Re: [fetchmail-users] fetchmail at system startup

[Joe A. <jo...@j4...>]

"Rob MacGregor" <rob...@gm...> Wrote: 3/25/2007 4:19 PM:
> On 3/25/07, Joe Acquisto <jo...@j4...> wrote:
>> My first foray into fetchmail.  Seem to have configured it properly, by 
>> some happenstance.  Even runs at system startup, as if I know what I was 
>> doing.  And that is certainly not certain.
>>
>> However, I am given pause.  I am a bit puzzled how one can specify an 
>> alternate startup file, within the startup file (--fetchmailrc = 
>> path/file).   A circular argument kind of thing.
>>
>> When I first started it (fetchmail, via system startup) it complained (from 
>> logs) that it could not find /etc/fetchmailrc.  Thinking that a typo, and 
>> having an "aha" moment regarding my above pondering, I copied my 
>> /root/.fetchmailrc to /etc/.  Alas, it still complained, so I renamed it, 
>> leaving off the leading ".".
>>
>> Now it seems to be quite happy reading /etc/fetchmailrc.  But I am not 
>> certain why.  Or if it is only reading that to find the "real" config file. 
>>  I hesitate to start hacking to find out, as it takes several minutes for 
>> this older Dell Poweredge to start up.  Boring.
> 
> My crystal ball tells me you're probably running some form of Linux
> and have some version of fetchmail installed, possibly from a binary
> package...
>
> Seriously, if you want help you need to provide information.  At the
> very least you need to fill in the blanks above.

Ah.  Well.  Point taken.  This is a SUSE SLES 9 install with their provided
version of fetchmail.

> Now, if you're running Linux then you'll most likely find the startup
> script as /etc/init.d/fetchmail.  If you look at that script you'll
> find what your package provider has set as the defaults for that
> build.

The startup script does show it is looking for /etc/fetchmailrc.  But, it seems I recall clearly
that I got this running, logged in as root, only after creating .fetchmailrc in root's home.

fetchmailconfig did that, I believe.

I supposed that  during system startup the script at /etc/init.d will run (called via /etc/init.d/rc(x).d) while saying "fetchmail" while logged in, does the deed via /usr/sbin/fetchmail.  ?

One learns by doing.

joe a.