fetchmail-users

[fetchmail-users] Can fetchmail be configured to do this?

[rouble <ro...@gm...>]

Hi All,

I am trying to see if it is possible to configure fetchmail(rc) to do
the following:

I have a email server that supports imap and pop3. I use various
clients to check that email over imap. I mainly have two folders that
need to be checked Inbox and Sent.

Now, I want to also maintain a running backup of all the email. That
is, I want to download _one_ copy of each email (from both folders)
from the server.

Since I view this email with other imap clients, I can not depend on
the read/unread (seen/unseen) status of the mail that is used by imap.
Using fetchmail with imap does not fetch messages that have already
been seen. So this won't work for a backup.

So, I decided to use the client side UID list supported by pop3. I
used the --uidl, --keep and --idfile options of fetchmail over pop3.
This worked great for backing up the Inbox, but it turns out that
fetchmail's pop3 support does not support folders. So, I can not
backup the Sent folder.

In short, with imap I can't have a client side list of seen emails
(--uidl), so I can't backup all the emails. And with pop3, I can't
download mails from other folders (--folder). So, I don't really know
how to do this.

Any input is much appreciated.

tia,
rouble

Re: [fetchmail-users] Can fetchmail be configured to do this?

[Rob M. <rob...@gm...>]

On 8/18/07, rouble <ro...@gm...> wrote:
<---SNIP--->
> In short, with imap I can't have a client side list of seen emails
> (--uidl), so I can't backup all the emails. And with pop3, I can't
> download mails from other folders (--folder). So, I don't really know
> how to do this.
>
> Any input is much appreciated.

I think you're out of luck - fetchmail is not designed with this in
mind.  It expects to be the only thing accessing a mailbox.

I don't think there's really any way you can solve this with
fetchmail, unless your provider provides some way of accessing the
folders via POP.  The only solution would be to use fetchmail to
download all the messages to your own IMAP server and then give people
access to that instead.

-- 
                 Please keep list traffic on the list.

Rob MacGregor
      Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he
        doesn't become a monster.                  Friedrich Nietzsche

Re: [fetchmail-users] Can fetchmail be configured to do this?

[rouble <ro...@gm...>]

> <---SNIP--->
> > In short, with imap I can't have a client side list of seen emails
> > (--uidl), so I can't backup all the emails. And with pop3, I can't
> > download mails from other folders (--folder). So, I don't really know
> > how to do this.
> >
> > Any input is much appreciated.
>
> I think you're out of luck - fetchmail is not designed with this in
> mind.  It expects to be the only thing accessing a mailbox.
>
> I don't think there's really any way you can solve this with
> fetchmail, unless your provider provides some way of accessing the
> folders via POP.  The only solution would be to use fetchmail to
> download all the messages to your own IMAP server and then give people
> access to that instead.

Thanks for the response.

The server is a Microsoft Exchange Server. By default fetchmail only
gets email from the 'Inbox' folder, when I use pop3.

Is it possible to download email from the 'sent-mail' folder over pop3
from a Microsoft Exchange Server? If so, how would I configure my
.fetchmailrc to do this?

Cheers
rouble

-- 
this spot is up for rent

Re: [fetchmail-users] Can fetchmail be configured to do this?

[Rob M. <rob...@gm...>]

On 8/18/07, rouble <ro...@gm...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the response.
>
> The server is a Microsoft Exchange Server. By default fetchmail only
> gets email from the 'Inbox' folder, when I use pop3.
>
> Is it possible to download email from the 'sent-mail' folder over pop3
> from a Microsoft Exchange Server? If so, how would I configure my
> .fetchmailrc to do this?

Don't know - my MS Exchange knowledge is long outdated.  You'd need to
find out how, if at all, a POP3 client can access that folder.  If you
can get the answer to that then you've got your answer for fetchmail.

-- 
                 Please keep list traffic on the list.

Rob MacGregor
      Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he
        doesn't become a monster.                  Friedrich Nietzsche

Re: [fetchmail-users] Can fetchmail be configured to do this?

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

rouble schrieb:

> Now, I want to also maintain a running backup of all the email. That
> is, I want to download _one_ copy of each email (from both folders)
> from the server.
> 
> Since I view this email with other imap clients, I can not depend on
> the read/unread (seen/unseen) status of the mail that is used by imap.
> Using fetchmail with imap does not fetch messages that have already
> been seen. So this won't work for a backup.

Indeed not.

You're unfortunately out of luck with any fetchmail version released to
date, because:

(1) - POP3 has no notion of folders, it's "single mailbox".

If MS Exchange has some folder extension for POP3, point me to the
programmer's documentation (which must be openly and freely available, i.
e. free of charge and limitations and it must be suitable to develop Open
Source Software under any license I choose, particularly GPL v2) and I can
  estimate how much time it will take to implement it.

If I choose to do that, I will need temporary access (POP3 and sending
messages there) to such a server in order to test and debug.

(2) - fetchmail's IMAP code has no client-side "seen" tracking feature YET
- that's a missing feature in fetchmail I plan to correct for a later
version (that's not going to be called 6.3.something), but I presume it's
going to become winter before I get to it.

So if you need a solution now, you will have to find a client that supports
UID "seen" tracking for IMAP. Sorry!

Best regards
Matthias

Re: [fetchmail-users] Can fetchmail be configured to do this?

[Michelle K. <lin...@fr...>]

Am 2007-08-18 00:55:25, schrieb rouble:
> This worked great for backing up the Inbox, but it turns out that
> fetchmail's pop3 support does not support folders. So, I can not
> backup the Sent folder.

This is NOT an error in "fetchmail" because the
pop3 protocol does only allow ONE mailbox.

Greetings
    Michelle Konzack
    Systemadministrator
    Tamay Dogan Network
    Debian GNU/Linux Consultant


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