efa-project.org

Posted: **09 Dec 2020 08:30**

Hello,

i have problems with the automatic start of Fetchmail.
I only have a small mail environment here and I want to save the money for a bigger contract. I cannot change DNS entries in my domain contract.

I am actually 100% a Windows Admin and therefore I know very little about Linux. Please excuse that I don't know much about Linux.

The basic installation of Fetchmail works by manual retrieval and the further processing of the mails by EFA works.

fetchmail -v -a -k -f /etc/fetchmailrc -> works fine.

What unfortunately doesn't work is the setup as a service.

This manual here is based on Centos 6 and hopefully contains all points.
https://www.gtkdb.de/index_33_1367.html

The service is also started... but I don't receive any messages and a /var/log/fetchmail file is not created.

I hope someone has a tip for me!

In which file can I see where the problem is?

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Posted: **09 Dec 2020 13:08**

Dont know about the service or how to do that on Centos 7/8
You can run fetchmail as a cronjob for the fetchmail user. (as fetchmail should not run as root)

I dont like fetchmailrc in /etc. I would move it to the fetchmailrc home dir
So create or move the fetchmailrc in/to the home dir of the fetchmail user
You can then create the cronjob to exec every x min to exec fetchmail.
Or create a small script to manage this ( in this example every 5 min)

!!! to edit the fetchmailrc file: su fetchmail

Code: Select all

*/5 * * * * /home/fetchmail/fetch-mail.sh >> /var/log/fetchmail/fetchmail.log 2>&1

====Script==== /home/fetchmail/fetch-mail.sh

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

if [ -f /home/fetchmail/red.flg ]; then
  echo "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
  echo "!  RED Flag deteced; not proceding    !"
  echo "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
  exit 99
fi

touch /home/fetchmail/red.flg

fetchmail --nokeep --invisible -a

rm -f /home/fetchmail/red.flg

When you got this working feel free to PM me for some additional fetchmailrc settings to make fetchmail secure.( using ssl / sslcertck)
to explain --invisible (ensures the correct IP in Received from Header) viewtopic.php?t=2545

To search fetchmail on efa, google :

Code: Select all

site:forum.efa-project.org fetchmail

Posted: **09 Dec 2020 17:55**

Hello and thank you for your answer.

I have created the user Fetchmail:
useradd fetchmail

After that I loggend with su fetchmail to create the files.
I created the fetchmailrc and the fetch-mail.sh files with the pop3 data in /home/fetchmail

When I execute the */5 * * * *..... line as fetchmail it tells me that /var/log/fetchmail/fetchmail.log is not a file or directory.
I shortened the /var/log/ path to /var/log/fetchmail.log once, but then I get a permission denied

As mentioned... I am really not a Linux expert... ask me about Windows... here I can help.

Thanks for your support!

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Posted: **09 Dec 2020 19:37**

when loggedin, on the cmd line

Check cron service is running

Code: Select all

systemctl status crond

change to user fetchmail

Code: Select all

su fetchmail

as user fetchmail

Code: Select all

crontab -e

and paste the line mentioned before.

to save enter in this sequence: Esc :wq

https://ryanstutorials.net/linuxtutoria ... heetvi.php

Posted: **14 Dec 2020 18:06**

Hello Henk,

thank you very much for your answer.
I was able to solve the problem as follows.

I created a fetchmail user and configured fetchmail with it in daemon mode.
Is there anything against using fetchmail in the context of a user?
The instructions would like to work without a login.

This is actually quite simple if you know a little about Linux.

Here it worked and I am satisfied for now.

efa-project.org

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