Sunil Shetye wrote:
- If some of the retrieved mails had delivery problems (say, due to
transient SMTP error), those mails never get downloaded again in
further polls. Note that the seen flag is set here automatically as
the mail was downloaded successfully.
Isn't this why fetchmail uses TOP instead of RETR?
- If some of the mails get skipped (not retrieved at all) for some
reason (say, due to 'limit'), the mails never get downloaded.
Caveat emptor if using --limit on a LAST-only server.
- If there is a socket error, the POP3 server may revert the state of
the mailbox. The output of LAST will not then change in the next
poll. So, all the mails that were downloaded & delivered
successfully will get redownloaded in the next poll.
Better than losing mail...
Though one ugly fix would be to exit and re-login to the server between
each message download.
So, the only sane option left is UIDL. Matthias Andree is right!
Inspite of the complexity required in tracking new mails, UIDL is
infact quite a safe and secure method for tracking new mails.
Unless you ever use other clients besides fetchmail with that server.
I don't think it's so unreasonable to do so.
If a server does not support UIDL, the only safe retrieval is by using
fetchall. Using LAST even as a backup is not recommended due to the
problems mentioned above.
Which totally screws those who want to use other clients besides fetchmail.
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