fetchmail
E41803
Unix-like system software
email retrieval utility
free software
mail transport agent
open-source software
fetchmail is a widely used open-source remote mail retrieval and forwarding utility for Unix-like systems, designed to fetch email from POP/IMAP servers and deliver it to local mail clients or servers.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| fetchmail canonical | 1 |
| https://www.fetchmail.info/ | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T327534 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: fetchmail Context triple: [Eric Raymond, softwareDeveloped, fetchmail]
-
A.
POP3
POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3) is a standard email protocol used by clients to retrieve messages from a remote mail server over a TCP/IP network, typically downloading them for local storage.
-
B.
IMAP
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a standard email protocol that allows clients to access and manage messages stored on a mail server while keeping them synchronized across multiple devices.
-
C.
SMTP
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a standard communication protocol used for sending and routing email messages across IP networks.
-
D.
Mail
Mail is Apple’s built-in email client application for macOS, used to send, receive, and manage email accounts.
-
E.
InMail
InMail is LinkedIn’s premium messaging tool that lets users directly contact other members they’re not connected with on the platform.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: fetchmail Target entity description: fetchmail is a widely used open-source remote mail retrieval and forwarding utility for Unix-like systems, designed to fetch email from POP/IMAP servers and deliver it to local mail clients or servers.
-
A.
POP3
POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3) is a standard email protocol used by clients to retrieve messages from a remote mail server over a TCP/IP network, typically downloading them for local storage.
-
B.
IMAP
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a standard email protocol that allows clients to access and manage messages stored on a mail server while keeping them synchronized across multiple devices.
-
C.
SMTP
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a standard communication protocol used for sending and routing email messages across IP networks.
-
D.
Mail
Mail is Apple’s built-in email client application for macOS, used to send, receive, and manage email accounts.
-
E.
InMail
InMail is LinkedIn’s premium messaging tool that lets users directly contact other members they’re not connected with on the platform.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (57)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Unix-like system software
ⓘ
email retrieval utility ⓘ free software ⓘ mail transport agent ⓘ open-source software ⓘ |
| author |
Eric Raymond
ⓘ
surface form:
Eric S. Raymond
|
| configurationFile | .fetchmailrc ⓘ |
| configurationStyle | plain text configuration file ⓘ |
| designGoal |
act as a gateway between remote mailboxes and local mail systems
ⓘ
provide robust, scriptable mail retrieval ⓘ |
| developer |
Eric Raymond
ⓘ
surface form:
Eric S. Raymond
|
| distribution | included in many Linux distributions ⓘ |
| feature |
IDLE support for IMAP
ⓘ
SMTP delivery to local MTA ⓘ bounced mail handling ⓘ daemon mode ⓘ foreground mode ⓘ local delivery via MDA ⓘ logging ⓘ mail forwarding ⓘ multidrop mailbox support ⓘ multiple server polling ⓘ remote mail retrieval ⓘ scheduled polling via cron ⓘ support for IPv6 ⓘ support for SSL-encrypted connections ⓘ support for STARTTLS ⓘ support for UIDL in POP3 ⓘ |
| homepage |
fetchmail
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
https://www.fetchmail.info/
|
| license | GNU General Public License ⓘ |
| notablePublication | The Cathedral and the Bazaar (describes fetchmail development) ⓘ |
| operatingSystem |
BSD
ⓘ
Linux ⓘ Unix-like systems ⓘ macOS ⓘ |
| programmingLanguage | C ⓘ |
| securityFeature |
supports SSL/TLS for secure mail retrieval
ⓘ
supports encrypted authentication methods ⓘ |
| supportsProtocol |
APOP
ⓘ
CRAM-MD5 ⓘ ETRN ⓘ RPCSEC_GSS ⓘ
surface form:
GSSAPI
Gmail IMAP access ⓘ Gmail POP3 access ⓘ IMAP ⓘ Kerberos ⓘ NTLM ⓘ ODMR ⓘ POP2 ⓘ POP3 ⓘ RPOP ⓘ TLS ⓘ
surface form:
SSL/TLS
|
| useCase |
centralizing mail from multiple remote accounts
ⓘ
delivering mail to local mail transfer agents ⓘ delivering mail to local mail user agents ⓘ fetching email from remote IMAP servers ⓘ fetching email from remote POP servers ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: fetchmail Description of subject: fetchmail is a widely used open-source remote mail retrieval and forwarding utility for Unix-like systems, designed to fetch email from POP/IMAP servers and deliver it to local mail clients or servers.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.