FDM(1)

💌 FDM(1) — fetch and deliver mail 💌

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because this one is a whole system. We're in the General Commands Manual section, and this is fdm — the fetch-and-deliver-mail icon. ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

fdm — fetch and deliver mail 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

fdm [-hklmnqv] [-a account] [-D name=value] [-f conffile] [-u user]
    [-x account] [fetch | poll | cache]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Okay so the whole vibe of fdm is this: it fetches mail from a POP3 or IMAP server, or straight from stdin, and then delivers it based on a ruleset living in the configuration file. That's it. That's the girl. 👑

Here are the options, no skips, no skimming, we're doing all of them: 💅

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -a name — Process only the specified account. You can drop this option multiple times, no cap. And the account name can include shell glob characters so you can match a bunch of accounts in one go. 🌈
• -D name=value — Defines a macro for use when parsing the configuration file. Heads up bestie: the macro name must be prefixed with $ or % — $ means a string macro, % means a numeric one. This option may appear multiple times too. ✨
• -f conffile — Specify where the configuration file lives. Default is ~/.fdm.conf, or /etc/fdm.conf if that first one doesn't exist. 🗂️
• -h — Look at the HOME environment variable to figure out the user's home directory. 🏠
• -k — Keep all mail after delivery, regardless of whether it matches a drop action.

⚠️ Careful though: mails kept this way will be refetched by fdm if you run it again on the same account. Not a vibe, just a fact. 💀

• -l — Log using syslog(3) instead of to stderr. 📝
• -m — Ignore the lock file and run anyway, regardless of other instances of fdm running. Chaotic behavior, but okay! 🙈
• -n — Don't process any accounts at all — just verify the configuration file syntax and exit. A lil dry run for the grammar girlies. ✅
• -q — Quiet mode. Only errors get printed. 🤫
• -u user — Specify the default user for delivery. This overrides the default-user option in the configuration file. 👑
• -v — Request verbose logging. May be specified multiple times, and each level gives you more tea:
  • -vv prints information on configuration (super useful with -n) 🔍
  • -vvvv duplicates all traffic to and from remote servers to stdout 👀
  • This feature is disabled when using the -l flag.
• -x name — Exclude the named account. Multiple -x options may be specified, and just like with -a, shell glob characters may be used. 🚫
• fetch | poll | cache — The command, and here's the rundown:
  • fetch tells fdm to fetch and deliver messages. 📬
  • poll polls the accounts in the configuration file and reports a message count for each. 📊
  • cache lets you manipulate fdm cache files — see the next section, bestie. 👇

🦋 CACHE COMMANDS 🦋

The following cache manipulation commands are supported, and yes we're listing every single one: 🫶

• cache add path string
• cache remove path string

Add or remove string as a key in the cache at path. 🗝️

• cache list [path] — List the number of keys in the specified cache. If path is omitted, it lists them in all caches declared in the configuration file. 🔢
• cache dump path — Dump the contents of the cache path to stdout. Each key is printed followed by a space and the timestamp as Unix time. 🕰️
• cache clear path — Delete all keys from the cache at path. Poof. Gone. 💨

🧚 FILES 🧚

• ~/.fdm.conf — default fdm configuration file 📄
• /etc/fdm.conf — default system-wide configuration file 🏛️
• ~/.fdm.lock — default lock file 🔒
• /var/db/fdm.lock — lock file for the root user 👑

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

mail(1), fdm.conf(5), sendmail(8) — go read your sisters, they ate. 💅

💜 AUTHORS 💜

Nicholas Marriott <nicholas.marriott@gmail.com> — the icon, the legend, the moment. 👑

and that's the whole page bestie, every flag, every file, every cache command, nothing skipped, we ate and left no crumbs. 🍓

This cutie was brought to you by Debian, dated December 22, 2008, and filed under FDM(1) — periodt. 💖✨