getmail_fetch - Man Page
retrieve messages from one or more POP3 or POP3-over-SSL mailboxes and deliver to a maildir, mboxrd-format mbox file, or external MDA
Synopsis
getmail_fetch [Options] SERVER USERNAME PASSWORD DESTINATION
Description
getmail_fetch retrieves messages from POP3 or POP3-over-SSL mailboxes and delivers to a maildir, mboxrd, or external MDA. This command is intended primarily for scripting, and as such does not require a client-side configuration file, and does not record any state.
The DESTINATION argument is interpreted as follows:
If it begins with a dot or a slash and ends with a slash, it is assumed to be a path to a maildir.
If it begins with a dot or a slash and does not end with a slash, it is assumed to be a path to an mboxrd file.
If it begins with a pipe, it is assumed to be a path to an external MDA command. Note that arguments can be included in this string by separating them by whitespace; untrusted data must not be used in constructing this string.
Options
- --version
show program's version number and exit
- -h, --help
show a short usage summary and exit
- -v, --verbose
output information messages while running
- -q, --quiet
output only on error
- -mFILE, --message=FILE
read well-formatted RFC822 message from FILE and deliver prior to connecting to POP server
- -pPORT, --port=PORT
use port PORT instead of default (POP3: 110, POP3-over-SSL: 995)
- -d, --delete
delete messages from server after delivery
- -tTIMEOUT, --timeout=TIMEOUT
use timeout of TIMEOUT seconds instead of default 180
- -a, --apop
use APOP authentication
- -s, --ssl
use POP3-over-SSL
Author
Written by Charles Cazabon and others.
Reporting Bugs
Report bugs to <https://github.com/getmail6/getmail6/issues>
IMPORTANT: include the output of getmail [options] --dump with any bug report.
Copyright
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.
See Also
The full documentation for getmail is maintained in HTML and plaintext formats. See the included files for details.