Re: [Fetchmail-users] Upgrade to fetchmail 6.5.6

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

Am 21.10.25 um 12:45 schrieb Andrew C Aitchison:
>
> On Mon, 20 Oct 2025, t_...@ti... wrote:
>
>> I've read the FAQ and I have to say that my fetchmail works very fine.
>> I only wonder why it includes timestamps in logs since the last
>> upgrade.
>
> Probably related to this * fetchmail, with --logfile, now logs time 
> stamps
> into the file, in localtime
>   and in the format "Jun 20 23:45:01 fetchmail: ". It will be localized
> through
>   the environment variables LC_TIME (or LC_ALL) and TZ.
>   Contributed by Holger Hoffstätte.
> from /home/src/ubuntu/fetchmail/fetchmail-6.5.0/NEWS
>
> I think it is for the benefit of IMAP IDLE.
> In that mode fetchmail keeps an open connection to the server
> and logs whenever the server offers/pushes a new messages.
>
> IMAP IDLE saves fetchmail from starting a new connection (including 
> setting up encryption) every few minutes and allows it to be completely
> idle until there is a new message.
> It doesn't support more than one remote mailbox
> (unless you set up separate fetchmail processes with separate configs).
>
I've received relevant parts of Angelo's configuration directly, and 
part of the .service file is this section:

> [Service]
> Type=oneshot
> StandardOutput=journal
> StandardError=journal
> SyslogIdentifier=fetchmail
> SyslogFacility=mail
> SyslogLevel=warning

According to the .fetchmailrc file, Angelo does not use a logfile, so 
Holger's contribution does not apply;
instead, fetchmail logs to stdout/stderr, adds a timestamp as it would 
when logging to console
-- and systemd captures the output and adds its own timestamp for the 
journal.

Angelo,

you can either put --syslog on your fetchmail command lines in the 
fetchmail.service unit files, or you can add

    set syslog

early (before skip and poll lines) to your various .fetchmailrc files.
In that case, fetchmail will send directly to syslog without timestamps, 
and on systemd-based systems, syslog also usually ends up where 
journalctl looks.

HTH

Best regards,
Matthias