- Matt Doran [2010-01-12 13:40]:
Hi guys,
Thanks for the great product. We've used dovecot for ages as our internal mail server and it works great!
Let me second that.
I've recently started using fetchmail 6.3.9 (with IDLE enabled) to download mail from our ISP (Pair networks). The ISP is running Dovecot 1.1.16. I am unable to get the info about the dovecot config at this time.
The IDLE support in fetchmail allows us to deliver mail near instantaneously without the need to poll (which is what we did previously using POP3).
Oh, this is cool.
However I've noticed an issue where if 2 mails are delivered in quick succession fetchmail will only download the first email, and the second will not download. If I then send in another test email this triggers the download of 2 emails (the original that wasn't downloaded and the test email).
Now I'm wondering whether the issue lies with Dovecot (e.g. a timing issue), or is it fetchmail that isn't implementing the IDLE/download properly.
This is a timing issue, yes, but the IMAP server does what it's supposed to do - when it sees the first message arrive, it notifies fetchmail about it. Fetchmail immediately ends IDLE session by sending DONE and starts fetching that one message. If DONE wasn't sent, the server would issue another response notifying you about the second message, but it doesn't get a chance to do so. Please try this: login to server and enter these commands (to get encrypted connection without using STARTLS you can use command "openssl s_client -connect mail.XXXX.com:993"):
. login <username> <password> . select inbox . idle
Now try send some messages and observe what happens.
When you're done, send these commands to the server
done . logout
Here's what Dovecot sent to me when idling, I sent 5 messages very quickly:
- 1 EXISTS
- 2 EXISTS
- 3 EXISTS
- 5 EXISTS
If I'd terminate the IDLE session after the first line, I won't receive the other lines. So, I'd have to check for new messages myself or start IDLE session again and wait for yet another message to arrive. Then Dovecot would tell me about all new messages and I could go on and fetch them.
I've attached the output of a fetchmail session showing this problem in action (I've added some annotations to this file starting with
). The sequence of events are:
- Start fetchmail with IDLE enabled
- Send 2 emails in quick succession.
- Dovecot notifies of the new message
- Fetchmail downloads the message
- Fetchmail initiates a new IDLE
- Then nothing more is delivered. :(
- I then send another email, which triggers the 2 to download.
I don't know enough about IMAP to understand whether the problem lies with Dovecot or Fetchmail. Hopefully an IMAP expert will be able to see from the attached IMAP session.
Not being an expert, I tried to provide an explanaition of my understanding om IDLE. So, in your case it's fetchmail where logic could be improved.
-- -- Kirill Miazine km@krot.org