Editing Fetchmail (section)

== Design ==

By design, Fetchmail's only means of delivering messages is by submitting them to the local MTA/[[Message transfer agent]] or invoking a [[mail delivery agent]]<ref>[http://www.fetchmail.info/fetchmail-FAQ.html ''"...or into an MDA program..."''], Section&nbsp;G1, The Fetchmail FAQ.</ref> like [[procmail]], [[maildrop]], or [[sendmail]]; delivering directly to mail folders such as [[maildir]] is not supported.

It is a [[C (programming language)|C program]] evolved by gradual mutation from an ancestor already written in C.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Richardson |first=Anthony |title=An Online Unix System Programming Course For Computer Engineering Students |journal=2004 Annual Conference Proceedings |date=2004 |pages=9.197.1–9.197.10 |publisher=ASEE Conferences |doi=10.18260/1-2--13866|doi-access=free }}</ref>

[[Dan Bernstein]], [[getmail]] creator Charles Cazabon and [[FreeBSD]] developer Terry Lambert, have criticized Fetchmail's design,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=585008+0+archive/2001/freebsd-arch/20010218.freebsd-arch |title=UUCP must stay; fetchmail sucks (was list 'o things) |access-date=2007-04-05 |author=Lambert, Terry }}</ref> its number of security holes,<ref>{{cite web |title=getmail frequently asked questions |url=http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/faq.html#faq-about-why |access-date = 2007-04-05 |author=Cazabon, Charles }}</ref> and that it was prematurely put into "maintenance mode". In 2004, a new team of maintainers took over Fetchmail development,<ref>{{cite web |title=Developer History |url=http://www.fetchmail.info/ |access-date = 2007-04-05 }}</ref> and laid out development plans that broke with design decisions that Eric Raymond had made in earlier versions.<ref>{{cite web |title=Design Notes On Fetchmail |url=http://www.fetchmail.info/design-notes.html |access-date=2007-04-05}}</ref>