73  .Delivered-To: user@localhos
00000070 74 0A 52 65 │ 63 65 69 76 │ 65 64 3A 20 │ 66 72 6F 6D │ 20 78 78 78 │ 2E 79 79 79 │ 2E 6C 6F 63  t.Received: from xxx.yyy.loc
0000008C 61 6C 20 28 │ 6C 6F 63 61 │ 6C 68 6F 73 │ 74 20 5B 31 │ 32 37 2E 30 │ 2E 30 2E 31 │ 5D 29 0A 09  al (localhost [127.0.0.1])..
000000A8 62 79 20 78 │ 78 78 2E 79 │ 79 79 2E 63 │ 6F 2E 75 6B │ 20 28 50 6F │ 73 74 66 69 │ 78 29 20 77  by xxx.yyy.co.uk (Postfix) w
000000C4 69 74 68 20 │ 45 53 4D 54 │ 50 20 69 64 │ 20 35 46 34 │ 33 31 31 33 │ 30 43 42 44 │ 0A 09 66 6F  ith ESMTP id 5F431130CBD..fo
000000E0 72 20 3C 75 │ 73 65 72 40 │ 6C 6F 63 61 │ 6C 68 6F 73 │ 74 3E 3B 20 │ 54 68 75 2C │ 20 30 31 20  r <user@localhost>; Thu, 01
000000FC 4A 61 6E 20 │ 32 30 32 36 │ 20 31 31 3A │ 31 31 3A 30 │ 32 20 2B 30 │ 30 30 30 20 │ 28 47 4D 54  Jan 2026 11:11:02 +0000 (GMT
00000118 29 0A 52 65 │ 63 65 69 76 │ 65 64 3A 20 │ 66 72 6F 6D │ 20 6F 6F 63 │ 2D 67 32 2E │ 74 6D 2D 34  ).Received: from ooc-g2.tm-4
00000134 2E 6F 66 66 │ 69 63 65 2E │ 63 6F 6D 20 │ 5B 34 30 2E │ 39 39 2E 31 │ 35 31 2E 31 │ 36 32 5D 0A  .office.com [40.99.151.162].
00000150 09 62 79 20 │ 78 78 78 2E │ 79 79 79 2E │ 6C 6F 63 61 │ 6C 20 77 69 │ 74 68 20 50 │ 4F 50 33 20  .by xxx.yyy.local with POP3
0000016C 28 66 65 74 │ 63 68 6D 61 │ 69 6C 2D 37 │ 2E 30 2E 30 │ 2D 61 6C 70 │ 68 61 31 33 │ 29 0A 09 66  (fetchmail-7.0.0-alpha13)..f
00000188 6F 72 20 3C │ 75 73 65 72 │ 40 6C 6F 63 │ 61 6C 68 6F │ 73 74 3E 20 │ 28 73 69 6E │ 67 6C 65 2D  or <user@localhost> (single-
000001A4 64 72 6F 70 │ 29 3B 20 54 │ 68 75 2C 20 │ 30 31 20 4A │ 61 6E 20 32 │ 30 32 36 20 │ 31 31 3A 31  drop); Thu, 01 Jan 2026 11:1
000001C0 31 3A 30 32 │ 20 2B 30 30 │ 30 30 20 28 │ 47 4D 54 29 │ 0A 4D 65 73 │ 73 61 67 65 │ 2D 49 64 3A  1:02 +0000 (GMT).Message-Id:
000001DC 20 3C 32 30 │ 32 36 30 31 │ 30 31 31 31 │ 31 31 30 32 │ 2E 35 46 34 │ 33 31 31 33 │ 30 43 42 44   <20260101111102.5F431130CBD
000001F8 40 78 78 78 │ 2E 79 79 79 │ 2E 63 6F 2E │ 75 6B 3E 0A │ 44 61 74 65 │ 3A 20 54 68 │ 75 2C 20 30  @xxx.yyy.co.uk>.Date: Thu, 0
00000214 31 20 4A 61 │ 6E 20 32 30 │ 32 36 20 31 │ 31 3A 31 31 │ 3A 30 32 20 │ 2B 30 30 30 │ 30 20 28 47  1 Jan 2026 11:11:02 +0000 (G



-- 
Cheers / Saludos,

		Carlos E. R.
		(from 15.6 x86_64 at Telcontar)

Re: [Fetchmail-users] Problems with downloads from hotmail

[Ian N. <ian...@gm...>]

Hi,

I've attached a trimmed down redacted version of one such email. 
Hopefully you can see it is at the top of the original message with the 
fetchmail rewrite above it.

Regards,

Ian

On 01/01/2026 1:10 pm, Matthias Andree wrote:
> Hi Ian,
>
> where exactly is the BOM? Can you show an example? Feel free to 
> replace any printable character by x to mask private information.
>
> POP3 and IMAP headers clearly are not UTF-8 or UTF-16 according to 
> standards, so a provider's inserting 0xFF or 0xFE characters is a 
> blatant violation of the protocol and I guess not just fetchmail will 
> have trouble with that.
>
>
> Am 31. Dezember 2025 18:09:15 UTC schrieb Ian Neal 
> <ian...@gm...>:
>
>     Hi, I currently use fetchmail 7.0.0-alpha13 running on Fedora 42
>     to pull emails down from hotmail with OAuth2 and delivery to my
>     local dovecot email server. Up until the last few weeks I've not
>     had any issues with downloading emails, but now I've started
>     having an issue where an <feff> character gets inserted just
>     before the start of the main header (so after the local part
>     inserted by fetchmail). My fetchmailrc file is along the lines of:
>     poll pop-mail.outlook.com proto POP3 port 995 auth oauthbearer
>     username "use...@ho..." passwordfile "fetchmail-token" is
>     "user" here nokeep fetchall sslmode wrapped sslcertck Anyone got
>     any ideas/suggestions? Thanks, Ian
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     Fetchmail-users mailing list Fet...@li...
>     https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fetchmail-users
>

Re: [Fetchmail-users] Problems with downloads from hotmail

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Hi Ian, 

where exactly is the BOM? Can you show an example? Feel free to replace any printable character by x to mask private information. 

POP3 and IMAP headers clearly are not UTF-8 or UTF-16 according to standards, so a provider's inserting 0xFF or 0xFE characters is a blatant violation of the protocol and I guess not just fetchmail will have trouble with that.

Am 31. Dezember 2025 18:09:15 UTC schrieb Ian Neal <ian...@gm...>:
>Hi,
>
>I currently use fetchmail 7.0.0-alpha13 running on Fedora 42 to pull emails down from hotmail with OAuth2 and delivery to my local dovecot email server.
>
>Up until the last few weeks I've not had any issues with downloading emails, but now I've started having an issue where an <feff> character gets inserted just before the start of the main header (so after the local part inserted by fetchmail).
>
>My fetchmailrc file is along the lines of:
>poll pop-mail.outlook.com proto POP3 port 995 auth oauthbearer username "use...@ho..." passwordfile "fetchmail-token" is "user" here nokeep fetchall sslmode wrapped sslcertck
>
>Anyone got any ideas/suggestions?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Ian
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Fetchmail-users mailing list
>Fet...@li...
>https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fetchmail-users

Re: [Fetchmail-users] Problems with downloads from hotmail

[Andrew C A. <fet...@ai...>]

On Wed, 31 Dec 2025, Ian Neal wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I currently use fetchmail 7.0.0-alpha13 running on Fedora 42 to pull emails down from
> hotmail with OAuth2 and delivery to my local dovecot email server.

(I haven't been keeping up with fetchmail 7 as I believed that
  current development was on version 6 and frustration wth GMail
  made it likely that OAuth2 support might not continue.
   For fetchmail 6 I use Matthew Ogilvie's OAuth2 patches:
  https://sourceforge.net/u/mmogilvi/fetchmail/ci/master/tree/ )

> Up until the last few weeks I've not had any issues with downloading emails, but now
> I've started having an issue where an <feff> character gets inserted just before the
> start of the main header (so after the local part inserted by fetchmail).
>
> My fetchmailrc file is along the lines of:
> poll pop-mail.outlook.com proto POP3 port 995 auth oauthbearer username
> "use...@ho..." passwordfile "fetchmail-token" is "user" here nokeep fetchall
> sslmode wrapped sslcertck
>
> Anyone got any ideas/suggestions?

Apologies if this is not new. <feff> is an invisible UTF16 character, 
mostly used to indicate big- or litle-endian data.
I'm not actually sure what an application is supposed to do with it when
coverting from UTF16 to UTF8 (which I *assume* your dovecot is using).

I would start by finding out whether Hotmail is delivering email as UTF16
(whether deliberately or just by not converting what it is given).

Sorry I cannot be more help.

-- 
Andrew C. Aitchison                      Kendal, UK
                    an...@ai...

[Fetchmail-users] Problems with downloads from hotmail

[Ian N. <ian...@gm...>]

Hi,

I currently use fetchmail 7.0.0-alpha13 running on Fedora 42 to pull 
emails down from hotmail with OAuth2 and delivery to my local dovecot 
email server.

Up until the last few weeks I've not had any issues with downloading 
emails, but now I've started having an issue where an <feff> character 
gets inserted just before the start of the main header (so after the 
local part inserted by fetchmail).

My fetchmailrc file is along the lines of:
poll pop-mail.outlook.com proto POP3 port 995 auth oauthbearer username 
"use...@ho..." passwordfile "fetchmail-token" is "user" here 
nokeep fetchall sslmode wrapped sslcertck

Anyone got any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks,

Ian

[Fetchmail-users] The 6.6.2 release of fetchmail is available (fixes compilation without TLS/SSL)

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

The 6.6.2 release of fetchmail is now available at the usual locations,
including <https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/fetchmail/branch_6.6/>.

The source archive is available at:
<https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/fetchmail/branch_6.6/fetchmail-6.6.2.tar.xz/download>
<https://gitlab.com/-/project/188557/uploads/ab974ed004f98526e82ba90bbcb791b4/fetchmail-6.6.2.tar.xz>

The detached GnuPG signature is available at:
<https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/fetchmail/branch_6.6/fetchmail-6.6.2.tar.xz.asc/download>
<https://gitlab.com/-/project/188557/uploads/1bf347357294eb10e05f903d50b8dc35/fetchmail-6.6.2.tar.xz.asc>

The SHA256 hashes for the tarballs are:
SHA2-256(fetchmail-6.6.2.tar.xz)= a5109295ec3319e0e45edd009d2d977042a8326ab52c6a817a82fa987103e4f3


Here are the release notes:
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fetchmail-6.6.2 (released 2025-12-09, 32386 LoC):

## BUGFIX:
* fetchmail 6.6.0 and 6.6.1 could not be configured without SSL, it would break
  compiling sink.c.  Fix compilation.  Report by Toralf Förster, analysis and
  different patch suggested by Holger Hoffstätte, fixes #86.
  https://bugs.gentoo.org/967258 and
  https://gitlab.com/fetchmail/fetchmail/-/issues/86

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Re: [Fetchmail-users] poll server failover with multiple DNS entries

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Am 19.11.25 um 21:24 schrieb Matthias Andree via Fetchmail-users:
> Am 19.11.25 um 14:32 schrieb BASSAGET Cédric:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm trying to poll a pop3 server resolving on different IP addresses :
>> # dig pop.dom.tld +short
>> 1.2.3.4
>> 1.2.3.5
>>
>> when running fetchmail, it tries to reach one of the two servers, and at
>> the end of the (-t) timeout, fetchmail exits without trying to poll the
>> other server.
>
> Salut Cédric,
>
> Uh. That would be a logic bug. I won't have time immediately, so I'd 
> better file an issue in Gitlab so I don't forget.
> -> https://gitlab.com/fetchmail/fetchmail/-/issues/85 


This cannot be fixed without rewriting several functions and changing 
their meaning and would not be exactly compatible, and bears risks to 
introduce new bugs.
This is therefore unsuitable for a patch-level fix in 6.6.X and needs to 
be part of a major revision, so will only appear in 7.0 later. The Issue 
on Gitlab (URL in previous message, quoted above) has been moved to the 
7.0.0 milestone.

Re: [Fetchmail-users] Local delivery - smtp or sendmail

[Hans C. <fo...@gm...>]

On Wed, 19 Nov 2025, Matthias Andree via Fetchmail-users wrote:

> Am 11.11.25 um 21:24 schrieb Hans Carlson via Fetchmail-users:
>>
>>  Sooo... if I don't actually want any restrictions on fetchmail, then is
>>  there any reason NOT to use sendmail for delivery instead of SMTP?
>
> The concerns are
>
> - you're breaking up the tight coupling between the SMTP server (Postfix) and 
> the client (fetchmail), so...
>
> - that you won't notice from fetchmail's end if the Postfix service goes down 
> (which it doesn't ever do for me, Postfix is one of the nicer things in 
> software) because the sendmail command should always be able to enqueue the 
> message, even after "postfix stop", but they won't get delivered

Thanks for the clarification.  In that case, I'll setup postfix to listen 
on port 25 for fetchmail and port 587 for alpine.  That way I should be 
able to configure different restrictions based on the port.

Re: [Fetchmail-users] Local delivery - smtp or sendmail

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Am 11.11.25 um 21:24 schrieb Hans Carlson via Fetchmail-users:
> On Tue, 11 Nov 2025, Matthias Andree via Fetchmail-users wrote:
>
>> Am 09.11.25 um 01:50 schrieb Hans Carlson via Fetchmail-users:
>>>
>>>  I'm trying to configure smtpd_sender_restrictions in postfix, 
>>> mainly so
>>>  I'll get an immediate failure if I've added a new email address that
>>>  hasn't been configured in postfix.
>>
>> Those are only available through SMTP, not through most 
>> /usr/{lib,sbin}/sendmail wrappers (certainly not Postfix's).
>
> Right, the restrictions I was planning to configure would only apply 
> to the smtp connections from alpine.  I don't think I want any 
> restrictions on the connections from fetchmail.  fetchmail should 
> process all the mail it gets and deliver it to the local user.
>
> For the smtp connections from alpine on the other hand I want to add a 
> simply table with a list of the email addresses that are allowed to 
> send email.  If in the future I add a new email address, then I want 
> the alpine SMTP connection to my local postfix SMTP server to give me 
> an immediate rejection so I know I need to go configure authentication 
> for the new email address. Without that, the postfix SMTP client 
> connection to the isp relay will eventually fail with an auth error, 
> but I won't notice it for some time because that's all done in the 
> background.
>
> Sooo... if I don't actually want any restrictions on fetchmail, then 
> is there any reason NOT to use sendmail for delivery instead of SMTP?


The concerns are

- you're breaking up the tight coupling between the SMTP server 
(Postfix) and the client (fetchmail), so...

- that you won't notice from fetchmail's end if the Postfix service goes 
down (which it doesn't ever do for me, Postfix is one of the nicer 
things in software) because the sendmail command should always be able 
to enqueue the message, even after "postfix stop", but they won't get 
delivered

[snip]


HTH

Matthias

Re: [Fetchmail-users] poll server failover with multiple DNS entries

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Am 19.11.25 um 14:32 schrieb BASSAGET Cédric:
> Hello,
>
> I'm trying to poll a pop3 server resolving on different IP addresses :
> # dig pop.dom.tld +short
> 1.2.3.4
> 1.2.3.5
>
> when running fetchmail, it tries to reach one of the two servers, and at
> the end of the (-t) timeout, fetchmail exits without trying to poll the
> other server.

Salut Cédric,

Uh. That would be a logic bug. I won't have time immediately, so I'd 
better file an issue in Gitlab so I don't forget.
-> https://gitlab.com/fetchmail/fetchmail/-/issues/85

What's the fetchmail version you're using this with?

> So if one of my pop3 servers is unreachable and this is the one choosed by
> fetchmail, it does not work.
>
> Is there a way to tell fetchmail to poll others IP resolved by dns name
> "pop.dom.tld" if the first one fails ?

You can use the "via" keyword in your rcfile to override fetchmail's 
idea of where to connect, so you could write "poll hermes.example.org 
via 10.2.3.5..." or similar.

Hope that helps,
Matthias

[Fetchmail-users] poll server failover with multiple DNS entries

[BASSAGET C. <ced...@gm...>]

Hello,

I'm trying to poll a pop3 server resolving on different IP addresses :
# dig pop.dom.tld +short
1.2.3.4
1.2.3.5

when running fetchmail, it tries to reach one of the two servers, and at
the end of the (-t) timeout, fetchmail exits without trying to poll the
other server.

So if one of my pop3 servers is unreachable and this is the one choosed by
fetchmail, it does not work.

Is there a way to tell fetchmail to poll others IP resolved by dns name
"pop.dom.tld" if the first one fails ?

Regards
Cédric

[Fetchmail-users] The 6.6.1 release of fetchmail is available (translation updates for Spanish, Serbian)

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

The 6.6.1 release of fetchmail is now available at the usual locations,
including <https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/fetchmail/branch_6.6/>.

The source archive is available at:
<https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/fetchmail/branch_6.6/fetchmail-6.6.1.tar.xz/download>
<https://gitlab.com/-/project/188557/uploads/5f4b7af4e98d69e1648b42e8a965811e/fetchmail-6.6.1.tar.xz>

The detached GnuPG signature is available at:
<https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/fetchmail/branch_6.6/fetchmail-6.6.1.tar.xz.asc/download>
<https://gitlab.com/-/project/188557/uploads/9508a4087b635359fded6157dfd96e91/fetchmail-6.6.1.tar.xz.asc>

The SHA256 hashes for the tarballs are:
SHA2-256(fetchmail-6.6.1.tar.xz)= 38d01fe404e67514df394a6ed1a815bbb61aa90c0fa4402252593aced0e38a1d


Here are the release notes:
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fetchmail-6.6.1 (released 2025-11-12, 32381 LoC):

## TRANSLATIONS were updated by these fine people (randomized order):
* sr:    Мирослав Николић [Serbian]
* es:    Cristian Othón Martínez Vera [Spanish]

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Re: [Fetchmail-users] Local delivery - smtp or sendmail

[Hans C. <fo...@gm...>]

On Tue, 11 Nov 2025, Matthias Andree via Fetchmail-users wrote:

> Am 09.11.25 um 01:50 schrieb Hans Carlson via Fetchmail-users:
>>
>>  I'm trying to configure smtpd_sender_restrictions in postfix, mainly so
>>  I'll get an immediate failure if I've added a new email address that
>>  hasn't been configured in postfix.
>
> Those are only available through SMTP, not through most 
> /usr/{lib,sbin}/sendmail wrappers (certainly not Postfix's).

Right, the restrictions I was planning to configure would only apply to 
the smtp connections from alpine.  I don't think I want any restrictions 
on the connections from fetchmail.  fetchmail should process all the mail 
it gets and deliver it to the local user.

For the smtp connections from alpine on the other hand I want to add a 
simply table with a list of the email addresses that are allowed to send 
email.  If in the future I add a new email address, then I want the alpine 
SMTP connection to my local postfix SMTP server to give me an immediate 
rejection so I know I need to go configure authentication for the new 
email address.  Without that, the postfix SMTP client connection to the 
isp relay will eventually fail with an auth error, but I won't notice it 
for some time because that's all done in the background.

Sooo... if I don't actually want any restrictions on fetchmail, then is 
there any reason NOT to use sendmail for delivery instead of SMTP?

>>  The problem is, if I add smtp_sender_restrictions in the postfix config
>>  (main.cf), then those restrictions apply to all connections; both from
>>  alpine and fetchmail.  I'm fairly certain there's a way to distinguish
>>  this by adding something to master.cf (still figuring that part out), but
>>  the key is, there needs to be a way to distinguish between the two.  I
>>  think if fetchmail uses sendmail instead of smtp, I can use that to setup
>>  restrictions based on smtp connections (alpine/outbound) and restrictions
>>  based on sendmail connections (fetchmail/inbound).
>
> You can add another smtpd listener (right hand side of master.cf) in Postfix 
> on a different port (left-hand side of master.cf, you can also give numbers 
> of ports instead of service names) and configure that with its own option 
> set. If you indent 2nd, 3rd, ... lines Postfix reads them as continuation of 
> the previous line in master.cf, and it should have relevant examples.

Yes, that is the other option I was looking at.  But using sendmail 
instead of a separate smtpd listener seemed like the simpler option as 
long as I don't need/want any local processing of inbound email by smtpd. 
Maybe in the future I'll think of something, but for right now I don't 
think smtpd would be adding anything to the process... basically, I just 
want fetchmail to get the mail and get it to the users INBOX.

And if I do want to process the incoming mail in some way in the future, I 
was planning to investigate some combination of postfix, dovecot and 
sieve.  At this point I don't really know anything about that, other than 
it seems to be possible.

Re: [Fetchmail-users] Local delivery - smtp or sendmail

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Am 09.11.25 um 01:50 schrieb Hans Carlson via Fetchmail-users:
> I'm in the process of upgrading my ancient local-only little home mail 
> server and was wondering how much it matters if I use smtp or sendmail 
> for local delivery.
>
> My system is Fedora 43:
>   fetchmail: 6.5.6
>   postfix:   3.10.3
>   alpine:    2.26
>
> Keep reading for details of my setup and why I'm asking.
>
> My setup is only used for 2 users, with a few email addresses for each 
> user.  The MTA is postfix, configured to listen only on loopback port 
> 25 with a self signed cert.  There is no access to this server from 
> the outside.  The only things that access the MTA are on the same 
> host: alpine for relaying outbound mail and fetchmail for inbound mail.
>
> fetchmail is started/stopped daily for each user via cron and each 
> user has the same basic fetchmailrc:
>
>   set daemon 900
>   set logfile log/fetchmail.log
>   defaults
>   timeout 120
>   fetchall
>   nokeep
>   fetchlimit 50
>   ssl
>
>   poll ...
>   poll ...
>   poll ...
>
> I'm trying to configure smtpd_sender_restrictions in postfix, mainly 
> so I'll get an immediate failure if I've added a new email address 
> that hasn't been configured in postfix.

Those are only available through SMTP, not through most 
/usr/{lib,sbin}/sendmail wrappers (certainly not Postfix's).

> The problem is, if I add smtp_sender_restrictions in the postfix 
> config (main.cf), then those restrictions apply to all connections; 
> both from alpine and fetchmail.  I'm fairly certain there's a way to 
> distinguish this by adding something to master.cf (still figuring that 
> part out), but the key is, there needs to be a way to distinguish 
> between the two.  I think if fetchmail uses sendmail instead of smtp, 
> I can use that to setup restrictions based on smtp connections 
> (alpine/outbound) and restrictions based on sendmail connections 
> (fetchmail/inbound).

You can add another smtpd listener (right hand side of master.cf) in 
Postfix on a different port (left-hand side of master.cf, you can also 
give numbers of ports instead of service names) and configure that with 
its own option set. If you indent 2nd, 3rd, ... lines Postfix reads them 
as continuation of the previous line in master.cf, and it should have 
relevant examples.

HTH

Matthias

[Fetchmail-users] Local delivery - smtp or sendmail

[Hans C. <fo...@gm...>]

I'm in the process of upgrading my ancient local-only little home mail 
server and was wondering how much it matters if I use smtp or sendmail for 
local delivery.

My system is Fedora 43:
   fetchmail: 6.5.6
   postfix:   3.10.3
   alpine:    2.26

Keep reading for details of my setup and why I'm asking.

My setup is only used for 2 users, with a few email addresses for each 
user.  The MTA is postfix, configured to listen only on loopback port 25 
with a self signed cert.  There is no access to this server from the 
outside.  The only things that access the MTA are on the same host: alpine 
for relaying outbound mail and fetchmail for inbound mail.

fetchmail is started/stopped daily for each user via cron and each user 
has the same basic fetchmailrc:

   set daemon 900
   set logfile log/fetchmail.log
   defaults
   timeout 120
   fetchall
   nokeep
   fetchlimit 50
   ssl

   poll ...
   poll ...
   poll ...

I'm trying to configure smtpd_sender_restrictions in postfix, mainly so 
I'll get an immediate failure if I've added a new email address that 
hasn't been configured in postfix.

The problem is, if I add smtp_sender_restrictions in the postfix config 
(main.cf), then those restrictions apply to all connections; both from 
alpine and fetchmail.  I'm fairly certain there's a way to distinguish 
this by adding something to master.cf (still figuring that part out), but 
the key is, there needs to be a way to distinguish between the two.  I 
think if fetchmail uses sendmail instead of smtp, I can use that to setup 
restrictions based on smtp connections (alpine/outbound) and restrictions 
based on sendmail connections (fetchmail/inbound).

Soooo, back to the original question... on my little local-only server are 
there any pros/cons I should be aware of if I add a fetchmail mda config 
line to use sendmail (or whatever the postfix equiv is) instead of the 
default smtp?

An alternative, might be to distinguish the two by the fact that alpine 
connects to smtp via ipv4 and fetchmail connects via ipv6.  Maybe I could 
use that - although I was considering completely disabling ipv6 since I 
don't plan to ever use it... at least not locally.  Then again, maybe this 
IS a use for ipv6.

Thanks for any advice.

Re: [Fetchmail-users] IDLE Socket error After IP reconnect

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Am 01.11.25 um 23:42 schrieb Mailu via Fetchmail-users:
> Oh sorry, trying to do my best on the go with iOS mail :/
> Hope this is better even though not quoting this time anyways...
>   
> I just wanted to ask if the reason can really be the server employing short timeouts.
> Timeouts seem rather reasonable: I noticed that *exactly* every 200mins I receive the socket error (except for the additional errors in the time slots around the IP reconnect).

Hum. 200 min without receiving mail? Can you get me debug logs? See the 
fetchmail FAQ, <https://www.fetchmail.info/fetchmail-FAQ.html#G3>

> I would still say that this is expected as eventually every server will disconnect on their side. Or do you mean that fetchmail should actively reconnect every 30mins by default? If so, this seems not to work for me...

It's certainly so that fetchmail has had support for a long time to deal 
with servers disconnecting anytime - that's just a nearly normal 
situation in networks.

Re: [Fetchmail-users] IDLE Socket error After IP reconnect

[Mailu <lol...@we...>]

Oh sorry, trying to do my best on the go with iOS mail :/
Hope this is better even though not quoting this time anyways...
 
I just wanted to ask if the reason can really be the server employing short timeouts.
Timeouts seem rather reasonable: I noticed that *exactly* every 200mins I receive the socket error (except for the additional errors in the time slots around the IP reconnect).
I would still say that this is expected as eventually every server will disconnect on their side. Or do you mean that fetchmail should actively reconnect every 30mins by default? If so, this seems not to work for me...

> Am 01.11.2025 um 13:14 schrieb Matthias Andree via Fetchmail-users <fet...@li...>:
> 
> Your quoting is extremely broken. Please use a *WORKING* mailer to quote properly and mark quotes.
> 
> Being "professional" (aka paid for what they do) does not mean "free of surprises" or "violations of standards".
> 
> 
>> Am 01.11.25 um 13:04 schrieb Mailu via Fetchmail-users:
>> This would be a server employing short timeouts... you can work around that with idletimeout 280 or similar (in rcfile or command line argument) on supported versions of fetchmail. Check after what time the server gives you a TIMEOUT and then set idletimeout several seconds short of that.
>> 
>> Oh really? Shouldn‘t I receive this Message more often then and Not only 1-2x a times a day?
>> 
>>> Yes, assuming the server is compliant and does _not_ try to be extra smart and delete the message after the first attempt to read it.
>> I Hope it is not. I am Talking about Web.de. A large German mail provider. Basically the Same as GMX. Should be professional, but you never know in the Details…
>> 
>>> The elegant ways are 1. don't use IDLE if the server employs nonconforming timeouts, 2. get a static IP.
>>> 
>>> The practical way is "ignore and move on".
>> Thanks for confirming!
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Fetchmail-users mailing list
>> Fet...@li...
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fetchmail-users
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Fetchmail-users mailing list
> Fet...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fetchmail-users

Re: [Fetchmail-users] IDLE Socket error After IP reconnect

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Your quoting is extremely broken. Please use a *WORKING* mailer to quote 
properly and mark quotes.

Being "professional" (aka paid for what they do) does not mean "free of 
surprises" or "violations of standards".


Am 01.11.25 um 13:04 schrieb Mailu via Fetchmail-users:
> This would be a server employing short timeouts... you can work around that with idletimeout 280 or similar (in rcfile or command line argument) on supported versions of fetchmail. Check after what time the server gives you a TIMEOUT and then set idletimeout several seconds short of that.
>
> Oh really? Shouldn‘t I receive this Message more often then and Not only 1-2x a times a day?
>
>> Yes, assuming the server is compliant and does _not_ try to be extra smart and delete the message after the first attempt to read it.
> I Hope it is not. I am Talking about Web.de. A large German mail provider. Basically the Same as GMX. Should be professional, but you never know in the Details…
>
>> The elegant ways are 1. don't use IDLE if the server employs nonconforming timeouts, 2. get a static IP.
>>
>> The practical way is "ignore and move on".
> Thanks for confirming!
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Fetchmail-users mailing list
> Fet...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fetchmail-users

Re: [Fetchmail-users] IDLE Socket error After IP reconnect

[Mailu <lol...@we...>]

This would be a server employing short timeouts... you can work around that with idletimeout 280 or similar (in rcfile or command line argument) on supported versions of fetchmail. Check after what time the server gives you a TIMEOUT and then set idletimeout several seconds short of that.

Oh really? Shouldn‘t I receive this Message more often then and Not only 1-2x a times a day?

> Yes, assuming the server is compliant and does _not_ try to be extra smart and delete the message after the first attempt to read it.

I Hope it is not. I am Talking about Web.de. A large German mail provider. Basically the Same as GMX. Should be professional, but you never know in the Details…

> The elegant ways are 1. don't use IDLE if the server employs nonconforming timeouts, 2. get a static IP.
> 
> The practical way is "ignore and move on".

Thanks for confirming!

Re: [Fetchmail-users] IDLE Socket error After IP reconnect

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Am 01.11.25 um 11:44 schrieb LolliPOPsystem--- via Fetchmail-users:
> Hi,
>
> New User here.
>
> Setup: Running a Python script starting one instance for each of multiple mail accounts in IDLE mode leveraging individual $FETCHMAILHOME environment variables like this:
> https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/correct-fetchmail-with-idle-and-multiple-servers-config-642089/
>
> Fetchmail runs behind a router with Dynamic IP.
>
> Occationally (and particularly After IP resets), I receive the following error for each instance and the script restarts the fetchmail instances:
>
> Nov 01 08:48:54 fetchmail: Received BYE response from IMAP server:  TIMEOUT

This would be a server employing short timeouts... you can work around 
that with idletimeout 280 or similar (in rcfile or command line 
argument) on supported versions of fetchmail. Check after what time the 
server gives you a TIMEOUT and then set idletimeout several seconds 
short of that.

> Nov 01 08:48:54 fetchmail: re-poll failed
> Nov 01 08:48:54 fetchmail: socket error while fetching from…
>
> I assume this is due to the IP change and the connection cannot be re-established. I think this will Not harm fetchmail’s functionality and I can safely restart it without fearing any mail will be lost or not fetched.

Yes, assuming the server is compliant and does _not_ try to be extra 
smart and delete the message after the first attempt to read it.

Worst case if the IP changes in the middle of a transfer you might end 
up with two copies of a message, one complete and one incomplete.

> Can you confirm this understanding and maybe explain better what is Happening and what an elegant way is to mitigate?

The elegant ways are 1. don't use IDLE if the server employs 
nonconforming timeouts, 2. get a static IP.

The practical way is "ignore and move on".