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authorMatthias Andree <matthias.andree@gmx.de>2006-07-31 23:12:01 +0000
committerMatthias Andree <matthias.andree@gmx.de>2006-07-31 23:12:01 +0000
commit5b9086a2c5040711cb9a5feb7158146af42b70ab (patch)
tree84fcfb979c71278e47eb774115854cfd1028e57f /fetchmail.man
parent966e8b1a1f8d803131c9b5484e2dc19fa1da0f4a (diff)
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Revise the daemon/wake-up documentation so it contains the work fragment
'awaken' and make it clear that USR1 also works as root. Found while debugging Debian Bug#380459 reported by Riccard Stagni. svn path=/branches/BRANCH_6-3/; revision=4870
Diffstat (limited to 'fetchmail.man')
-rw-r--r--fetchmail.man66
1 files changed, 34 insertions, 32 deletions
diff --git a/fetchmail.man b/fetchmail.man
index 2300c128..648f7e1b 100644
--- a/fetchmail.man
+++ b/fetchmail.man
@@ -1070,47 +1070,47 @@ used with the keywords 'esmtpname' and 'esmtppassword'; the former
defaults to the username of the calling user.
.SH DAEMON MODE
-The
-.B \-\-daemon <interval>
-or
-.B \-d <interval>
-option runs
-.I fetchmail
-in daemon mode. You must specify a numeric argument which is a
-polling interval in seconds.
-.PP
+.SS Introducing the daemon mode
In daemon mode,
.I fetchmail
-puts itself in background and runs forever, querying each specified
-host and then sleeping for the given polling interval.
-.PP
-Simply invoking
+puts itself into the background and runs forever, querying each
+specified host and then sleeping for a given polling interval.
+.SS Starting the daemon mode
+There are several ways to make fetchmail work in daemon mode. On the
+command line, \fB\-\-daemon\ <interval>\fR or \fB\-d\ <interval>\fR
+option runs \fIfetchmail\fR in daemon mode. You must specify a numeric
+argument which is a polling interval in seconds.
+.PP
+Example: simply invoking
.IP
fetchmail \-d 900
.PP
will, therefore, poll all the hosts described in your
.I ~/.fetchmailrc
file (except those explicitly excluded with the 'skip' verb) once
-every fifteen minutes.
+every 15 minutes.
.PP
-It is possible to set a polling interval
-in your
-.I ~/.fetchmailrc
-file by saying 'set daemon <interval>', where <interval> is an
-integer number of seconds. If you do this, fetchmail will always
-start in daemon mode unless you override it with the command-line
-option \-\-daemon 0 or \-d0.
+It is also possible to set a polling interval
+in your \fI~/.fetchmailrc\fR file by saying 'set\ daemon\ <interval>',
+where <interval> is an integer number of seconds. If you do this,
+fetchmail will always start in daemon mode unless you override it with
+the command-line option \-\-daemon 0 or \-d0.
.PP
Only one daemon process is permitted per user; in daemon mode,
-.I fetchmail
-makes a per-user lockfile to guarantee this.
+\fIfetchmail\fR sets up a per-user lockfile to guarantee this.
+(You can however cheat and set the FETCHMAILHOME environment variable to
+overcome this setting, but in that case, it is your responsibility to
+make sure you aren't polling the same server with two processes at the
+same time.)
+.SS Awakening the background daemon
.PP
Normally, calling fetchmail with a daemon in the background sends a
-wake-up signal to the daemon, forcing it to poll mailservers
-immediately. (The wake-up signal is SIGHUP if fetchmail is running as
-root, SIGUSR1 otherwise.) The wake-up action also clears any 'wedged'
-flags indicating that connections have wedged due to failed
+wake-up signal to the daemon and quits without output. The background
+daemon then starts its next poll cycle immediately. The wake-up signal,
+SIGUSR1, can also be sent manually. The wake-up action also clears any
+'wedged' flags indicating that connections have wedged due to failed
authentication or multiple timeouts.
+.SS Terminating the background daemon
.PP
The option
.B \-\-quit
@@ -1120,6 +1120,7 @@ If the \-\-quit option appears last on the command line, \fIfetchmail\fP
will kill the running daemon process and then quit. Otherwise,
\fIfetchmail\fP will first kill a running daemon process and then
continue running with the other options.
+.SS Useful options for daemon mode
.PP
The
.B \-L <filename>
@@ -1185,8 +1186,8 @@ file while fetchmail is running in daemon mode, this will be detected
at the beginning of the next poll cycle. When a changed
.I ~/.fetchmailrc
is detected, fetchmail rereads it and restarts from scratch (using
-exec(2); no state information is retained in the new instance). Note also
-that if you break the
+exec(2); no state information is retained in the new instance).
+Note also that if you break the
.I ~/.fetchmailrc
file's syntax, the new instance will softly and silently vanish away
on startup.
@@ -2497,9 +2498,10 @@ If HOME_ETC and FETCHMAILHOME are set, HOME_ETC will be ignored.
.SH SIGNALS
If a
.I fetchmail
-daemon is running as root, SIGHUP wakes it up from its sleep phase and
-forces a poll of all non-skipped servers (this is in accordance with
-the usual conventions for system daemons).
+daemon is running as root, SIGUSR1 wakes it up from its sleep phase and
+forces a poll of all non-skipped servers. For compatibility reasons,
+SIGHUP can also be used in 6.3.X but may not be available in future
+fetchmail versions.
.PP
If
.I fetchmail