# Install fetchmail with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper Client for fetching mail from POP, IMAP, ETRN or ODMR-capable servers. Version 6.6.6 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-25. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:fetchmail ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install fetchmail ``` Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata - MacPorts (94%): ```sh sudo port install fetchmail ``` Evidence: MacPorts ports tree: mail/fetchmail/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ### Linux - apk (92%): ```sh sudo apk add fetchmail ``` Evidence: Alpine Linux edge package indexes: fetchmail from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz - Debian apt (92%): ```sh sudo apt install fetchmail ``` Evidence: Debian stable package indexes: fetchmail from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz - dnf (92%): ```sh sudo dnf install fetchmail ``` Evidence: Fedora Rawhide package metadata: fetchmail from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst - Nix (92%): ```sh nix profile install nixpkgs#fetchmail ``` Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/fe/fetchmail/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 - pacman (92%): ```sh sudo pacman -S fetchmail ``` Evidence: Arch Linux sync databases: fetchmail from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz - zypper (92%): ```sh sudo zypper install fetchmail ``` Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: fetchmail from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:fetchmail - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Package manager page:** - **Version:** 6.6.6 - **Source summary:** Client for fetching mail from POP, IMAP, ETRN or ODMR-capable servers - **Homepage:** - **Repository:** - **Upstream docs:** - **License:** LGPL-2.1-or-later AND ISC AND BSD-3-Clause AND LicenseRef-Homebrew-public-domain AND (GPL-2.0-or-later WITH openvpn-openssl-exception) - **Source archive:** - **Last updated:** 2026-06-25T00:11:34Z - **Generated:** 2026-07-08T07:18:31+00:00 ## Executables - fetchmail (cli) - fetchmailconf (cli) - fetchmail (alias) - fetchmailconf (alias) ## Dependencies - openssl@3 ## Build dependencies - pkgconf ## Install behavior - Post-install hook: not defined - Bottle: available on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux ## Freshness - Page generated: 2026-07-08 - Package-manager version: 6.6.6 - Package-manager updated: 2026-06-25 - Local data: ok - Upstream repository: https://www.fetchmail.info/ - info: Release/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories. ## Project history and usage fetchmail is one of the classic Unix mail-retrieval tools: it polls remote POP, IMAP, ETRN, or ODMR-capable servers and forwards mail into the local delivery system. Its normal role is not to replace a mail user agent, but to bridge remote mailboxes into local SMTP, LMTP, or MDA workflows so existing Unix mail filters, aliases, and readers can operate as though the mail arrived locally. The project is historically significant beyond mail retrieval because Eric S. Raymond used fetchmail development as the case study for The Cathedral and the Bazaar. That made the package part of open-source culture as well as part of the Unix networking toolbox. ### Project history Fetchmail began as popclient, written by Carl Harris. In 1996 Eric S. Raymond took over maintenance, added IMAP support, and renamed the program fetchmail. The official site records a later 2004 handoff to a team led by Rob Funk, Graham Wilson, and Matthias Andree, with Sunil Shetye credited for later important code contributions. The current project continues under the fetchmail name with official source repositories on GitLab and SourceForge. The FAQ notes the modern branch layout, including stable and development branches, and the README describes a codebase that remains portable Unix C while progressively updating compiler, TLS, and build requirements. ### Adoption history Fetchmail spread with the dialup and small-site Unix era, where machines often had intermittent connectivity or dynamic IP addresses and needed to collect mail from an ISP mailbox. Official documentation still describes this target plainly: remote mail retrieval over on-demand TCP/IP links, followed by forwarding into local delivery. The project also became a cultural reference point. The FAQ says Raymond treated fetchmail development as a sociological experiment testing claims about the Linux development model, and that the resulting Cathedral and the Bazaar paper was presented at Linux Kongress '97 and other conferences before influencing wider open-source discussion. Modern adoption is quieter but still real. The official home page reports a SourceForge Open Source Excellence award in 2024 after reaching 100,000 downloads from SourceForge, explicitly noting that this excludes distribution packages, mirrors, and earlier hosting. ### How it is used A typical fetchmail setup creates a ~/.fetchmailrc file describing one or more polls, keeps that file private with mode 0600, and lets fetchmail retrieve messages by POP or IMAP before handing them to a local SMTP listener, LMTP listener, or MDA. The manual also documents alternate config locations through HOME_ETC and FETCHMAILHOME. Fetchmail's long tail is in protocol edge cases: it supports POP3, IMAP variants, ETRN, ODMR, multiple authentication methods, TLS options, daemon polling, single-drop and multidrop modes, and .netrc-based credential lookup. The FAQ repeatedly steers users toward keeping policy decisions, filtering, and complex routing in adjacent Unix tools when they are better suited there. ### Why package nerds care For package nerds, fetchmail is the sort of tool that explains why old Unix packages have sprawling configure scripts, man pages, FAQ sections, security advisories, and distro patches: it sits at the crossing of network protocols, TLS libraries, local MTAs, dotfile permissions, daemon behavior, and decades of mail-server quirks. It is also an artifact of a particular packaging culture. A small command-line daemon, a strict run-control file, SourceForge/GitLab hosting, long-lived stable branches, and a public security history make fetchmail a useful reference point for how mature infrastructure utilities survive after their original mainstream use case becomes less fashionable. ### Timeline - Pre-1996: Carl Harris writes popclient, fetchmail's predecessor. - 1996: Eric S. Raymond takes over, adds IMAP support, and renames the program fetchmail. - 1997: The Cathedral and the Bazaar paper based on fetchmail development is presented at Linux Kongress '97. - 2004: A new maintenance team led by Rob Funk, Graham Wilson, and Matthias Andree takes over. - 2020: The FAQ records branch-name changes and the absence of a master branch after June 21, 2020. - 2024: SourceForge recognizes fetchmail for reaching 100,000 downloads from the SourceForge site. - 2025-2026: The 6.5 and 6.6 release lines update compiler, TLS, SMTP, IMAP, and security behavior while keeping fetchmail in active maintenance. ### Related projects - Related and competing tools listed by the project include fdm, getmail, getmail6, animail, GetLive, and mailfilter; fetchmail also depends operationally on local SMTP/LMTP listeners, MDAs, and mail user agents such as mutt. ### Sources - - - - - - ## Security Notes No matching local secret-handling manifest was found for fetchmail. Nucleus package metadata is still published here so future coverage has a stable package URL. ## Configuration and credential file locations These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval. ## Configuration files - Unix: ~/.fetchmailrc, $HOME_ETC/.fetchmailrc, $FETCHMAILHOME/fetchmailrc ## Credential files - Unix: ~/.fetchmailrc, ~/.netrc ## Source Database Details - **Source Database:** Homebrew formula API - **Tap:** homebrew/core - **Full Name:** fetchmail - **Version Scheme:** 0 - **Revision:** 0 - **Bottle Stable Root URL:** - **Deprecated:** no - **Disabled:** no - **Keg Only:** no - **URL Keys:** stable ## Other Package-Manager Records - Debian apt - fetchmail - 6.4.39-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: fetchmail from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | SSL enabled POP3, APOP, IMAP mail gatherer/forwarder | https://www.fetchmail.info - Nix - fetchmail: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/fe/fetchmail/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 - Ubuntu apt - fetchmail - 6.4.38-1ubuntu4: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: fetchmail from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | SSL enabled POP3, APOP, IMAP mail gatherer/forwarder | https://www.fetchmail.info - apk - fetchmail - 6.6.1-r1: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: fetchmail from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | remote-mail retrieval and forwarding utility | https://www.fetchmail.info/ - apk - fetchmail-doc - 6.6.1-r1: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: fetchmail-doc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | remote-mail retrieval and forwarding utility (documentation) | https://www.fetchmail.info/ - apk - fetchmail-openrc - 6.6.1-r1: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: fetchmail-openrc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | remote-mail retrieval and forwarding utility (OpenRC init scripts) | https://www.fetchmail.info/ - apk - fetchmailconf - 6.6.1-r1: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: fetchmailconf from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | GUI for generating fetchmail configuration files | https://www.fetchmail.info/ - dnf - fetchmail - 6.6.4-1.fc45: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: fetchmail from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst | A remote mail retrieval and forwarding utility | http://www.fetchmail.info/ - pacman - fetchmail - 6.6.4-1: normalized package name match | Arch Linux sync databases: fetchmail from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz | A remote-mail retrieval utility | https://www.fetchmail.info - zypper - fetchmail - 6.6.1-3.1: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: fetchmail from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst | Full-Featured POP and IMAP Mail Retrieval Daemon | https://www.fetchmail.info/ - zypper - fetchmailconf - 6.6.1-3.1: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: fetchmailconf from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst | Fetchmail Configuration Utility | https://www.fetchmail.info/ - MacPorts - fetchmail: normalized package name match | MacPorts ports tree: mail/fetchmail/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ## Related links - [Terminal utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/terminal-utilities/) - Matched terminal and command-line workflow metadata. - [Networking and protocol packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/networking-protocol-tools/) - Matched network, protocol, or remote-service metadata. - [Productivity CLI packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/productivity-cli-packages/) - Matched curated productivity category metadata from av.db. - [Homebrew utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew-utility-packages/) - Matched Homebrew package provider. - [openssl@3](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/openssl-3/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [pkgconf](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/pkgconf/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew. - [getmail6](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/getmail6/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, email, imap, mail-retrieval, networking. - [mailutils](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/mailutils/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, email, imap, networking, pop3. - [mpop](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/mpop/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, email, mail-retrieval, networking, pop3. - [isync](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/isync/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, email, imap, networking. - [checkdmarc](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/checkdmarc/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, email, networking. - [dovecot](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/dovecot/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, email, imap, networking, pop3. - [msmtp](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/msmtp/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, email, networking. - [sendemail](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/sendemail/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, email, networking. ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/fetchmail.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/fetchmail.yml) ## Sources - Nucleus package database - Geiger risk classifier - package-page enrichment - curated configuration and credential file locations - curated package history - package version freshness - av.db category and tag curation - package relationship graph - external package-manager database matches - cross-ecosystem install command graph