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[fetchmail]Observations of a new user

2004-11-04 17:20:00
Hello!

I am a happy new Fetchmail user.  Fetchmail works perfectly for my needs,
and was easy to install and configure thanks to all the fine
documentation.
Many thanks and kudos to Eric, Carl, and all those who've been involved in
the creation and maintenance of this fine piece of OSS!

I thought I would take a moment to share a few observations that I made as
I was installing FM:

1) In the process of configuring FM I used MyRealBox.com as an IMAP
   testbed.  In looking over the protocol exchanges between FM and
   the server, it appears at first blush that the server is being
   quite non-conformant to the RFC's.  I've not worked extensively
   with IMAP, but there does seem to be some serious bizarritude.
   I'm pleased and surprised that FM works!  Does anyone know whether
   the MyRealBox.com IMAP server uses the Novell "GroupFoolish" server
   described in the FAQ?

2) The documentation for FM is excellent, and sets a high bar for other
   OSS projects!  One small detail caused me to trip, initially, although
   (he says apologetically) this may have had more to do with the reader
   than the writer.  I found it might've helped me initially if there had
   been an explicit discussion of the "singledrop" versus "multidrop" mode
   of operation early in the man page.  Then, it might additionally have
   helped if each option had been explicitly labeled as having
   applicability for single- vs multidrop.  It wasn't clear to me on first
   read that FM had these two different modes, or, at minimum, the 
   differences between them weren't obvious to me.  Then again, I
   frequently need that second whak with the proverbial cluestick.

3) On the subject of logging - I find myself missing MTA-style logging,
ie,
   timestamp, mailserver, MAIL FROM, RCPT TO, message size, and receiving
   MTA queueid.  This would make tracking email through the various logs
   much easier.  The standard FM log is too terse to include this
   information, yet while the "single-v" logging contains the information
   in question, it is probably more intended for debugging than logging of
   the sort I'm looking for.  Also, in the non-v logging, I miss having
   information on when a server with no messages was polled.  I do
realize,
   though, that the non-v logging was intended to be very economical. 
I've
   been using -v logging, and I'm happy.  Disks are cheap.  ;-)

4) Closely releted to item #3, I also found it might be useful to be able
   to control logging from the fetchmailrc file, so that system start-up
   scripts wouldn't need to be touched.  So, eg, one could conceivably
   use global options such as "set verbose 2", or "set logging-level 1"
   in one's FMrc configuration to change the logging verbosity.

But, as I say, I'm a happy camper and FM is doing its thing in the
background.  Somewhere.  Thanks again to all concerned!

Hannes.



                
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