Fetchmail Configuration

Alexander Dalloz ad+lists at uni-x.org
Mon Nov 29 18:08:07 UTC 2004


Am Mo, den 29.11.2004 schrieb Phil Brooks um 4:09:

> At present I run the following command:

> fetchmail -d 300 -mda -v -f  '/home/mailbox/.fetchmailrc'
> 
> (so do I not need the -mda switch?)

You run your local MTA like Sendmail or Postfix? Don't use the "mda"
switch then. It is even used wrong.

man fetchmail:

       -m <command> | --mda <command>
              (Keyword:  mda)  You  can  force  mail  to  be  passed to
an MDA
              directly (rather than forwarded to port 25) with the --mda
or -m
              option.   To  avoid  losing mail, use this option only
with MDAs

1) it is --mda and not -mda
2) your switch misses the <command>

Remove "pop.freeserve.co.uk" from your fetchmail command. You say in
your .fetchmailrc which host shall be fetched.

> And my fetchmailrc file looks like this:
> 
> poll pop.freeserve.co.uk
> 	proto pop3
> 	aka "myhostname.freeserve.co.uk"
> 	user "ISP username"
> 	pass "ISP password"
> 	nokeep
> 	fetchall

Ok.

> The problem is if for instance BOB at YAHOO.COM sends
> PHIL at MYHOST.FREESERVE.CO.UK an email which is incorrectly spelt e.g
> PHILLL at MYHOST.FREESERVE.CO.UK , BOB at YAHOO.COM does not get a
> email back to inform him that the email was incorrectly delivered and
> instead, the "UNDELVERED MESSAGE" goes back to the MAILBOX user on the
> local machine.

Well, such mail with an invalid local recipient (local means the phill
in the mail address @myhostname.freeserve.co.uk) shouldn't reach the
freeserve account and should be rejected to the sender due to invalid
recipient address. This way the sender has a chance to see his fault.
Seems there is a catch-all acceptance active on the freeserve server
which is nowadays a bad idea. You will get tons of worm mails and spam.
Once the mail is on the remote freeserve server which you fetch via
POP3, there is no legitimate chance to validly bounce mail with a wrong
recipient address. Don't bounce! Else you will be a pain for many other
mail users because most of the bounces will reach people who never did
send you a mail. What you can do, if it is not possible to deactivate
the catch-all on the freeserve server, is to create a catch-all address
on your local MTA (using Sendmail i.e. done using virtusertable) and
then do a search through the mail which goes to this local account for
which you want to reply and i.e. remind using your correct email
address.

> Phil

Alexander


-- 
Alexander Dalloz | Enger, Germany | new address - new key: 0xB366A773
legal statement: http://www.uni-x.org/legal.html
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