getmail_fetch retrieves messages from POP3 or POP3-over-SSL mailboxes and delivers to a maildir, mboxrd, or external MDA. This command is intended primarily for scripting, and as such does not require a client-side configuration file, and does not record any state.

The DESTINATION argument is interpreted as follows:

If it begins with a dot or a slash and ends with a slash, it is assumed to be a path to a maildir.

If it begins with a dot or a slash and does not end with a slash, it is assumed to be a path to an mboxrd file.

If it begins with a pipe, it is assumed to be a path to an external MDA command. Note that arguments can be included in this string by separating them by whitespace; untrusted data must not be used in constructing this string.

--version

show program's version number and exit

-h, --help

show a short usage summary and exit

-v, --verbose

output information messages while running

-q, --quiet

output only on error

-mFILE, --message=FILE

read well-formatted RFC822 message from FILE and deliver prior to connecting to POP server

-pPORT, --port=PORT

use port PORT instead of default (POP3: 110, POP3-over-SSL: 995)

-d, --delete

delete messages from server after delivery

-tTIMEOUT, --timeout=TIMEOUT

use timeout of TIMEOUT seconds instead of default 180

-a, --apop

use APOP authentication

-s, --ssl

use POP3-over-SSL

IMPORTANT: include the output of getmail [options] --dump with any bug report.