Installation guide

Chapter 15. Email 219
• limit max-number-bytes — Allows you to specify that only messages below a particular
size may be retrieved. This option is useful with slow network links, when a large message will take
too long to download.
• password ’
password ’ — Specifies the password to be used for this user.
• preconnect " command " — Tells Fetchmail to execute the specified command before retriev-
ing messages for this user.
• postconnect "
command " — Tells Fetchmail to execute the specified command after retriev-
ing messages for this user.
• ssl — Allows Fetchmail to collect the message via an encrypted SSL connection, if the server
supports this.
• user "
username " — Sets the username used by Fetchmail to retrieve messages. This option
should be listed before any other user options.
15.4.2. Fetchmail Command Options
Most of the Fetchmail options that may be used on the command line, when executing the fetchmail
command, mirror the .fetchmailrc configuration options. This is done so that Fetchmail may be
used with or without a configuration file. Most users will not use these options on the command line,
as it is easier to leave them in the .fetchmailrc file to be used whenever Fetchmail is run.
However, there are times when you may want to run the fetchmail command with other options for
a particular purpose. As any options specified at the command line override configuration file options,
you can also issue command options to temporarily override a .fetchmailrc setting that is causing
an error.
15.4.2.1. Informational or Debugging Options
Certain options used after the fetchmail command can provide you with important information.
• --configdump — Displays every possible option based on information from .fetchmailrc and
Fetchmail defaults. No email is retrieved for any users when using this option.
• -s — Executes Fetchmail in silent mode, preventing any messages, other than errors, from appear-
ing after the fetchmail command.
• -v — Executes Fetchmail in verbose mode, displaying every communication between Fetchmail
and the remote email servers.
• -V — Causes Fetchmail to display detailed version information, list its global options, and show
settings to be used with each user, including the email protocol and authentication method. No
email is retrieved for any users when using this option.
15.4.2.2. Special Options
These options are occasionally useful for overriding defaults often found in the .fetchmailrc file.
• -a — Tells Fetchmail to download all messages from the remote email server, whether new or
previously viewed. By default, Fetchmail will only download new messages.
• -k — Causes Fetchmail to leave the messages on the remote email server after downloading them.
This option overrides the default behavior of deleting messages after downloading them.
• -l
max-number-bytes — Tells Fetchmail to not download any messages over a particular
size and leave them on the remote email server.