Before installing Fetchmail

[majdi]

Hi,

Before installing Fetchmail, I just want to make sure of a few things;

1. Would I have any problems when setting up Fetchmail for 100 users? I would install Fetchmail on our Local Scalix mail server?

2. I noticed oli_reed post asking about Fetchmail running as a daemon. Should Fetchmail be configured as a daemon? or a cron job?

3. I checked the Scalix HowTos/Fetchmail Wiki but could not find info on how to configure Fetchmail using a configuration file.

4. The Scalix users on my local mail server will use the following email address format (userID@example.com) each user will have the same address on our remote main mail server POP3 accounts. Will this be a problem when setting up Fetchmail to retrieve the emails for each user on the main mail server to our local Scalix server?

5. During Fetchmail configuration would you use the local server’s domain name or the default scalix email domain name setup in SAC?

6. With Fetchmail making 100 request every 5 minutes for each user on our main mail server, wouldn’t this affect it, make it crash?

7. In the Fetchmail docs I read;

Only one daemon process is permitted per user; in daemon mode, fetchmail sets up a per-user lockfile to guarantee this.

Dose this mean I can only configure the Fetchmail in deemon mode for only one user?

Please help me, I’m new to Fetchmail.

System info;

Running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (i586)
Running Linux linux-sbm7 2.6.16.21-0.8-smp #1 SMP Mon Jul 3 18:25:39 UTC 2006 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
Running Scalix-11.2.0-GA-core-sles10-intel.tgz

[majdi]

So, I successfully installed Fetchmail. The following are the contents of my .fetchmailrc

linux-sbm7:/ # cat root/.fetchmailrc
# Configuration created Wed Oct 31 14:31:46 2007 by fetchmailconf 1.52 $Revision: 4636 $
set postmaster "postmaster"
set bouncemail
set no spambounce
set properties ""
set daemon 300
poll host.afi.com.sa with proto POP3
user 'userID@domain.com' there with password 'XXXXX' is 'scalix_userID@scalix_default-domain.com' here options keep

1. I ran a test on Fetchmail to poll from a remote POP3 account and the following is the log for that test, I successfully received the emails for that user on the local scalix server, but I still see errors in the log file? Can anyone explain these errors?

fetchmail: WARNING: Running as root is discouraged.
fetchmail: 6.3.2 querying host.afi.com.sa (protocol POP3) at Wed Oct 31 18:32:42 2007: poll started
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Hello there.
fetchmail: POP3> CAPA
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Here's what I can do:
fetchmail: POP3< STLS
fetchmail: POP3< TOP
fetchmail: POP3< USER
fetchmail: POP3< LOGIN-DELAY 10
fetchmail: POP3< PIPELINING
fetchmail: POP3< UIDL
fetchmail: POP3< IMPLEMENTATION Courier Mail Server
fetchmail: POP3< .
fetchmail: POP3> STLS
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Begin SSL/TLS negotiation now.
fetchmail: Issuer Organization: Unknown
fetchmail: Issuer CommonName: host.afi.com.sa
fetchmail: Server CommonName: host.afi.com.sa
fetchmail: host.afi.com.sa key fingerprint: 72:BB:2A:1D:7D:83:D4:F5:4B:E0:30:A6:A1:A2:A6:6F
fetchmail: Server certificate verification error: self signed certificate
fetchmail: POP3> CAPA
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Here's what I can do:
fetchmail: POP3< TOP
fetchmail: POP3< USER
fetchmail: POP3< LOGIN-DELAY 10
fetchmail: POP3< PIPELINING
fetchmail: POP3< UIDL
fetchmail: POP3< IMPLEMENTATION Courier Mail Server
fetchmail: POP3< .
fetchmail: POP3> USER testemailsys@afi.com.sa
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Password required.
fetchmail: POP3> PASS *
fetchmail: POP3< +OK logged in.
fetchmail: POP3> STAT
fetchmail: POP3< +OK 10 2696915
fetchmail: POP3> LAST
fetchmail: POP3< -ERR Invalid command.
fetchmail: Invalid command.
fetchmail: POP3> UIDL
fetchmail: POP3< +OK
fetchmail: POP3< 1 UID29-1191757194
fetchmail: POP3< 2 UID30-1191757194
fetchmail: POP3< 3 UID31-1191757194
fetchmail: POP3< 4 UID32-1191757194
fetchmail: POP3< 5 UID33-1191757194
fetchmail: POP3< 6 UID34-1191757194
fetchmail: POP3< 7 UID35-1191757194
fetchmail: POP3< 8 UID36-1191757194
fetchmail: POP3< 9 UID37-1191757194
fetchmail: POP3< 10 UID38-1191757194
fetchmail: POP3< .
10 messages (9 seen) for testemailsys@afi.com.sa at host.afi.com.sa (2696915 octets).
skipping message testemailsys@afi.com.sa@host.afi.com.sa:1 not flushed
skipping message testemailsys@afi.com.sa@host.afi.com.sa:2 not flushed
skipping message testemailsys@afi.com.sa@host.afi.com.sa:3 not flushed
skipping message testemailsys@afi.com.sa@host.afi.com.sa:4 not flushed
skipping message testemailsys@afi.com.sa@host.afi.com.sa:5 not flushed
skipping message testemailsys@afi.com.sa@host.afi.com.sa:6 not flushed
skipping message testemailsys@afi.com.sa@host.afi.com.sa:7 not flushed
skipping message testemailsys@afi.com.sa@host.afi.com.sa:8 not flushed
skipping message testemailsys@afi.com.sa@host.afi.com.sa:9 not flushed
fetchmail: POP3> LIST 10
fetchmail: POP3< +OK 10 2453
fetchmail: POP3> RETR 10
fetchmail: POP3< +OK 2453 octets follow.
reading message testemailsys@afi.com.sa@host.afi.com.sa:10 of 10 (2453 octets)
fetchmail: SMTP< 220 linux-sbm7.afimail ESMTP Sendmail 8.13.6/8.13.6/SuSE Linux 0.8; Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:32:48 +0300
fetchmail: SMTP> EHLO linux-sbm7.afimail
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-linux-sbm7.afimail Hello localhost [127.0.0.1], pleased to meet you
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-PIPELINING
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-8BITMIME
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-SIZE
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-DSN
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-ETRN
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-AUTH DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5
fetchmail: SMTP< 250-DELIVERBY
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 HELP
fetchmail: SMTP> MAIL FROM:<majdi2@gmail.com> SIZE=2453
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 2.1.0 <majdi2@gmail.com>... Sender ok
fetchmail: SMTP> RCPT TO:<testemailsys@afi.com.sa>
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 2.1.5 <testemailsys@afi.com.sa>... Recipient ok
fetchmail: SMTP> DATA
fetchmail: SMTP< 354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
#****************fetchmail: SMTP>. (EOM)
fetchmail: SMTP< 250 2.0.0 l9VFWmvl013180 Message accepted for delivery
not flushed
fetchmail: POP3> QUIT
fetchmail: POP3< +OK Bye-bye.
fetchmail: SMTP> QUIT
fetchmail: SMTP< 221 2.0.0 linux-sbm7.afimail closing connection
fetchmail: 6.3.2 querying host.afi.com.sa (protocol POP3) at Wed Oct 31 18:32:50 2007: poll completed
fetchmail: normal termination, status 0
Done.

There are a few other issues;

2. I can’t seem to use the CLI while fetchmail is running, I would have to stop fetchmail to use it. Is this normal?

3. How do I make sure fetchmail is continuasly running as a daemon?

4. Is there a way I can make fetchmail start by default if the server is restarted?

5. Why do I get the Fetchmail Warning: Running as root is discouraged? Is this something I would have to worry about?

[neelendhar]

Hi Majdi,

>1. I ran a test on Fetchmail to poll from a remote POP3 account and the following is the >log for that test, I successfully received the emails for that user on the local scalix >server, but I still see errors in the log file? Can anyone explain these errors?
>

By error, if you mean this:
>fetchmail: POP3> LAST
>fetchmail: POP3< -ERR Invalid command.
then, LAST command is no more a standard POP3 command AFAIK.

If there are some other errors in the log file, pls provide us.

>2. I can’t seem to use the CLI while fetchmail is running, I would have to stop fetchmail >to use it. Is this normal?

When you run it at the command line in non-daemon mode, it must be trying to fetch mails for 300 users! If fetchmail is run in the foreground, this is normal behaviour. The set daemon is already set in your .fetchmailrc. At command line, just run: fetchmail (as that user).

>3. How do I make sure fetchmail is continuasly running as a daemon?
>
As mentioned in 2 above. Or from the command line, you can run something like: fetchmail -d 600 (where 600 is no. of seconds between polling).

>4. Is there a way I can make fetchmail start by default if the server is restarted?
>
In Suse, we can start it through /etc/init.d/boot.local script, which is run at every system boot. You can specify fetchmail -d 600 in there.

>5. Why do I get the Fetchmail Warning: Running as root is discouraged? Is this >something I would have to worry about?
>
As we mentioned before, please do not run fetchmail as root user. Not recommended.
That is what it is saying.

The real issue in your case would be to fine-tune fetchmail in such a way that it doesn't overload the server, while downloading the mails for all the local users at less time intervals (such as every 10 mins or so).

HTH,
Neelu