Runtime Control script for Red Hat / Fedora::

Intro

I am pleased to be able to offer a Red Hat / Fedora Linux based runtime-control script for running Fetchmail. The script is free to download and modify for your own system needs.

1: Do I have Fetchmail?

From a 'root' user prompt (or super-user) enter the command rpm -q fetchmail. If you do not have Fetchmail installed, you can install it via Yum: yum install fetchmail.

2: Download Runtime script

The script is available via the link below. After downloading the file, remember to gzip -d fetchmail.gz to decompress the file. A text version of the script is also available for reference, printing, etc.

3: Install Runtime script

Copy the expanded file into your /etc/init.d/ directory; check the permissions are 755 (chmod 755 fetchmail); and the user:group rights are both set to 'root' (chown root:root fetchmail); then run the following command:

/sbin/chkconfig --add fetchmail

The 'chkconfig' program creates the symlinks in the rc0.d, rc1.d,... rc6.d directories.

4: .fetchmailrc

As this script runs as 'root', you must create your .fetchmailrc file in /root/ and give it 600 permissions (else Fetchmail fails).

Please note: You do not need to set any time defaults in your .fetchmailrc. The RC script controls the timing interval.

An example .fetchmailrc:

# Fetchmail configuration file
#
# Last updated: 4th April 2005
#
defaults proto pop3

poll pop.somemailserver.com user "andy@dontlikeit.com" password "thatone"
is "andy" here

poll pop.anothermailserver.com user "vicky@pollard.mail" password "YeahButNo"
is "inprison" here

5. Testing

Run the command fetchmail -v -c to verify your settings in your .fetchmailrc file are correct.

6. Running

You may now enter the following commands (as SU) to control Fetchmail:

service fetchmail start
service fetchmail stop
service fetchmail status
service fetchmail restart
service fetchmail condrestart

External Links

Fetchmail