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[fetchmail] 6.3.0 TODO

2003-08-17 13:49:13
Hello,

there are some severe issues open that I'd like to remind of.

(Note I'm not going to retry sending automake patches before I'm getting
read-only access to the fetchmail revision control repository. I don't
have time to remake the patch when it's been dropped and the next
release is out.)

Generally, we need to remove all assumptions that fetchmail is the only
client accessing the mailbox, because both aren't true and can cause
mail loss, therefore, we need to find alternatives for server-side
"seen" tracking.

1. POP3 variants: UIDL and emulation thereof must be the only supported
   mode for POP3/APOP/KPOP/variants. It's OK to fall back to TOP and
   build the SHA1 sum of all Received: and the Message-ID: headers, but
   anything short of that or forcing "--all" WILL LOSE mail.

   Note that, when emulating UIDL, checking the Message-ID alone is
   _NOT_ sufficient, because it will then lose messages Cc:'d for
   example to a mailing list and the user.

2. The IMAP code is broken by design, because it relies on the
   server-side \Seen flag, which MUST FAIL: As soon as I've read mail
   with Mozilla or Sylpheed, the mail will not be retrieved. That's not
   what I'd call reliable mail fetching.

   So, either the IMAP code uses a custom \Fetchedmail flag or a unique
   identifier.  I'm not very acquainted with IMAP, so I don't know if it
   has the equivalent of POP3's "UIDL". (I wonder what all that UID and
   UIDVALIDITY stuff is, might be related.)

3. The "mda" option still isn't working. It cannot bounce mail and it
   doesn't handle multiple recipients in multidrop unless the configured
   "mda" is actually /usr/sbin/sendmail.

I recall Sunil wanted to look into #3, but haven't heard updates. Did I
miss the patch? :-)

I'm sorry that I don't have the time to code on fetchmail currently, but
I'll actively have to look for a replacement unless #2 is resolved.

-- 
Matthias Andree

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