getmails(1) User Commands getmails(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

getmails - wrapper for getmail to access multiple mailboxes

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**getmails** \[**-p**] \[*OPTION*] ...

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

**getmails** is a wrapper script for **getmail** to retrieve messages with multiple independent configuration files *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/getmail/\** or for backward compatibility *~/.getmail/config/\** instead of a single *~/.getmailrc* file.

The configuration file name can be any arbitrary names. It's a good idea to use the corresponding email address as its name since it is the most intuitive choice. For example *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/getmail/foo@example.org .*

To disable operation for an email account temporary, rename its configuration file to the hidden file such as *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/getmail/.foo@example.org .* Then, it is ignored as configuration file.

For the robust operation, the editor generated files such as *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/getmail/foo~* , *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/getmail/#foo#* , *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/getmail/foo.swp* , and *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/getmail/foo.bak* are also ignored as configuration file.

When there are multiple email configuration files, **getmails** retrieves mails sequentially. But adding an optional option **-p** before other options makes **getmails** invoke **getmail** with each configuration file in parallel to retrieve mails.

The option provided as *OPTION* is passed to **getmail** as is. The use of the **-r** option is not a good idea.

The existence of *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/getmail/stop* can prevent this wrapper script to execute **getmail**.

# [REPORTING BUGS](#REPORTING_BUGS)

Report bugs to <https://github.com/getmail6/getmail6/issues>

# [COPYRIGHT](#COPYRIGHT)

Copyright 2011-2017 Osamu Aoki  
Copyright 2026 Roland Puntaier  
This is free software; see the file COPYING for copying conditions.  
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

2026 getmail6

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Document: getmails(1) from getmail6 6.21.00-r1 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/getmail6/getmail6