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

[Matthias A. <mat...@gm...>]

Michelle Konzack <lin...@fr...> writes:

> Am 2005-11-17 11:02:01, schrieb Matthias Andree:
>> Thomas Wolff schrieb am 2005-11-11:
>> 
>> > There is this new warning "WARNING: Running as root is discouraged." 
>> > which is somehow disturbing.
>> 
>> Yes, and that is deliberate.
>> 
>> Networking clients should never run with root privileges, and fetchmail
>> is no exception. Fetchmail does not need root privileges to forward
>> mail, the only conceivable scenario where it needs root privileges is
>> one where it calls an MDA for a different user.
>
> If fetchmail can not started by the $USER and it run global from a
> script for all $USERS with "mda /usr/bin/procmail -d %T" what must
> I change that it continue to work

It's been a long time - désolé. I hope it's still useful :-)

Set procmail setuid-root if you trust it (I don't trust it though).

Better pick: Replace procmail by maildrop, compile it so that the
fetchmail user is allowed to use -d, and install maildrop setuid-root.
It will be a better match for courier-imap anyhow. (Maildir++, quota,
same user database and all the nice parts of integration.)

-- 
Matthias Andree