Re: POP3 mail fetcher that supports unreliable connections?

From: Vincent Lefevre (vincent_at_vinc17.org)
Date: 11/04/03

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    Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 10:04:57 +0100
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org

    On 2003-11-03 21:43:26 -0700, Monique Y. Herman wrote:
    > The very first paragraph in `man fetchmail` says
    >
    > fetchmail is a mail-retrieval and forwarding utility; it
    > fetches mail from remote mailservers and forwards it to
    > your local (client) machine's delivery system. You can
    > then handle the retrieved mail using normal mail user agents such
    > as mutt(1), elm(1) or Mail(1). The fetchmail utility can be run
    > in a daemon mode to repeatedly poll one or more systems at a
    > specified interval.
    >
    > Whatever you think about what a mail fetcher should be doing, shouldn't
    > you read at least the first paragraph of the man page before using a
    > tool?

    This isn't sufficient: it gives no warning that mail may be lost by
    doing this. I was rather naive and thought that if this failed, then
    fetchmail wouldn't delete the mail.

    > In fact, the author (that's esr, if I recall correctly) considered
    > delivery to your local delivery system a *feature*, because it allows
    > you to use all of the powerful features available through the MTA of
    > your choice.
    >
    > I'm sorry that you lost mail. It absolutely sucks. But I think it
    > might be an object lesson -- it's a good idea to read up on a tool
    > before using it, especially when you're going to use it on something
    > as sensitive as mail.

    Reading the man page won't solve the problems inherent to a dangerous
    method. Even if you have a working system, the configuration of your
    local delivery system may change in the future. It is still possible
    to make a mistake when implementing an antispam rule and reject to
    much mail (I know sysadmins who did that wrong). 

    -- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.org> - Web: <http://www.vinc17.org/> - 100%
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