[CentOS] Fetchmail question

[Brian Mathis]

[Top post again moved to the bottom]

On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 10:55 AM, Scot P. Floess <sfloess at nc.rr.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Dec 2009, Brian Mathis wrote:
>> [Top post moved to bottom]
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 10:39 AM, Davy Leon <davy at scu.escambray.com.cu>
>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: "Brian Mathis" <brian.mathis at gmail.com>
>>>> To: "CentOS mailing list" <centos at centos.org>
>>>> Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 10:27 AM
>>>> Subject: Re: [CentOS] Fetchmail question
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 10:29 AM, Davy Leon <davy at scu.escambray.com.cu>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi folks
>>>>>
>>>>> This question is about fetchmail running on my Centos 5.3 box.
>>>>> I need to fetch my email from different accounts living on remote
>>>>> servers
>>>>> and drop it on my local mailbox.
>>>>> The question is which way is faster for fetchmail... using POP3 or IMAP?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks
>>>>> David
>>>>
>>>> Not sure I could say which is faster, but POP3 is more simple and is
>>>> intended for what you are doing.  IMAP is meant to have all messages
>>>> stored on the server and thus supports folders and other more advanced
>>>> features.
>>>>
>>>> Based on what you are trying to accomplish, I would use POP3.
>>>
>>> Actually I'm using POP3, but just looking for improvements in speed.
>>> Plus,
>>> fetchmail doesn't allow fetch more than one account at a time, and it's
>>> kind slow in the secure handshaking. There is another package should I
>>> "explore" using it to improve speed?
>>>
>>> Thanks for your answer
>>>
>>> David
>>
>> You could probably make different fetchmailrc files for each account
>> you have, and then use the "-f" option to read each separate file.
>> Then launch multiple fetchmail processes for each account.  That would
>> allow you to fetch multiple accounts at once.
>>
>> As for gaining additional speed, it sounds like you may be using the
>> wrong solution to accomplish something that you have not yet
>> explained.  High speed is typically not the main goal of email in
>> general.
>
> You can definitely use the -f option to fetchmail.  But the neat thing is,
> you can supply multiple accounts - and multiple local users.  For me I
> supply 2 different pop servers and one local user - works great.
>
> Scot P. Floess

Scott,

You may notice that in the OPs 1st reply that the requirement is to
retrieve multiple accounts *at the same time* to increase speed.
AFAIK, if you use 1 file with fetchmail it will retrieve messages
sequentially from each account.