Editing Fetchmail (section)

{{Short description|Email retriever utility}}
{{Infobox software
| logo =
| screenshot = Fetchmailconf01.png
| caption = Screenshot of fetchmail launcher
| author = [[Eric S. Raymond]]
| developer =
| released =
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|edit|reference|P348}}
| latest release date    = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P577}}}}
<!-- | latest preview version = 6.5.0-beta3
| latest preview date = {{release date and age|2021|04|24}} -->
| operating system = [[Unix-like]]
| platform =
| language =
| genre = [[Mail delivery agent]]
| license = [[GNU General Public License]]
| website = {{URL|https://www.fetchmail.info/}}
}}

'''Fetchmail''' is an [[open-source software]] utility for [[POSIX]]-compliant operating systems which is used to retrieve [[e-mail]] from a remote [[Post Office Protocol|POP3]], [[Internet Message Access Protocol|IMAP]], or [[On-Demand Mail Relay|ODMR]] mail server to the user's local system. It was developed from the [https://github.com/soulwing/popclient popclient] program, written by Carl Harris.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fetchmail.info/esrs-design-notes.html |title=Eric S. Raymond's former Design Notes On Fetchmail |author=Raymond, Eric |access-date=2007-04-03}}</ref>

Its chief significance is perhaps that its author, [[Eric S. Raymond]], used it as a model to discuss his theories of [[open-source software]] development in a widely read and influential essay on software development methodologies ''[[The Cathedral and the Bazaar]]''.