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Using Emacs Lisp based POP3 program pop3.el to retrieve messages
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pop3.el is a POP3 client program included in Gnus. It is written in
Emacs Lisp. With the introduction of an option loading mechanism in
cmail, this pop3.el based mail retrieval option has become available.

Please refer to README.POP.en for general info about POP access.

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What differs from movemail
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Functionality provided by pop3.el is basically the same as one
provided by movemail. The movemail program would satisfy most of
typical user's needs. Good things about pop3.el may be that it could
handle minor error cases better, and modification to the module is
relatively easy for user customization. For example:

  o In an computing environment where no permanent network
    connection exists, if message retrieval is attempted by mistake,
    with movemail, such case is treated as the same as other
    error cases like authentication error, and stored password would
    be cleared. With pop3.el, it can distinguish these error
    cases and will not clear password upon connection error.

  o In an computing environment where movemail is not compiled with
    pop option, pop3.el will provide a quick access to POP3. (However,
    it may not be a strong advantage, since many recent Emacs packages
    include a precompiled movemail program which supports POP.)

  o Relatively easy to modify the module whenever/however you like.
    (Emacs Lisp knowledge is required however.)

It should be possible to use pop3.el to access an APOP server, instead
of using a movemail with APOP patch. (Although this functionality has
not been tested using the attached version of pop3.el (1.3s).)

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Usage
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Set cmail-use-gnuspop3 to t. (You need to restart your emacs session
if you do not use customize.)


To leave messages on the server, add "-k" option in the defintion of
cmail-mail-spools variable.

ex: (setq  cmail-mail-spools
           '(("po:username" "pop.cmail.priv" "-k" nil)))


To use APOP, use "-A" option in cmail-mail-spools, and set up md5.el
appropriately.

ex:  (setq cmail-mail-spools
           '(("po:username" "pop.cmail.priv" "-A" nil)))

It hasn't been confirmed if APOP will work properly with the attached
version of pop3.el (1.3s). Any test result info would be appreciated.
(Please write to the cmail mailing list or <tm@interaccess.com>.)

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Other notes
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Initially, it was planned to use a Gnus included pop3.el as it is,
however, after having enough trouble with version compatibility, it
was decided to import a tested version of pop3.el (1.3s). To avoid
conflicts, the file name, function names and variable names were all
renamed. Therefore, even though another pop3.el in Gnus exists in load
path, cmail will still use the attached and tested version.
