                             getmail documentation

   This is the documentation for getmail version 6, a port of getmail version
   5 to python 3 without adding features.

   getmail6 is Copyright © 1998-2026 by Charles Cazabon and others:
   <charlesc-getmail @ pyropus.ca>
   <roland.puntaier @ gmail.com>

   getmail and getmail6 are licensed under the GNU General Public License
   version 2 (only).

                               Table of Contents

     * getmail documentation
     *    * getmail documentation
          *    * Features
               * Requirements
               * Obtaining getmail
               * Installing getmail
               *    * For the impatient
                    * Full installation instructions
                    * Installing directly from the source
                    *    * Installing in the default location
                         * Installing under an alternate prefix directory
                         * Installing parts of the package to alternate
                           directories
                    * Installing the getmailcore package in a non-standard
                      location
                    * Building a binary package from the source
     * getmail configuration (version 6)
     *    * Configuring getmail
          *    * Creating a getmail rc file
          * Running getmail
          *    * Commandline options
               * Using getmail as an MDA
               * Using getmail_fetch to retrieve mail from scripts
     * getmail troubleshooting
     *    * Troubleshooting problems
          *    * Error messages
               * Warning messages
               * Unexpected Behaviour
     * getmail frequently-asked questions (FAQs)
     *    * Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQs)
          *    * About getmail
               * What is getmail6 and how does it relate to getmail?
               * Configuring getmail
               * How do I …
               * Using getmail with other software
               * I think I found this bug in getmail …

Features

   getmail is a mail retriever designed to allow you to get your mail from
   one or more mail accounts on various mail servers to your local machine
   for reading with a minimum of fuss. getmail is designed to be secure,
   flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use. getmail is designed to replace other
   mail retrievers such as fetchmail.

   getmail includes the following features:

     * simple to install, configure, and use
     * retrieve virtually any mail
          * support for accessing mailboxes with the following protocols:
               * POP3
               * POP3-over-SSL
               * IMAP4
               * IMAP4-over-SSL
               * SDPS (Demon UK's extensions to POP3)
          * support for single-user and domain mailboxes
          * retrieve mail from an unlimited number of mailboxes and servers
          * can remember which mail it has already retrieved, and can be set
            to only download new messages
     * support for message filtering, classification, and annotation by
       external programs like spam filters and anti-virus programs
     * support for delivering messages to different destinations based on the
       message recipient
     * reliability
          * native safe and reliable delivery support for maildirs and mboxrd
            files, in addition to delivery through arbitrary external message
            delivery agents (MDAs)
          * does not destroy information by rewriting mail headers
          * does not cause mail loops by doing SMTP injection, and therefore
            does not require that you run an MTA (like qmail or sendmail) on
            your host
     * written in Python, and therefore easy to extend or customize
          * a flexible, extensible architecture so that support for new mail
            access protocols, message filtering operations, or destination
            types can be easily added
          * cross-platform operation; getmail 6 should work on Unix/Linux,
            Macintosh, and other platforms. Windows support available under
            the free Cygwin package.
     * winner of various software awards, including DaveCentral's "Best of
       Linux"

Requirements

   getmail version 6 requires Python version 3.7 or later. If you have only
   an earlier version of Python available, you can install the latest version
   without disturbing your current version, or use getmail version 5.* from
   the original getmail author.

   getmail 6 requires that servers uniquely identify the messages they
   provide (via the UIDL command) to getmail for full functionality. Certain
   very old or broken POP3 servers may not be capable of this or may not
   implement the UIDL command at all, and limited support is available for
   such servers via the BrokenUIDLPOP3Retriever and
   BrokenUIDLPOP3SSLRetriever retriever classes.

Obtaining getmail

   Download getmail 6 from the official website main page at
   http://getmail6.org/ .

Installing getmail

  For the impatient

   Installing getmail is very easy:

 # sudo pip install getmail6

   or

 # pip install --user getmail6

   To uninstalling do

 # sudo pip uninstall getmail6

   or

 # pip uninstall getmail6

   Alternatively download the tarball distribution, unpack it, change into
   the directory it unpacks into, and run this command:

 # python setup.py install

   That's all there is to it. 99.9% of users don't need a special
   package/port/etc. If you'd like more details on install options, keep
   reading.

  Full installation instructions

   Once you have downloaded or otherwise obtained getmail, unpack it. On
   GNU-ish Unix-like systems, this means:

 # tar xzf getmail-version.tar.gz

   On Macintosh systems, use a Zip-type archiver program to unpack the
   tarball.

   On SystemV-like Unix systems, you may instead need to break this down into
   two steps:

 # gunzip getmail-version.tar.gz
 # tar xf getmail-version.tar

   Then, change into the extracted getmail directory and start the build
   process. The easiest installation method is to use the included setup.py
   to build and install getmail directly.

  Installing directly from the source

   To build and install directly from the included source, follow these
   steps.

 # cd getmail-version
 # python setup.py build

   When that completes in a few seconds, become root and then install the
   software. You can install in the default location, or specify an alternate
   location to install the software, or specify alternate directories for
   only part of the package.

    Installing in the default location

   To install in the default location, become user root and install with the
   following commands:

 # su
 enter root password
 # python setup.py install

   This will, by default, install files into subdirectories under the
   directory prefix, which is the directory that your Python installation was
   configured to install under (typically /usr/local/ or /usr/, but other
   values are sometimes used):

     * the scripts getmail, getmails, getmail_fetch, getmail_maildir, and
       getmail_mbox will be installed under prefix/bin/
     * the Python package getmailcore (which implements all the protocol–,
       filter–, and destination-specific code for getmail, plus various other
       bits) will be installed under the site-specific packages directory of
       your Python library directory. This directory is
       prefix/lib/python-python-version/site-packages/.
     * The documentation directory getmail-getmail-version will be installed
       under prefix/doc/
     * The manual pages for the four scripts will be installed under
       prefix/man/

   You can see a list of the default installation locations by running:

 # python setup.py --show-default-install-dirs

    Installing under an alternate prefix directory

   You can specify an alternate prefix directory by supplying the --prefix
   option to the install command, like this:

 # python setup.py install --prefix=path

   This will install the various parts of the package in subdirectories like
   in the default installation (see the section Installing in the default
   location above), but under your specified prefix directory. These
   alternate installations allow you to install the software without root
   privileges (say, by installing under $HOME/). Note, however, that the
   getmailcore package will not be in the default Python module search path
   if you do this; see the section Installing the getmailcore package in a
   non-standard location if you use this option.

    Installing parts of the package to alternate directories

   If you only want to change the directory for some of the components, use
   the following options:

     * --install-lib=path specifies the directory the getmailcore package is
       installed under (i.e., it will be installed as path/getmailcore ). See
       the section Installing the getmailcore package in a non-standard
       location if you use this option.
     * --install-scripts=path specifies the directory the four scripts are
       installed under (i.e., they will be installed directly in path/ ).
     * --install-data=path specifies the directory the documentation is
       installed under (i.e., the HTML and plaintext documentation will be
       installed in the directory path/doc/getmail-getmail-version/, and the
       man(1) pages will be installed in path/man/man1/.

   For example, if your Python installation is located under /usr/ because it
   was installed as part of your OS, but you would like the getmail scripts
   installed into /usr/local/bin/ instead of /usr/bin/, while still letting
   the getmailcore package be installed under
   /usr/lib/python-python-version/site-packages/, and the documentation and
   man pages under /usr/doc/ and /usr/man/ you could use this command to
   install:

 # python setup.py --install-scripts=/usr/local/bin/

   If you also wanted to locate the documentation and man pages under
   /usr/local/ but still install the getmailcore package in the default
   /usr/lib/python-python-version/site-packages/, you would instead use this
   command to install:

 # python setup.py --install-scripts=/usr/local/bin/ --install-data=/usr/local/

  Installing the getmailcore package in a non-standard location

   Note: if you use one of the above methods to install the getmailcore
   package into a directory other than the default, the four scripts
   (getmail, getmails, getmail_fetch, getmail_maildir, and getmail_mbox) will
   almost certainly be unable to locate the required files from the
   getmailcore package, because they will not be in a directory in the
   standard Python module search path. You will need to do one of the
   following to make those files available to the scripts:

     * set the environment variable PYTHONPATH to tell Python where to find
       the appropriate modules. See the documentation at the Python.org
       website for details.

       For example, if the directory getmailcore ends up living in
       $HOME/tmp/getmail/lib/python3.8/site-packages/getmailcore , then in
       the shell do:

 # export PYTHONPATH=$HOME/tmp/getmail/lib/python3.8/site-packages .
        

       Note that setting PYTHONPATH in $HOME/.profile (or equivalent) is not
       sufficient -- for instance, cron runs jobs in a simpler environment,
       ignoring $HOME/.profile, and getmail would therefore fail when run as
       a user cron job. It is strongly recommended that you install the
       Python library files in the site-packages directory which Python
       provides for exactly this reason.

     * modify the scripts to explicitly tell Python where you've installed
       them. Insert a line like this:

 sys.path.append('/path/to/installation-directory')

       containing the path to the directory you installed the getmailcore
       directory in, somewhere below the line which reads

 import sys

       and before the first line which references getmailcore .

  Building a binary package from the source

   To build a binary package from the included source, run the following
   command from inside the unpacked getmail source.

 # cd getmail-version
 # python setup.py bdist --format=package-format

   The useful allowed values for package-format are:

     * rpm — build a .noarch.rpm file which can then be installed with the
       rpm package manager.
     * pkgtool — build a package for the Sun Solaris pkgtool package manager.
     * sdux — build a package for the HP/UX swinstall software installer.

   Ideally, if you use this method, it will result in a "built distribution"
   binary package in a subdirectory named dist which can then be installed
   using the appropriate system-specific tool. If you have problems with this
   process, please do not ask me for assistance; ask your OS vendor or the
   comp.lang.python newsgroup. The install-directory-from-source process
   above is the only one I can support, and it should work on all platforms.
