You can have fetchmail invoke the same local delivery program
that sendmail would use to write to a maildir.
You still use *sendmail* ??
Yes, is that a problem?
s/sendmail/your local MTA/
if you prefer :)
I use Exim, and it doesn't invoke any local delivery program.
(It *can*, but in a normal configuration there's no need).
All I'm trying to say is, you can't rely on the existence of a separate
local delivery program on the system where you install fetchmail.
Aha. *That* is a good point, which I had not picked up from the
previous discussion. (I have heard of Exim, but know essentially
nothing about it.)
I'm still inclined toward the modular approach, but this suggests
a need for the fetchmail documentation to include suggestions of
where to find simple LDA's for various formats. Certainly procmail
is one possibility, but not everyone who needs to use an LDA rather
than the local MTA will need the full capabilities (and attendant
configuration requirements) of procmail.