   Link: Charles Cazabon's Software (Contents Up Index)

                             getmail documentation

   This is the documentation for getmail version 4. Version 4 includes
   numerous changes from version 3.x; if you are using getmail version 3,
   please refer to the documentation included with that version of the
   software.

   getmail is Copyright (c) 1998-2006 Charles Cazabon.

   getmail is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 (only).
   If you wish to obtain a license to distribute getmail under other terms,
   please contact me directly.

                              Configuring getmail

   Once getmail is installed, you need to configure it before you can
   retrieve mail with it. Follow these steps:

    1. Create a data/configuration directory. The default is $HOME/.getmail/.
       If you choose a different location, you will need to specify it on the
       getmail command line. In general, other users should not be able to
       read the contents of this directory, so you should set the permissions
       on it appropriately.

 mkdir -m 0700 $HOME/.getmail


    2. Create a configuration file in the configuration/data directory. The
       default name is getmailrc. If you choose a different filename, you
       will need to specify it on the getmail command line. If you want to
       retrieve mail from more than one mail account, you will need to create
       a separate rc file for each account getmail should retrieve mail from.

Creating a getmail rc file

   The configuration file format is designed to be easy to understand (both
   for getmail, and for the user). It is broken down into small sections of
   related parameters by section headers which appear on lines by themselves,
   enclosed in square brackets, like this:

 [section name]

   Each section contains a series of parameters, declared as follows:

 parameter_name = parameter_value

   A parameter value, if necessary, can span multiple lines. To indicate that
   the second and subsequent lines form a continuation of the previous line,
   they need to begin with leading whitespace, like this:

 first_parameter = value
     first parameter value continues here
 second_parameter = value

   You can annotate your configuration files with comments by putting them on
   lines which begin with a pound sign, like this:

 first_parameter = value
 # I chose this value because of etc.
 second_parameter = value

   Each rc file requires at least two specific sections. The first is
   retriever, which tells getmail about the mail account to retrieve messages
   from. The second is destination, which tells getmail what to do with the
   retrieved messages. There is also an optional section named options ,
   which gives getmail general configuration information (such as whether to
   log its actions to a file), and other sections can be used to tell getmail
   to filter retrieved messages through other programs, or to deliver
   messages for particular users in a particular way.

  Parameter types and formats

   Several different types of parameters are used in getmail rc files:

     * string
     * integer
     * boolean
     * tuple of quoted strings
     * tuple of integers
     * tuple of 2-tuples

   Each parameter type has a specific format that must be used to represent
   it in the getmail rc file. They are explained below. Each parameter
   documented later specifies its type explicitly.

    string

   Specify a string parameter value with no special syntax:

 parameter = my value

    integer

   Specify an integer parameter value with no special syntax:

 parameter = 4150

    boolean

   A boolean parameter is true or false; you can specify its value with the
   (case-insensitive) words "true" and "false". The values "yes", "on" and 1
   are accepted as equivalent to "true", while values "no", "off" and 0 are
   accepted as equivalent to "false". Some examples:

 parameter = True
 parameter = false
 parameter = NO
 parameter = 1

    tuple of quoted strings

   A tuple of quoted strings is essentially a list of strings, with each
   string surrounded by matching double- or single-quote characters to
   indicate where it begins and ends. The list must be surrounded by open-
   and close-parenthesis characters. A tuple may have to be a specific number
   of strings; for instance, a "2-tuple" must consist of two quoted strings,
   while a "4-tuple" must have exactly four. In most cases, the number of
   strings is not required to be a specific number, and it will not be
   specified in this fashion.

   In general, a tuple of quoted strings parameter values should look like
   this:

 parameter = ('first string', 'second string',
     "third string that contains a ' character")

   However, tuples of 0 or 1 strings require special treatment. The empty
   tuple is specified with just the open- and close-parenthesis characters:

 parameter = ()

   A tuple containing a single quoted string requires a comma to indicate it
   is a tuple:

 parameter = ("single string", )

    tuple of integers

   This is very similar to a tuple of quoted strings, above, minus the
   quotes. Some examples:

 parameter = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
 parameter = (37, )
 parameter = ()

    tuple of 2-tuples

   This is a tuple of items, each of which is a 2-tuple of quoted strings.
   You can think of this as a list of pairs of quoted strings.

 # Three pairs
 parameter = (
     ("first-a", "first-b"),
     ("second-a", "second-b"),
     ("third-a", "third-b"),
     )
 # One pair
 parameter = (
     ("lone-a", "lone-b"),
     )

  Creating the [retriever] section

   The retriever section of the rc file tells getmail what mail account to
   retrieve mail from, and how to access that account. Begin with the section
   header line as follows:

 [retriever]

   Then, include a type string parameter to tell getmail what type of mail
   retriever to use to retrieve mail from this account. The possible values
   are:

     * SimplePOP3Retriever -- for single-user POP3 mail accounts.
     * BrokenUIDLPOP3Retriever -- for broken POP3 servers that do not support
       the UIDL command, or which do not uniquely identify messages; this
       provides basic support for single-user POP3 mail accounts on such
       servers.
     * SimpleIMAPRetriever -- for single-user IMAP mail accounts.
     * SimplePOP3SSLRetriever -- same as SimplePOP3Retriever, but uses SSL
       encryption.
     * BrokenUIDLPOP3SSLRetriever -- same as BrokenUIDLPOP3Retriever, but
       uses SSL encryption.
     * SimpleIMAPSSLRetriever -- same as SimpleIMAPRetriever, but uses SSL
       encryption.
     * MultidropPOP3Retriever -- for domain mailbox (multidrop) POP3 mail
       accounts.
     * MultidropPOP3SSLRetriever -- same as MultidropPOP3Retriever, but uses
       SSL encryption.
     * MultidropSDPSRetriever -- for domain mailbox SDPS mail accounts, as
       provided by the UK ISP Demon.
     * MultidropIMAPRetriever -- for domain mailbox (multidrop) IMAP mail
       accounts.
     * MultidropIMAPSSLRetriever -- same as MultidropIMAPRetriever, but uses
       SSL encryption.

    What is a "multidrop" mailbox? How do I know if I have one?

   Some ISPs, mailhosts, and other service providers provide a mail service
   they refer to as a "domain mailbox" or "multidrop mailbox". This is where
   they register a domain for you, and mail addressed to any local-part in
   that domain ends up in a single mailbox accessible via POP3, with the
   message envelope (envelope sender address and envelope recipient address)
   recorded properly in the message header, so that it can be re-constructed
   after you retrieve the messages with POP3 or IMAP. The primary benefit of
   this is that you can run your own MTA (qmail, Postfix, sendmail, Exchange,
   etc.) for your domain without having to have an SMTP daemon listening at a
   static IP address.

   Unfortunately, a lot of what is advertised and sold as multidrop service
   really isn't. In many cases, the envelope recipient address of the message
   is not properly recorded, so the envelope information is lost and cannot
   be reconstructed. If the envelope isn't properly preserved, it isn't a
   domain mailbox, and you therefore can't use a multidrop retriever with
   that mailbox.

   To determine if you have a multidrop mailbox, check the following list: if
   any of these items are not true, you do not have a multidrop mailbox.

     * the mailbox must receive one copy of the message for each envelope
       recipient in the domain; if the message was addressed to three
       local-parts in the domain, the mailbox must receive three separate
       copies of the message.
     * the envelope sender address must be recorded in a header field named
       Return-Path at the top of the message. If the message (incorrectly)
       already contained such a header field, it must be deleted before the
       envelope sender address is recorded.
     * the envelope recipient address must be recorded in a new header field.
       These may be named various things, but are commonly Delivered-To,
       X-Envelope-To, and similar values. In the case of messages which had
       multiple recipients in the domain, this must be a single address,
       reflecting the particular recipient of this copy of the message. Note
       that this field (and the envelope recipient address) are not related
       to informational header fields created by the originating MUA, like To
       or cc.

   If you're not sure whether you have a multidrop mailbox, you probably
   don't. You probably want to use SimplePOP3Retriever (for POP3 mail
   accounts) or SimpleIMAPRetriever (for IMAP mail accounts) retrievers.

   Specify the mail account type with one of the above values, like this:

 type = typename

   Then, include lines for any parameters and their values which are required
   by the retriever. The parameters and their types are documented below.

    Common retriever parameters

   All retriever types take several common required parameters:

     * server (string) -- the name or IP address of the server to retrieve
       mail from
     * username (string) -- username to provide when logging in to the mail
       server

   All retriever types also take several optional parameters:

     * port (integer) -- the TCP port number to connect to. If not provided,
       the default is a port appropriate for the protocol (110 for POP3,
       etc.)
     * password (string) -- password to use when logging in to the mail
       server. If not provided, getmail will prompt you to enter the password
       when run.

    SimplePOP3Retriever

   The SimplePOP3Retriever class takes the common retriever parameters above,
   plus the following optional parameters:

     * use_apop (boolean) -- if set to True, getmail will use APOP-style
       authentication to log in to the server instead of normal USER/PASS
       authentication. This is not supported by many POP3 servers. The
       default is False.
     * timeout (integer) -- how long (in seconds) to wait for socket
       operations to complete before considering them failed. If not
       specified, the default is 180 seconds. You may need to increase this
       value in particularly poor networking conditions.
     * delete_dup_msgids (boolean) -- if set to True, and the POP3 server
       identifies multiple messages as having the same "unique" identifier,
       all but the first will be deleted without retrieving them.

    BrokenUIDLPOP3Retriever

   This retriever class is intended only for use with broken POP3 servers
   that either do not implement the UIDL command, or which do not properly
   assign unique identifiers to messages (preventing getmail from determining
   which messages it has seen before). It will identify every message in the
   mailbox as a new message, and therefore if you use this retriever class
   and opt not to delete messages after retrieval, it will retrieve those
   messages again the next time getmail is run. Use this retriever class only
   if your mailbox is hosted on such a broken POP3 server, and the server
   does not provide another means of getmail accessing it (i.e., IMAP).

   The BrokenUIDLPOP3Retriever class takes the common retriever parameters
   above, plus the following optional parameters:

     * use_apop (boolean) -- see SimplePOP3Retriever for definition.
     * timeout (integer) -- see SimplePOP3Retriever for definition.

    SimpleIMAPRetriever

   The SimpleIMAPRetriever class takes the common retriever parameters above,
   plus the following optional parameters:

     * timeout (integer) -- see SimplePOP3Retriever for definition.
     * mailboxes (tuple of quoted strings) -- a list of mailbox paths to
       retrieve mail from, expressed as a Python tuple. If not specified, the
       default is to retrieve mail from the mail folder named INBOX. You
       might want to retrieve messages from several different mail folders,
       using a configuration like this:

 mailboxes = ("INBOX", "INBOX.spam",
     "mailing-lists.model-railroading")


     * move_on_delete (string) -- if set, messages are moved to the named
       mail folder before being deleted from their original location. Note
       that if you configure getmail not to delete retrieved messages (the
       default behaviour), they will not be moved at all.

    SimplePOP3SSLRetriever

   The SimplePOP3SSLRetriever class takes the common retriever parameters
   above, plus the following optional parameters:

     * use_apop (boolean) -- see SimplePOP3Retriever for definition.
     * delete_dup_msgids (boolean) -- see SimplePOP3Retriever for definition.
     * keyfile (string) -- use the specified PEM-formatted key file in the
       SSL negotiation. Note that no certificate or key validation is done.
     * certfile (string) -- use the specified PEM-formatted certificate file
       in the SSL negotiation. Note that no certificate or key validation is
       done.

    BrokenUIDLPOP3SSLRetriever

   The BrokenUIDLPOP3SSLRetriever class takes the common retriever parameters
   above, plus the following optional parameters:

     * use_apop (boolean) -- see SimplePOP3Retriever for definition.
     * keyfile (string) -- see SimplePOP3SSLRetriever for definition.
     * certfile (string) -- see SimplePOP3SSLRetriever for definition.

    SimpleIMAPSSLRetriever

   The SimpleIMAPSSLRetriever class takes the common retriever parameters
   above, plus the following optional parameters:

     * mailboxes (tuple of quoted strings) -- see SimpleIMAPRetriever for
       definition.
     * move_on_delete (string) -- see SimpleIMAPRetriever for definition.
     * keyfile (string) -- see SimplePOP3SSLRetriever for definition.
     * certfile (string) -- see SimplePOP3SSLRetriever for definition.

    MultidropPOP3Retriever

   The MultidropPOP3Retriever class takes the common retriever parameters
   above, plus the following required parameter:

     * envelope_recipient (string) -- the name and position of the header
       field which records the envelope recipient address. This is set to a
       value of the form field_name : field_position . The first (topmost)
       Delivered-To: header field would be specified as:

 envelope_recipient = delivered-to:1


   The MultidropPOP3Retriever also takes the following optional parameters:

     * use_apop (boolean) -- see SimplePOP3Retriever for definition.
     * timeout (integer) -- see SimplePOP3Retriever for definition.

    MultidropPOP3SSLRetriever

   The MultidropPOP3SSLRetriever class takes the common retriever parameters
   above, plus the following required parameter:

     * envelope_recipient (string) -- see MultidropPOP3Retriever for
       definition.

   The MultidropPOP3SSLRetriever class alo takes the following optional
   parameters:

     * use_apop (boolean) -- see SimplePOP3Retriever for definition.
     * keyfile (string) -- see SimplePOP3SSLRetriever for definition.
     * certfile (string) -- see SimplePOP3SSLRetriever for definition.

    MultidropSDPSRetriever

   The MultidropSDPSRetriever class takes the common retriever parameters
   above, plus the following optional parameters:

     * timeout (integer) -- see SimplePOP3Retriever for definition.

    MultidropIMAPRetriever

   The MultidropIMAPRetriever class takes the common retriever parameters
   above, plus the following required parameter:

     * envelope_recipient (string) -- see MultidropPOP3Retriever for
       definition.

   The MultidropIMAPRetriever class also takes the following optional
   parameters:

     * timeout (integer) -- see SimplePOP3Retriever for definition.
     * mailboxes (tuple of quoted strings) -- see SimpleIMAPRetriever for
       definition.
     * move_on_delete (string) -- see SimpleIMAPRetriever for definition.

    MultidropIMAPSSLRetriever

   The MultidropIMAPSSLRetriever class takes the common retriever parameters
   above, plus the following required parameter:

     * envelope_recipient (string) -- see MultidropPOP3Retriever for
       definition.

   The MultidropIMAPSSLRetriever class also takes following optional
   parameters:

     * mailboxes (tuple of quoted strings) -- see SimpleIMAPRetriever for
       definition.
     * move_on_delete (string) -- see SimpleIMAPRetriever for definition.
     * keyfile (string) -- see SimplePOP3SSLRetriever for definition.
     * certfile (string) -- see SimplePOP3SSLRetriever for definition.

  Retriever examples

   A typical POP3 mail account (the basic kind of mailbox provided by most
   internet service providers (ISPs)) would use a retriever configuration
   like this:

 [retriever]
 type = SimplePOP3Retriever
 server = popmail.isp.example.net
 username = account_name
 password = my_mail_password

   If your ISP provides POP3 access on a non-standard port number, you would
   need to include the port parameter:

 [retriever]
 type = SimplePOP3Retriever
 server = popmail.isp.example.net
 port = 8110
 username = account_name
 password = my_mail_password

   If your ISP provides POP3-over-SSL and you wanted to use that, your
   retriever configuration might look like this:

 [retriever]
 type = SimplePOP3SSLRetriever
 server = popmail.isp.example.net
 username = account_name
 password = my_mail_password

   If you have an IMAP mail account and want to retrieve messages from
   several mail folders under that account, and you want to move messages to
   a special folder when deleting them, you would use a retriever
   configuration like this:

 [retriever]
 type = SimpleIMAPRetriever
 server = imapmail.isp.example.net
 username = account_name
 password = my_mail_password
 mailboxes = ("INBOX", "lists.unix", "lists.getmail")
 move_on_delete = mail.deleted

   If you are retrieving your company's mail from a domain POP3 mailbox for
   delivery to multiple local users, you might use a retriever configuration
   like this:

 [retriever]
 type = MultidropPOP3Retriever
 server = imapmail.isp.example.net
 username = account_name
 password = company_maildrop_password
 envelope_recipient = delivered-to:1

  Creating the [destination] section

   The destination section of the rc file tells getmail what to do with
   retrieved messages. Begin with the section header line as follows:

 [destination]

   Then, include a type string parameter to tell getmail what type of mail
   destination this is. The possible values are:

     * Maildir -- deliver all messages to a local qmail-style maildir
     * Mboxrd -- deliver all messages to a local mboxrd-format mbox file with
       fcntl-type locking.
     * MDA_external -- use an external message delivery agent (MDA) to
       deliver messages. Typical MDAs include maildrop, procmail, and others.
     * MultiDestination -- unconditionally deliver messages to multiple
       destinations (maildirs, mbox files, external MDAs, or other
       destinations).
     * MultiSorter -- sort messages according to the envelope recipient
       (requires a domain mailbox retriever) and deliver to a variety of
       maildirs, mbox files, external MDAs, or other destinations based on
       regular expressions matching the recipient address of each message.
       Messages not matching any of the regular expressions are delivered to
       a default "postmaster" destination.
     * MultiGuesser -- sort messages according to addresses found in the
       message's header fields and deliver to a variety of maildirs, mbox
       files, external MDAs, or other destinations based on regular
       expressions matching those addresses. Messages not matching any of the
       regular expressions are delivered to a default "postmaster"
       destination.
     * MDA_qmaillocal -- use qmail-local to deliver messages according to
       instructions in a .qmail file.

    Maildir

   The Maildir destination delivers to a qmail-style maildir.

   The Maildir destination takes one required parameter:

     * path (string) -- the path to the maildir, ending in slash (/). This
       value will be expanded for leading ~ or ~USER and environment
       variables in the form $VARNAME or ${VARNAME}. You might want to
       deliver messages to a maildir named Maildir in your home directory;
       you could do this with a configuration like this:

 [destination]
 type = Maildir
 path = ~/Maildir/


   The Maildir destination also takes two optional parameters:

     * user (string) -- on Unix-like systems, if supplied, getmail will
       change the effective UID to that of the named user before delivering
       messages to the maildir. Note that this typically requires root
       privileges. getmail will not deliver to maildirs as root, so this
       "optional" parameter is required in that situation.
     * filemode (string) -- if supplied, getmail will cause the delivered
       message files in the maildir to have at most these permissions (given
       in standard Unix octal notation). Note that the current umask is
       masked out of the given value at file creation time. The default
       value, which should be appropriate for most users, is "0600".

    Mboxrd

   The Mboxrd destination delivers to an mboxrd-format mbox file with
   fcntl-type file locking. The file must already exist and appear to be a
   valid mboxrd file before getmail will try to deliver to it -- getmail will
   not create the file if it does not exist.

   You should ensure that all other programs accessing any the mbox file
   expect mboxrd-format mbox files and fcntl-type file locking; failure to do
   so can cause mbox corruption. Note that delivering to mbox files over NFS
   can be unreliable and should be avoided; this is the case with any MDA.

   The Mboxrd destination takes one required parameter:

     * path (string) -- the path to the mbox file. This value will be
       expanded for leading ~ or ~USER and environment variables in the form
       $VARNAME or ${VARNAME}. You might want to deliver messages to an mbox
       file named inbox in your home directory; you could do this with a
       configuration like this:

 [destination]
 type = Mboxrd
 path = ~/inbox


   The Mboxrd destination also takes one optional parameters:

     * user (string) -- on Unix-like systems, if supplied, getmail will
       change the effective UID to that of the named user before delivering
       messages to the mboxrd file. Note that this typically requires root
       privileges. getmail will not deliver to mbox files as root, so this
       "optional" parameter is required in that situation.

    MDA_external

   MDA_external delivers messages by running an external program (known as a
   message delivery agent, or MDA). Some typical MDAs include maildrop and
   procmail.

   The MDA_external destination takes one required parameter:

     * path (string) -- the path to the command to run. This value will be
       expanded for leading ~ or ~USER and environment variables in the form
       $VARNAME or ${VARNAME}.

   The MDA_external destination also takes several optional parameters:

     * arguments (tuple of quoted strings) -- arguments to be supplied to the
       command. The following substrings will be substituted with the
       equivalent values from the message:

          * %(sender) -- envelope return-path address

       If the message is retrieved with a multidrop retriever class, the
       message recipient (and parts of it) are also available with the
       following replacement substrings:

          * %(recipient) -- envelope recipient address
          * %(local) -- local-part of the envelope recipient address
          * %(domain) -- domain-part of the envelope recipient address

       The default value of the arguments parameter is (), so no arguments
       are supplied to the command.
     * unixfrom (boolean) -- whether to include a Unix-style mbox From_ line
       at the beginning of the message supplied to the command. Defaults to
       false. Some MDAs expect such a line to be present and will fail to
       operate if it is missing.
     * user (string) -- if supplied, getmail will change the effective UID to
       that of the named user. Note that this typically requires root
       privileges.
     * group (string) -- if supplied, getmail will change the effective GID
       to that of the named group. Note that this typically requires root
       privileges.
     * allow_root_commands (boolean) -- if set, getmail will run external
       commands even if it is currently running with root privileges. The
       default is false, which causes getmail to raise an exception if it is
       asked to run an external command as root. Note that setting this
       option has serious security implications. Don't use it if you don't
       know what you're doing. I strongly recommend against running external
       processes as root.

   If an external MDA writes anything to stderr, getmail will consider the
   delivery to have encountered an error. getmail will leave the message on
   the server and proceed to the next message. You must configure any MDA you
   use not to emit messages to stderr except on errors -- please see the
   documentation for your MDA for details; this should be the default mode of
   operation for any sane MDA.

   A basic invocation of an external MDA might look like this:

 [destination]
 type = MDA_external
 path = /path/to/mymda
 arguments = ("--log-errors", )

   Something more complex might look like this:

 [destination]
 type = MDA_external
 path = /path/to/mymda
 # Switch to fred's UID and the mail group GID before delivering his mail
 user = fred
 group = mail
 arguments = ("--strip-forbidden-attachments", "--recipient=%(recipient)")

    MultiDestination

   MultiDestination doesn't do any message deliveries itself; instead, it
   lets you specify a list of one or more other destinations which it will
   pass each message to. You can use this to deliver each message to several
   different destinations.

   The MultiDestination destination takes one required parameter:

     * destinations (tuple of quoted strings) -- the destinations which the
       messages will be passed to. A destination is a string that refers to
       another configuration file section by name (shortcuts for maildirs and
       mboxrd files are also provided; see below), like this:

 destinations = ('[other-destination-1]', '[other-destination-2]')

 [other-destination-1]
 type = Mboxrd
 path = /var/spool/mail/alice
 user = alice

 [other-destination-2]
 type = Maildir
 path = /home/joe/Maildir/
 user = joe

       Because Maildir and Mboxrd destinations are common, you can specify
       them directly as a shortcut if they do not require a user parameter.
       If the string (after expansion; see below) starts with a dot or slash
       and ends with a slash, it specifies the path of a Maildir destination,
       while if it starts with a dot or a slash and does not end with a
       slash, it specifies the path of a Mboxrd destination.

       For instance, you can deliver mail to two maildirs with the following:

 destinations = ('~/Mail/inbox/', '~/Mail/archive/current/')

       Each destination string is first expanded for leading ~ or ~USER and
       environment variables in the form $VARNAME or ${VARNAME}.

   Some examples:

     * To deliver to a maildir named Maildir in the home directory of user
       jeff, when getmail is run as that user:

 [destination]
 type = MultiDestination
 destinations = ("~jeff/Maildir/", )

     * To deliver to an mboxrd file:

 [destination]
 type = MultiDestination
 destinations = ("/var/spool/mail/alice", )

     * To deliver with an external MDA:

 [destination]
 type = MultiDestination
 destinations = ("[procmail-as-bob]", )

 [procmail-as-bob]
 type = MDA_external
 path = /path/to/procmail
 arguments = ('~bob/.procmailrc', '-f', '%(sender)')
 user = bob

   Of course, the whole point of MultiDestination is to allow you to specify
   multiple destinations, like this:

 [destination]
 type = MultiDestination
 destinations = (
     "~jeff/Mail/inbox",
     "[procmail-as-jeff]",
     "/var/mail-archive/incoming"
     )

 [procmail-as-jeff]
 type = MDA_external
 path = /path/to/procmail
 arguments = ('~jeff/.procmailrc', '-f', '%(sender)')
 user = jeff

    MultiSorter

   MultiSorter compares the envelope recipient address of messages against a
   list of user-supplied regular expressions and delivers the message to the
   destination (maildir, mboxrd file, or other) associated with any matching
   patterns. A message can match multiple patterns and therefore be delivered
   to multiple matching destinations. Any message which matches none of the
   patterns is delivered to a default destination for the postmaster.

   Because MultiSorter requires the envelope recipient to operate, it must be
   used with a domain mailbox retriever. If you instead want to do some basic
   message sorting based on addresses found in the message header (using
   getmail as a combination retriever and basic filtering MDA), see the
   MultiGuesser destination class below.

   The MultiSorter destination takes one required parameter:

     * default (string) -- the destination for messages which aren't matched
       by any of the "locals" regular expressions. The destination can be a
       maildir, mboxrd file, or other destination. See MultiDestination for
       an explanation of how the type of destination is interpreted from this
       value.

   The MultiSorter destination also takes one optional parameter:

     * locals (tuple of 2-tuples) -- zero or more regular expression -
       destination pairs. Messages will be delivered to each destination for
       which the envelope recipient matches the given regular expression. The
       regular expression and destination are supplied as two quoted strings
       in a tuple; locals is then a tuple of such pairs of strings.
       Destinations are specified in the same manner as with the "default"
       parameter, above.

   Important note: if your regular expression contains backslashes (by
   themselves, or as part of an escaped character or symbol like \n or \W ),
   you need to tell the parser that this expression must be parsed "raw" by
   prepending the string with an "r":

 locals = (
     (r'jeff\?\?\?@.*', '[jeff]'),
     ('alice@', '[alice]')
     )

 locals = (
     ('jeff@.*', '[jeff]'),
     (r'alice\D+@', '[alice]')
     )

   Note that if you don't understand regular expressions, you don't need to
   worry about it. In general, an email address is a regular expression that
   matches itself. The only significant times this isn't the case is when the
   address contains odd punctuation characters like ^, $, \, or [. Handy
   hints:

     * the regular expression . (dot) matches anything
     * matches can occur anywhere in the address. If you want to only match
       at the beginning, start your expression with the ^ character. If you
       only want to match the whole address, also end your expression with a
       dollar sign $.

   Using regular expressions:

     * The regular expression joe@example.org matches the addresses
       joe@example.org, joe@example.org.net, and heyjoe@example.org.
     * The regular expression ^jeff@ matches the addresses jeff@example.org
       and jeff@example.net, but not otherjeff@example.org.
     * The regular expression sam matches the addresses sam@example.org,
       samantha@example.org, asam@example.org, and chris@isam.example.net.

   Some examples:

     *
          * Deliver mail matching jeff@example.net to ~jeff/Maildir/
          * Deliver mail matching alice@anything to ~alice/inbox
          * Deliver all other mail to ~bob/Maildir/

 [destination]
 type = MultiSorter
 default = [bob-default]
 locals = (
     ('jeff@example.net', '[jeff]'),
     ('alice@', '[alice]')
     )

 [jeff]
 type = Maildir
 path = ~jeff/Maildir/
 user = jeff

 [alice]
 type = Mboxrd
 path = ~alice/inbox
 user = alice

 [bob-default]
 type = Maildir
 path = ~bob/Maildir/
 user = bob

     *
          * Deliver mail for jeff, bob, and alice to maildirs in their home
            directories
          * Deliver copies of all messages to samantha's mail archive
          * Deliver copies of all messages to a program that logs certain
            information. This program should run as the user log, and command
            arguments should tell it to record the info to /var/log/mail/info

 [destination]
 type = MultiSorter
 default = doesn't matter, this won't be used, as locals will always match
 locals = (
     ('^jeff@'), '[jeff]'),
     ('^bob@'), '[bob]'),
     ('^alice@'), '[alice]'),
     ('.'), '[copies]'),
     ('.'), '[info]')
     )

 [alice]
 type = Maildir
 path = ~alice/Maildir/
 user = alice

 [bob]
 type = Maildir
 path = ~bob/Maildir/
 user = bob

 [jeff]
 type = Maildir
 path = ~jeff/Maildir/
 user = jeff

 [copies]
 type = Maildir
 path = ~samantha/Mail/archive/copies/
 user = samantha

 [info]
 type = MDA_external
 path = /path/to/infologger
 arguments = ('--log=/var/log/mail/info', '--sender=%(sender)', '--recipient=%(recipient))
 user = log

    MultiGuesser

   MultiGuesser compares addresses found in the message header against a list
   of user-supplied regular expressions and delivers the message to the
   destination (maildir, mboxrd file, or other) associated with any matching
   patterns. A message can match multiple patterns and therefore be delivered
   to multiple matching destinations. Any message which matches none of the
   patterns is delivered to a default destination for the postmaster. In this
   fashion, you can do basic mail filtering and sorting with getmail without
   using an external filtering message delivery agent (MDA) (such as maildrop
   or procmail).

   MultiGuesser is similar to MultiSorter, except that it does not operate on
   the envelope recipient address, and therefore does not require a domain
   mailbox retriever. Because it is "guessing" at the intended recipient of
   the message based on the contents of the message header, it is fallible --
   for instance, the address of a recipient of a mailing list message may not
   appear in the header of the message at all. If your locals regular
   expression patterns are only looking for that address, MultiGuesser will
   then have to deliver it to the destination specified as the default
   recipient.

   This functionality is very similar to the guessing functionality of
   getmail version 2, which was removed in version 3. MultiGuesser extracts a
   list of addresses from the message header like this:

    1. it looks for addresses in any Delivered-To: header fields.
    2. if no addresses have been found, it looks for addresses in any
       Envelope-To: header fields.
    3. if no addresses have been found, it looks for addresses in any
       X-Envelope-To: header fields.
    4. if no addresses have been found, it looks for addresses in any
       Apparently-To: header fields.
    5. if no addresses have been found, it looks for addresses in any
       Resent-to: or Resent-cc: header fields (or Resent-bcc:, which
       shouldn't be present).
    6. if no addresses have been found, it looks for addresses in any To: or
       cc: header fields (or bcc:, which shouldn't be present).

   The MultiGuesser destination takes one required parameter:

     * default (string) -- see MultiSorter for definition.

   The MultiGuesser destination also takes one optional parameter:

     * locals (tuple of 2-tuples) -- see MultiSorter for definition.

   Examples:

   If you have a simple POP3 account (i.e. it's not a multidrop mailbox) and
   you want to deliver your personal mail to your regular maildir, but
   deliver mail from a couple of mailing lists (identified by the list
   address appearing in the message header) to separate maildirs, you could
   use a MultiGuesser configuration like this:

 [destination]
 type = MultiGuesser
 default = ~/Maildir/
 locals = (
     ("list-address-1@list-domain-1", "~/Mail/mailing-lists/list-1/"),
     ("list-address-2@list-domain-2", "~/Mail/mailing-lists/list-2/"),
     )

   See MultiSorter above for other examples of getmail rc usage; the only
   difference is the type parameter specifying the MultiGuesser destination.

    MDA_qmaillocal

   MDA_qmaillocal delivers messages by running the qmail-local program as an
   external MDA. qmail-local uses .qmail files to tell it what to do with
   messages. If you're not already familiar with qmail, you don't need to use
   this destination class.

   The MDA_qmaillocal destination takes several optional parameters:

     * qmaillocal (string) -- path to the qmail-local program. The default
       value is /var/qmail/bin/qmail-local.
     * user (string) -- supplied to qmail-local, and also tells getmail to
       change the current effective UID to that of the named user before
       running qmail-local. Note that this typically requires root
       privileges. The default value is the account name of the current
       effective UID.
     * group (string) -- if supplied, getmail will change the effective GID
       to that of the named group before running qmail-local. Note that this
       typically requires root privileges.
     * homedir (string) -- supplied to qmail-local. The default value is the
       home directory of the account with the current effective UID.
     * localdomain (string) -- supplied to qmail-local as its domain
       argument. The default value is the fully-qualified domain name of the
       local host.
     * defaultdelivery (string) -- supplied to qmail-local as its
       defaultdelivery argument. The default value is ./Maildir/.
     * conf-break (string) -- supplied to qmail-local as its dash argument.
       The default value is -.
     * localpart_translate (2-tuple of quoted strings) -- if supplied, the
       recipient address of the message (which is used to construct the local
       argument (among others) to qmail-local) will have any leading instance
       of the first string replaced with the second string. This can be used
       to remap recipient addresses, trim extraneous prefixes (such as the
       qmail virtualdomain prepend value), or perform other tasks. The
       default value is ('', '') (i.e., no translation).
     * strip_delivered_to (boolean) -- if set, Delivered-To: header fields
       will be removed from the message before handing it to qmail-local.
       This may be necessary to prevent qmail-local falsely detecting a
       looping message if (for instance) the system retrieving messages
       otherwise believes it has the same domain name as the retrieval
       server. Inappropriate use of this option may cause message loops. The
       default value is False.
     * allow_root_commands (boolean) -- if set, getmail will run qmail-local
       even if it is currently running with root privileges. The default is
       false, which causes getmail to raise an exception if it is asked to
       run an external command as root. Note that setting this option has
       serious security implications. Don't use it if you don't know what
       you're doing. I strongly recommend against running external processes
       as root.

   A basic invocation of qmail-local might look like this:

 [destination]
 type = MDA_qmaillocal
 user = joyce

   Something more complex might look like this:

 [destination]
 type = MDA_qmaillocal
 user = joyce
 # The mail domain isn't the normal FQDN of the server running getmail
 localdomain = host.example.net
 # Trim the server's virtualdomain prepend value from message recipient before
 # sending it to qmail-local
 localpart_translate = ('mailhostaccount-', '')

  Creating the [options] section

   The optional options section of the rc file can be used to alter getmail's
   default behaviour. The parameters supported in this section are as
   follows:

     * verbose (integer) -- controls getmail's verbosity. If set to 2,
       getmail prints messages about each of its actions. If set to 1, it
       prints messages about retrieving and deleting messages (only). If set
       to 0, getmail will only print warnings and errors. Default: 1.
     * read_all (boolean) -- if set, getmail retrieves all available
       messages. If unset, getmail only retrieves messages it has not seen
       before. Default: True.
     * delete (boolean) -- if set, getmail will delete messages after
       retrieving and successfully delivering them. If unset, getmail will
       leave messages on the server after retrieving them. Default: False.
     * delete_after (integer) -- if set, getmail will delete messages this
       number of days after first seeing them, if they have been retrieved
       and delivered. This, in effect, leaves messages on the server for a
       configurable number of days after retrieving them. Note that the
       delete parameter has higher priority; if both are set, the messages
       will be deleted immediately. Default: 0, which means not to enable
       this feature.
     * max_message_size (integer) -- if set, getmail will not retrieve
       messages larger than this number of bytes. Default: 0, which means not
       to enable this feature.
     * max_messages_per_session (integer) -- if set, getmail will process a
       maximum of this number of messages before closing the session with the
       server. This can be useful if your network or the server is
       particuarly unreliable. Default: 0, which means not to enable this
       feature.
     * delivered_to (boolean) -- if set, getmail adds a Delivered-To: header
       field to the message. If unset, it will not do so. Default: True. Note
       that this field will contain the envelope recipient of the message if
       the retriever in use is a multidrop retriever; otherwise it will
       contain the string "unknown".
     * received (boolean) -- if set, getmail adds a Received: header field to
       the message. If unset, it will not do so. Default: True.
     * message_log (string) -- if set, getmail will record a log of its
       actions to the named file. The value will be expanded for leading ~ or
       ~USER and environment variables in the form $VARNAME or ${VARNAME}.
       Default: '' (the empty string), which means not to enable this
       feature.
     * message_log_syslog (boolean) -- if set, getmail will record a log of
       its actions using the system logger. Note that syslog is inherently
       unreliable and can lose log messages. Default: False.

   Most users will want to either enable the delete option (to delete mail
   after retrieving it), or disable the read_all option (to only retrieve
   previously-unread mail).

   The verbose, read_all, and delete parameters can be overridden at run time
   with commandline options.

    [options] example

   To configure getmail to operate quietly, to retrieve only new mail, to
   delete messages after retrieving them, and to log its actions to a file,
   you could provide the following in your getmail rc file(s):

 [options]
 verbose = 0
 read_all = false
 delete = true
 message_log = ~/.getmail/log

  Creating the [filter-something] sections

   The filter-something section(s) of the rc file (which are not required)
   tell getmail to process messages in some way after retrieving them, but
   before delivering them to your destinations. Filters can tell getmail to
   drop a message (i.e. not deliver it at all), add information to the
   message header (i.e. for a spam- classification system or similar), or
   modify message content (like an antivirus system stripping suspected MIME
   parts from messages).

   You can specify any number of filters; provide a separate rc file section
   for each, naming each of them filter-something. They will be run in
   collated order, so it's likely simplest to name them like this:

     * [filter-1]
     * [filter-2]
     * [filter-3]

   Begin with the section header line as follows:

 [filter-something]

   Then, include a type string parameter to tell getmail what type of filter.
   The possible values are:

     * Filter_classifier -- run the message through an external program, and
       insert the output of the program into X-getmail-filter-classifier:
       header fields in the message. Messages can be dropped by having the
       filter return specific exit codes.
     * Filter_external -- supply the message to an external program, which
       can then modify the message in any fashion. The program must print the
       modified message to stdout. getmail reads the modified message from
       the program in this fasion before proceeding to the next filter or
       destination. Messages can be dropped by having the filter return
       specific exit codes.
     * Filter_TMDA -- run the message through the tmda-filter program for use
       with the Tagged Message Delivery Agent (TMDA) package. If tmda-filter
       returns 0, the message will be passed to the next filter (or
       destination). If it returns 99, the message will be dropped, and TMDA
       is responsible for sending a challenge message, queuing the original,
       etc., as with normal TMDA operation in a .qmail, .courier, or .forward
       file.

   If a filter writes anything to stderr, getmail will consider the delivery
   to have encountered an error. getmail will leave the message on the server
   and proceed to the next message. You must configure any filter you use not
   to emit messages to stderr except on errors -- please see the
   documentation for your filter program for details; this should be the
   default mode of operation for any sane filter.

    Filter_classifier

   Filter_classifier runs the message through an external program, placing
   the output of that program into X-getmail-filter-classifier: header
   fields. It can also cause messages to be dropped by exiting with a return
   code listed in the exitcodes_drop parameter.

   Filter_classifier has one required parameter:

     * path (string) -- the path to the command to run. This value will be
       expanded for leading ~ or ~USER and environment variables in the form
       $VARNAME or ${VARNAME}.

   In addition, Filter_classifier takes the following optional parameters:

     * arguments (tuple of quoted strings) -- arguments to be supplied to the
       command. The following substrings will be substituted with the
       equivalent values from the message:

          * %(sender) -- envelope return-path address

       If the message is retrieved with a multidrop retriever class, the
       message recipient (and parts of it) are also available with the
       following replacement substrings:

          * %(recipient) -- envelope recipient address
          * %(local) -- local-part of the envelope recipient address
          * %(domain) -- domain-part of the envelope recipient address

       The default value of the arguments parameter is (), so no arguments
       are supplied to the command.
     * unixfrom (boolean) -- whether to include a Unix-style mbox From_ line
       at the beginning of the message supplied to the command. Default:
       False.
     * user (string) -- if supplied, getmail will change the effective UID to
       that of the named user. Note that this typically requires root
       privileges.
     * group (string) -- if supplied, getmail will change the effective GID
       to that of the named group. Note that this typically requires root
       privileges.
     * allow_root_commands (boolean) -- if set, getmail will run external
       commands even if it is currently running with root privileges. The
       default is false, which causes getmail to raise an exception if it is
       asked to run an external command as root. Note that setting this
       option has serious security implications. Don't use it if you don't
       know what you're doing. I strongly recommend against running external
       processes as root.
     * exitcodes_drop (tuple of integers) -- if the filter returns an exit
       code in this list, the message will be dropped. The default is (99,
       100).
     * exitcodes_keep (tuple of integers) -- if the filter returns an exit
       code other than those in exitcodes_drop and exitcodes_keep, getmail
       assumes the filter encountered an error. getmail will then not
       proceed, so that the message is not lost. The default is (0, ).

    Filter_external

   Filter_external runs the message through an external program, and replaces
   the message with the output of that program, allowing the filter to make
   arbitrary changes to messages. It can also cause messages to be dropped by
   exiting with a return code listed in the exitcodes_drop parameter.

   Filter_external has one required parameter:

     * path (string) -- see Filter_classifier for definition.

   In addition, Filter_external takes the following optional parameters:

     * arguments (tuple of quoted strings) -- see Filter_classifier for
       definition.
     * unixfrom (boolean) -- see Filter_classifier for definition.
     * user (string) -- see Filter_classifier for definition.
     * group (string) -- see Filter_classifier for definition.
     * allow_root_commands (boolean) -- see Filter_classifier for definition.
     * exitcodes_drop (tuple of integers) -- see Filter_classifier for
       definition.
     * exitcodes_keep (tuple of integers) -- see Filter_classifier for
       definition.

    Filter_TMDA

   Filter_external runs the message through the external program tmda-filter,
   allowing the use of the Tagged Message Delivery Agent (TMDA) package. As
   TMDA relies on the message envelope, this filter requires the use of a
   multidrop retriever class to function. It sets the three environment
   variables SENDER, RECIPIENT, and EXT prior to running tmda-filter.

   I've tested this filter, and it Works For Me(TM), but I'm not a regular
   TMDA user. I would appreciate any feedback about its use from TMDA users.

   Filter_TMDA has no required parameters. It has the following optional
   parameters:

     * path (string) -- the path to the tmda-filter binary. Default:
       /usr/local/bin/tmda-filter. This value will be expanded for leading ~
       or ~USER and environment variables in the form $VARNAME or ${VARNAME}.
     * user (string) -- see Filter_classifier for definition.
     * group (string) -- see Filter_classifier for definition.
     * allow_root_commands (boolean) -- see Filter_classifier for definition.
     * conf-break (string) -- this value will be used to split the local-part
       of the envelope recipient address to determine the value of the EXT
       environment variable. For example, if the envelope sender address is
       sender-something@host.example.org, and the envelope recipient address
       is user-ext-ext2@host.example.net, and conf-break is set to -, getmail
       will set the environment variables SENDER to
       "sender-something@host.example.org", RECIPIENT to
       "user-ext-ext2@host.example.net", and EXT to "ext-ext2". Default: "-".

    [filter-something] examples

   You might filter spam messages in your MUA based on information added to
   the message header by a spam-classification program. You could have that
   information added to the message header with a filter configuration like
   this:

 [filter-3]
 type = Filter_classifier
 path = /path/to/my-classifier
 arguments = ('--message-from-stdin', '--report-to-stdout')
 user = nobody

   You might use a program to prevent users from accidentally destroying
   their data by stripping suspected attachments from messages. You could
   have that information added to the message header with a filter
   configuration like this:

 [filter-3]
 type = Filter_external
 path = /path/to/my-mime-filter
 arguments = ('--message-from-stdin', '--remove-all-but-attachment-types=text/plain,text/rfc822')
 user = nobody

   You might use TMDA to challenge messages from unknown senders. If the
   default parameters are fine for your configuration, this is as simple as:

 [filter-3]
 type = Filter_TMDA

  getmail rc file examples

   Several examples of different getmail rc configuration are available in
   the included file getmailrc-examples.

                                Running getmail

   To use getmail, simply run the script getmail, which is typically
   installed in /usr/local/bin/ by default. getmail will read the default
   getmail rc file (getmailrc) from the default configuration/data directory
   (~/.getmail/) and begin operating.

   You can modify this behaviour by supplying commandline options to getmail.

Commandline options

   getmail understands the following options:

     * --version -- show getmail's version number and exit
     * --help or -h -- show a brief usage summary and exit
     * --getmaildir=DIR or -gDIR -- use DIR for configuration and data files
     * --rcfile=FILE or -rFILE -- read getmail rc file FILE instead of the
       default. The file path is assumed to be relative to the getmaildir
       directory unless this value starts with a slash (/). This option can
       be given multiple times to have getmail retrieve mail from multiple
       accounts.
     * --dump -- read rc files, dump configuration, and exit (debugging)
     * --trace -- print extended debugging information

   In addition, the following commandline options can be used to override any
   values specified in the [options] section of the getmail rc files:

     * --verbose or -v -- operate more verbosely. Can be given multiple
       times.
     * --quiet or -q -- print only warnings or errors while running
     * --delete or -d -- delete messages after retrieving
     * --dont-delete or -l -- do not delete messages after retrieving
     * --all or -a -- retrieve all messages
     * --new or -n -- retrieve only new (unseen) messages

   For instance, if you want to retrieve mail from two different mail
   accounts, create a getmail rc file for each of them (named, say,
   getmailrc-account1 and getmailrc-account2) and put them in ~/.getmail/ .
   Then run getmail as follows:

 $ getmail --rcfile getmailrc-account1 --rcfile getmailrc-account2

   If those files were located in a directory other than the default, and you
   wanted to use that directory for storing the data files as well, you could
   run getmail as follows:

 $ getmail --getmaildir /path/to/otherdir --rcfile getmailrc-account1 --rcfile getmailrc-account2

Using getmail as an MDA

   getmail includes helper scripts which allow you to use it to deliver mail
   from other programs to maildirs or mboxrd files.

  Using the getmail_maildir MDA

   The getmail_maildir script can be used as an MDA from other programs to
   deliver mail to maildirs. It reads the mail message from stdin, and
   delivers it to a maildir path provided as an argument on the commandline.
   This path must (after expansion by the shell, if applicable) start with a
   dot or slash and end with a slash.

   getmail_maildir uses the contents of the SENDER environment variable to
   construct a Return-Path: header field and the contents of the RECIPIENT
   environment variable to construct a Delivered-To: header field at the top
   of the message.

   getmail_maildir also accepts the options --verbose or -v which tell it to
   print a status message on success. The default is to operate silently
   unless an error occurs.

    Example

   You could deliver a message to a maildir named Maildir located in your
   home directory by running the following command with the message on stdin:

 $ getmail_maildir $HOME/Maildir/

  Using the getmail_mbox MDA

   The getmail_mbox script can be used as an MDA from other programs to
   deliver mail to mboxrd-format mbox files. It reads the mail message from
   stdin, and delivers it to an mbox path provided as an argument on the
   commandline. This path must (after expansion by the shell, if applicable)
   start with a dot or slash and not end with a slash.

   getmail_maildir uses the contents of the SENDER environment variable to
   construct a Return-Path: header field and mbox From_ line and the contents
   of the RECIPIENT environment variable to construct a Delivered-To: header
   field at the top of the message.

   getmail_mbox also accepts the options --verbose or -v which tell it to
   print a status message on success. The default is to operate silently
   unless an error occurs.

    Example

   You could deliver a message to an mboxrd-format mbox file named inbox
   located in a directory named mail in your home directory by running the
   following command with the message on stdin:

 $ getmail_mbox $HOME/mail/inbox

Using getmail_fetch to retrieve mail from scripts

   getmail includes the getmail_fetch helper script, which allows you to
   retrieve mail from a POP3 server without the use of a configuration file.
   It is primarily intended for use in automated or scripted environments,
   but can be used to retrieve mail normally.

   See the getmail_fetch manual page for details on the use of getmail_fetch.
