Fetchmail problem

bminish

I am using fetchmail to go and collect my mail from a number of different pop3 accounts however on some servers (oceanfree.net is one example but there are some others) I have a strange problem that occurs from time to time with certain Spam messages

What happens is this,
fetchmail gets stuck at the very end of the message and times out. This leaves the message on the server. The next time around the same thing happens and of course fetchmail never gets the chance to poll messages that have arrived more recently than the spam message that is 'wedged' in the pop3 mailbox. The only fix I have found is to use a webmail client to manually remove the message from the server.

I assume that the problem is down to the spam message in question being malformed and I have never seen this occur on a non-spam message but I wonder if anyone here can suggest a workaround or alternatively where to look for the information required to file a bug report since presumably the problem is not with the headers

My fetchmail collects mail via popfile but this issue occurs even when fetchmail is collecting messages directly

I have seen this problem over several versions of fetchmail and I am currently running fetchmail release 6.2.5.5+IMAP-GSS+RPA+NTLM+SDPS+SSL+INET6+NLS+HESIOD
on a fedora core4 box.


Here's a trace of a fetchmail session on a stuck message with fetchmail polling direct (not via popfile)
# fetchmail -vvv -f .fetchmailrc1

fetchmail: POP3< AUTH-RESP-CODE
fetchmail: POP3< X-MANGLE
fetchmail: POP3< X-MACRO
fetchmail: POP3< X-LOCALTIME Wed, 8 Feb 2006 06:33:38 -0800
fetchmail: POP3< IMPLEMENTATION Qpopper-version-4.0.5a-l.00
fetchmail: POP3< .
fetchmail: POP3> USER bminish
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Password required for bminish.
fetchmail: POP3> PASS *
fetchmail: POP3< +OK bminish has 5 visible messages (0 hidden) in 32850 octets.
fetchmail: POP3> STAT
fetchmail: POP3< +OK 5 32850
fetchmail: POP3> LAST
fetchmail: POP3< +OK 0 is the last read message.
5 messages for bminish at pop.newsguy.com (32850 octets).
fetchmail: POP3> LIST 1
fetchmail: POP3< +OK 1 719
fetchmail: POP3> TOP 1 99999999
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Message follows
reading message bminish@pop.newsguy.com:1 of 5 (719 octets)
fetchmail: SMTP< 220 redbox.mayo.lan ESMTP Sendmail 8.13.4/8.13.1; Wed, 8 Feb 2006 14:33:42 GMT
fetchmail: SMTP> EHLO localhost
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-redbox.mayo.lan Hello localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1], pleased to meet you
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-PIPELINING
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-8BITMIME
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-SIZE
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-DSN
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-ETRN
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-AUTH DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-DELIVERBY
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 HELP
fetchmail: SMTP> MAIL FROM:<bricexx@aci.on.ca> SIZE=719
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 2.1.0 <bricexx@aci.on.ca>... Sender ok
fetchmail: SMTP> RCPT TO:<bminish@localhost>
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 2.1.5 <bminish@localhost>... Recipient ok
fetchmail: SMTP> DATA
fetchmail: SMTP< 354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
#fetchmail: SMTP>. (EOM)
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 2.0.0 k18EXgl8017646 Message accepted for delivery
 flushed
fetchmail: POP3> DELE 1
fetchmail: POP3< -ERR POP timeout from perry.pathlink.com
fetchmail: POP3> QUIT
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Pop server at perry.pathlink.com signing off.
fetchmail: 6.2.5.5 querying pop.newsguy.com (protocol POP3) at Wed 08 Feb 2006 14:35:43 GMT: poll completed
fetchmail: Query status=24
fetchmail: normal termination, status 24

Basically it retrieves almost all of the offending message then times out.
.brendan

bminish

No one else seeing this problem ??
.brendan

AndrewMc

Been using Fetchmail for years with many accounts and have never seen that happen.

The "ERR POP timeout" message is odd. The message seems to be retreived and delivered okay (from the "Message accepted for delivery" message) but does this take a particularly long time? The "ERR POP timeout" suggests that the POP server gives up waiting. Can you time the various stages?

There's an article about this error message here http://kbase.pscs.co.uk/index.php?article=148 that might be the same thing.

bminish

AndrewMc wrote:

Been using Fetchmail for years with many accounts and have never seen that happen.

The "ERR POP timeout" message is odd. The message seems to be retreived and delivered okay (from the "Message accepted for delivery" message) but does this take a particularly long time?

Well Yes it takes 60 to 120 secs depending on provider for the timeout but the actual retrieval happens in a second or so.
I have this problem with Oceanfree and newsguy accounts but never with an account with anyone else. It's always caused by particular spam messages, these messages aren't generally very large (only a few K)
With my newsguy account I can move the message out of the inbox and clear the rest of the messages, then If I move the 'blocking' message back the inbox blocking problem reoccurs so it's definitely related to the actual messages content and the way in which the mail is getting transferred.

The problem with oceanfree accounts is that their crappy web interface pulls all the messages directly out of the pop3 box permanently once you check mail

The "ERR POP timeout" suggests that the POP server gives up waiting. Can you time the various stages?

will do the next time around but it's at least 60 seconds

There's an article about this error message here http://kbase.pscs.co.uk/index.php?article=148 that might be the same thing.

I don't think this is directly relevant in that it refers to things timing out due to large messages being retrieved over slow connections from servers that are somewhat misconfigured. I have a very fast connection and this is occurring with specific small messages and only with certain providers

.brendan