Re: [fetchmail-users] WARNING: Running as root is discouraged.

[Rob M. <rob...@gm...>]

On 11/11/05, Thomas Wolff <to...@to...> wrote:
> There is this new warning "WARNING: Running as root is discouraged."
> which is somehow disturbing.
> I thought fetchmail is also intended as a system installation
> for multi-user mail retrieval so it's actually a designed mode to
> run fetchmail as root (and the message seems to be unconditional,
> looking at the code).

Why?  There is no need to run fetchmail as root.  You can, and should,
run it as an unpriviledged user.

Look on the bright side, it had been proposed to refuse (as some
software does) to run as root.  It was agreed that at least for 6.3
this wouldn't happen, giving people like you time to change their
configuration.

> Also I don't need this message when I retrieve my personal mailbox while
> regularly working as root on my home machine; this may not be
> recommended in general but it's not fetchmail to tell me that every
> time I retrieve my mail.

I dunno, it does encourage you to use it in a more secure manner :-)

Seriously, running anything as root that doesn't have to be run as
root is a security risk.  Simply run fetchmail using a normal user
account and the message will go away.

--
                 Please keep list traffic on the list.
Rob MacGregor
      Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he
        doesn't become a monster.                  Friedrich Nietzsche