symptom:
fetchmail fails to deliver a message to the local smtp
server, and then deletes the message on the pop server,
thus silently losing the message.
explanation:
sendmail is saying 550, which fetchmail thinks means "this
is spam", but the problem is really something else.
Silent operation is bad. I didn't know why fetchmail was
dropping the mail, and fetchmail -v didn't give me any
clues. I figured it out when I looked in the source code.
Yes, reading the whole man page would have helped, but
it's a long man page, and it's not obvious what section
would have answered my question.
It would be helpful to print a summary line that says "N
spam messages deleted" when N is nonzero.
And I don't think the spam handling should be on by
default. I don't have any faith that fetchmail can know
all the MTA codes that mean "this message is spam".
transcript:
$ fetchmail -v kanga
fetchmail: 5.9.0 querying kanga (protocol POP3) at Wed Jul 17 17:58:24 2002
fetchmail: POP3< +OK POP3 kanga v7.59 server ready
fetchmail: POP3> USER flee
fetchmail: POP3< +OK User name accepted, password please
fetchmail: POP3> PASS *
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Mailbox open, 1 messages
fetchmail: POP3> STAT
fetchmail: POP3< +OK 1 388
fetchmail: POP3> LAST
fetchmail: POP3< +OK 0
1 message for flee at kanga (388 octets).
fetchmail: POP3> LIST
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Mailbox scan listing follows
fetchmail: POP3< 1 388
fetchmail: POP3< .
fetchmail: POP3> TOP 1 99999999
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Top of message follows
reading message 1 of 1 (388 octets)
fetchmail: SMTP< 220 wolf ESMTP Sendmail 8.11.6/8.11.6; Wed, 17 Jul 2002
17:58:27 -0700
fetchmail: SMTP> EHLO localhost
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-wolf Hello localhost [127.0.0.1], pleased to meet you
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
fetchmail: SMTP> MAIL FROM:<flee(_at_)kanga>
fetchmail: SMTP< 550 5.0.0 Access denied
fetchmail: SMTP> RSET
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 2.0.0 Reset state
flushed
fetchmail: POP3> DELE 1
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Message deleted
fetchmail: POP3> QUIT
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Sayonara
fetchmail: SMTP> QUIT
fetchmail: SMTP< 221 2.0.0 wolf closing connection
fetchmail: normal termination, status 0