Fetchmail Configuration Howto

This mini Howto will teach you how to configure fetchmail to download your email from A/I servers, using SSL to ensure your privacy, and how to verify that no-one is sneaking on you while doing so.

Fetchmail configuration file is ~/.fetchmailrc: edit or create the file and add the following lines:

poll "mail.autistici.org"
proto imap
user "user@domain.org"
pass "password"
ssl
sslcertck
sslcertpath "/etc/ssl/certs/"
folder INBOX
folder Spam
nokeep

WARNING: to verify the certificates you have to install the ca-certificates package.

Change the user@domain.org with your full e-mail address and password with your password.

Note that you can omit the “password” line and fill it in every time you connect via fetchmail to the server. This protects your password from someone gaining undue access to your pc and reading your configuration file.

The SSL option ensures the connection between you and the server happens through an encrypted channel while the ssl fingerprint is needed to confirm the fact that your are actually connecting to our servers and not to someone else just posing as our servers: it’s a sort of verification of our servers identity.

The folder option points out which mail folder you are interested in downloading (INBOX and Spam are usually more than enough), while nokeep means you do not want to keep a copy of your messages on the server. For more information you can read fetchmail manual (using the command line ‘man 1 fetchmail’).

Now you are ready, launch fetchmail and enjoy your messages