The problem likely has to do with the POP-3 LAST command. The LAST command tells the client what was the highest message number which has been accessed, i.e. it tells you which messages you've already seen. However, the LAST command was removed from the spec as of RFC 1725 (and the current standard). fetchmail still tries to use this command. If it can't, it tries to use the UIDL command and keep a local database of what messages have been seen. If you turn on -v for fetchmail you can watch what commands it's trying to execute on the server. Note though that the UIDL command is specified by the protocol as option so your VMS POP-3 server may not even implement that, in which case fetchmail has no way of knowing which messages from the server you've seen and which you haven't.
The -k switch simply tells fetchmail not to delete messages from the server after it downloads them. From your description of the behavior this is "working" with both servers. David Karlin wrote: > Hello, > I'm running exim/fetchmail on a slink box. I have a shell > account on a VMS machine which also holds my POP3 mailbox. > > When I do "fetchmail -k" on my other POP3 box, any msgs > on the spool which I've already seen are not downloaded, > only the new ones which I've not yet read. None of the > messages are flushed. This the way that I thought the > "-k" switch is supposed to work. > > When I do "fetchmail -k" for the POP3 box on the VMS > machine, all msgs in the spool are downloaded, whether > or not I've already seen them, but they aren't flushed. > > So, "fetchmail -k" works differently on the two POP3 > servers. > > Has anyone else noticed this type of behavior? > > Thanks, > > --D > > -- > =============================== > David Karlin > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://funk48.home.travelin.com > Powered by Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 > =============================== > > -- > Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null -- Jens B. Jorgensen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
