ISR Computing -

msFetch Installation

Downloads

Version 0.5 download

• msfetch.tar.gz
• MD5 Hash

Version 0.4 download

• msfetch.tar.gz - contains two necessary files
• MD5 Hash

Package contents

• msfetch - main execution
• .msfetchrc - utility configuration file

msFetch 0.5 Installation

Execute:

cd $HOME
wget http://www.isrcomputing.com/downloads/msfetch.tar.gz
tar xvzf msfetch.tar.gz
cd msfetch.0.5/
make
cd ..
./msfetch 

.msfetchrc - configuration file

MAILSERVER=webmail.linux.com
MAILPROT=https
MAILUSER=devinbuc
MAILUSERDAV=buck.deviney
MAILDOMAIN=LINUX
MAILCRED=UrgG2R6E
MAILMETHOD=owa
MAILBOXFILE=/home/devinbuc/msfetch.mbox
MAILOUTBOX=/home/devinbuc/msfetch.outbox
MAILHISTORY=/home/devinbuc/.msfetch.history

#Exclude e-mail collection from the folders below
EXCLUDE=RSS%20Feeds
EXCLUDE=Tasks
EXCLUDE=Sync%20Issues
EXCLUDE=Notes
EXCLUDE=Junk%20E-mail
EXCLUDE=Drafts
EXCLUDE=Journal
EXCLUDE=Contacts
EXCLUDE=Calendar
EXCLUDE=Deleted%20Items
EXCLUDE=Outbox

#Uncomment line below to prevent Sent Items download
#EXCLUDE=Sent%20Items 

msFetch 0.4 Installation

Install following Perl modules:

1. LWP::UserAgent
2. URI
3. URI::Escape
4. XML::LibXML
5. Time::Local
6. HTTP::Cookies

Extract msfetch.tar.gz to your HOME directory. This is important, since executable will look for configuration file in your home directory. BOTH FILES MUST BE IN YOUR USER DIRECTORY!!!!

1. "chmod 600 .msfetchrc" - configure ACL for the configuration file
2. "vi .msfetchrc" - edit configuration with the settings below:
   • MAILSERVER - DNS name or IP address of your MS Exchange server.
   • MAILUSER - Username for MS Exchange Outlook Web Access.
   • MAILDOMAIN - Windows domain for your user account.
   • MAILCRED - Your password.
   • MAILPROT - defines HTTP or HTTPS
   • MAILMETHOD - defines authentication type "Windows Basic", "OWA Web Forms", and "OWA 2007 Web Forms". Choices are "windows-basic", "owa", "owa2007".
   • MAILPORT - (optional) - specify non-standard ports. For example your Exchange might work on port 8080.
   • MAILBOXFILE - Location where all the downloaded content will be stored in. This utility only stores locally, does not support forwarding.
   • MAILOUTBOX - Location where all "Sent Items" e-mails will be stored in.
   • MAILHISTORY - Each time e-mail is downloaded, a record is added to this file in order to avoid double-downloads. If you delete this file, then msFetch will download mailbox from a scratch.
   • EXCLUDE - EXCLUDE directive is very helpful when you want certain folders to be skipped on download. By default I skipped Calendar, Tasks, etc... Although it is pretty cool to download "Calendar" items! :)

MAILSERVER=webmail.example.com 
MAILUSER=john  
MAILDOMAIN=cisco 
MAILCRED=password 
MAILPROT=http 
MAILMETHOD=windows-basic 
MAILPORT=8080 
MAILBOXFILE=/home/john/msfetch.mbox 
MAILOUTBOX=/home/john/msfetch.outbox 
MAILHISTORY=/home/john/.msfetch.history  

EXCLUDE=RSS%20Feeds 
EXCLUDE=Tasks 
EXCLUDE=Sync%20Issues 
EXCLUDE=Notes 
EXCLUDE=Junk%20E-mail 
EXCLUDE=Drafts 
EXCLUDE=Journal 
EXCLUDE=Contacts 
EXCLUDE=Calendar

3. Add crontab job in order to collect e-mails automatically:

*/15 * * * * ~/msfetch > /dev/null 2>&1

Debugging msFetch 0.4

Comment/Uncomment lines below. Default is "Disabled"

# Default = "Disabled" 
# my $DEBUG; 
# This line will disable debugging 
# my $DEBUG = 1; 
# This line will enable debugging  
my $DEBUG;

Debugging msFetch 0.5

./msfetch --debug

Version History

v0.1

• First public release

v0.2

• Optimized e-mail parsing routing
• Addressed issue with duplicate e-mail IDs on Microsoft Exchange Q320749

v0.3

• Added support for separate mbox file for "Sent Items" (outbound mail)

v0.4

• Added two (2) new authentication methods. "Windows Basic", "OWA Web Forms", and "OWA 2007 Web Forms". Previously only "OWA Web Forms" method was available
• Added "MAILPORT" variable to define MS Exchange ports
• Added "MAILPROT" variable to define MS Exchange web protocol (HTTP/HTTPS)
• Added Perl module check routine

v0.5

• Enhanced debugging. Failed URLs are now being recorded to ".msfetch.history.error" file

• Added MAILUSERDAV variable. Some users might have a username different from their WebDAV path. For example, user's full name is "Buck Deviney", his Windows domain username is "devinbuc", but WebDav path is "buck.deviney". Many users will be able to login, but will be unable to download e-mails. To resolve the issue, please assign "MAILUSER=devinbuc" and "MAILUSERDAV=buck.deviney" accordingly
• Added "debug" and "password" switches
• Added help menu

Please do not hesitate contacting me with your questions!
Good luck,
Paul Greenberg