getmail

getmail

Original author(s)	Charles Cazabon
Initial release	1998
Stable release	4.23.0 / November 20, 2011 (2011-11-20)
Written in	Python
Operating system	Unix-like, Posix
Type	E-mail
License	GNU General Public License v2
Website	http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/

getmail is a simple mail retrieval agent intended as a replacement for fetchmail, implemented in Python. It can retrieve mail from POP3, IMAP4 and Standard Dial-up POP3 Service servers, with or without SSL. It supports simple and domain (multidrop) mailboxes, mail filtering via any arbitrary program, and supports a wide variety of mail destination types, including mboxrd, maildir, and external arbitrary mail delivery agents. Unlike fetchmail, getmail's Python foundation makes it all but immune to buffer overflow security holes.^{[citation needed]} It also has a simpler configuration syntax than fetchmail. It also supports fewer authentication protocols than fetchmail. On systems processing local mail, its delivery capability is redundant, because such systems must have a local mail delivery agent (MDA) anyway. This inclusion of MDA functionality within getmail, without providing full MDA functionality (such as the ability to receive and deliver locally-originated messages) is contrary to the UNIX philosophy of application modularity.

Getmail is free software and is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2. It is written and maintained by Charles Cazabon.

See also

• Mail retrieval agent
• fetchmail

External links

• getmail homepage
• getmail at SourceForge
• getmail at freshmeat
• Getmail for Windows a separately developed proprietary software package by the same name.
• GetMail for Hotmail a program with the same name designed to forward messages from Hotmail/MSN/Live account emails as POP3 is not available for these email providers.