Re: [Fetchmail-users] Fetchmail logrotate script works once then fails next run

[Chris <cpo...@em...>]

On Sun, 2017-02-12 at 16:25 +0100, Matthias Andree wrote:
> Am 12.02.2017 um 15:56 schrieb Chris:
> > 
> >         postrotate
> >         /usr/local/bin/fetchmail --quit
> >         /usr/local/bin/fetchmail -v --nokeep --nosyslog --logfile
> > /home/chris/fetchmaillog --uidl -m procmail
> >         endscript
> > [...]
> > running postrotate script
> > fetchmail: background fetchmail at 3786 killed.
> > fetchmail: can't accept options while a background fetchmail is
> > running.
> 
> > 
> > I don't understand why it worked the first time but not the 2nd as
> > nothing was changed in between.
> 
> Hi Chris,
> 
> Looks like a race between the three instances of fetchmail involved:
> 
> 1. you have 3786
> 2. postrotate starts fetchmail -q, which just signals 3786 to exit,
> but
> does not wait for its exit (because it's not its child that wouldn't
> be
> 100% safe anyhow)
> 3. postrotate immediately starts a new fetchmail, which stumbles over
> the still existing instance that's still cleaning up.
> 
> It'd probably be good to wait until the prior instance has really
> quit
> before starting the next one, like so (adjust the pid file's path):
> 
> /usr/local/bin/fetchmail --quit
> 
> while [ -e /path/to/fetchmail.pid ] ; do sleep 1 ; done
> 
> /usr/local/bin/fetchmail -v --nokeep --nosyslog --logfile
> /home/chris/fetchmaillog --uidl -m procmail
> 
> 
> and possibly adding a counter so it does not wait too long or
> otherwise
> use SIGKILL to get rid of the old instance.
> 
> Neither will be 100% bullet-proof unless you defer to a service
> supervisor such as runit, upstart, systemd, or thereabouts, and just
> request a fetchmail restart from such a supervisor in your postrotate
> script.
> 
> HTH
> Matthias
> 
Thanks Matthias, I'm sure it will. I'll make the changes and give it
some test runs until I get it right. Appreciate the assistance.

Chris

-- 
Chris
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