getmail - Man Page

getmail [OPTION] ...

getmail can retrieve messages from POP3, IMAP4, and SDPS mailboxes.  SSL-wrapped POP3 and IMAP are also supported.  Single-user and domain (multi-drop) mailboxes are supported.

getmail has built-in support for delivering to maildirs, mboxrd-format mbox files, and external MDAs.

--version

show program's version number and exit

-h,  --help

show a short usage summary and exit

-gDIR, --getmaildir=DIR

look in DIR for config/data files

-rFILE, --rcfile=FILE

load configuration from FILE (may be given multiple times)

--dump

dump configuration and exit (debugging)

--trace

print extended trace information (extremely verbose)

-iFOLDER, --idle=FOLDER

maintain connection and listen for new messages in FOLDER. This flag will only work if a single rc file is given, and will only work on IMAP connections where the server supports IMAP4 IDLE (RFC 2177).

The following options override any in the configuration file(s).

-v,  --verbose

operate more verbosely (can be given multiple times)

-q,  --quiet

do not print informational messages

-d,  --delete

delete messages from server after retrieving

-l,  --dont-delete

do not delete messages from server after retrieving

-a,  --all

retrieve all messages

-n,  --new

retrieve only unread messages

Written by Charles Cazabon and others.

Report bugs to <https://github.com/getmail6/getmail6/issues>

IMPORTANT: include the output of getmail [options] --dump with any bug report.

Copyright © 1998-2025 Charles Cazabon and others.
This is free software; see the file COPYING for copying conditions.  There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

The full documentation for getmail is maintained in HTML and plaintext formats.  See the included files for details.