Re: [fetchmail-users] Fetchmail vs. Getmail (from a Fetchmail perspective)

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

On 11/12/06, Stephen Allen <fet...@ro...> wrote:
> That was a problem with Fedora, when I first started using it - I didn't
> realise each version is only supported for basically a year.  The legacy
> project is next to useless.  However, I'm in the process of upgrading
> from FC3, to 4 then to 5 (the oldest supported version).

Yeah, I've become a fan of Gentoo as it doesn't suffer from that
problem (so you can install 2005.0, apply the updates and you get the
same as if you'd started from 2006.1).

> I really don't know how to do this, it's in the documentation I presume?

Not really, there's nothing in the documentation about running it a
root either though :)  Basically, just start it as a non-root user.

>   Even if I gave it it's own user/group, could I still continue running
> it as a daemon collecting and delivering mail for all users from a
> single instance and rc file?

Yup.  That's pretty much how I handle it (well, I use one daemon per
ISP to avoid problems with one delaying polls for the others).

Basically, the only time you need a program running as root is if it
needs to listen on a port below 1024, access certain files or
otherwise bypass all security checks.  Fetchmail doesn't do any of
that so it doesn't need to be run as root.  And, as I said, the
developer has already said he'll be disabling the ability to run it as
root in the near future as it's a large security risk.

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