diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | NEWS | 6 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | fetchmail-FAQ.html | 36 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | fetchmail.man | 16 |
3 files changed, 51 insertions, 7 deletions
@@ -123,9 +123,13 @@ fetchmail 6.3.10 (not yet released): * A document, README.SSL-SERVER, was added to describe server-side requirements for proper SSL and/or TLS service offerings. These are not specific to fetchmail. +* Documentation on how to make "NOMAIL" (exit code 1) not treated an error has + been added to the EXIT CODES section of the manpage and to the FAQ as item C8. + The suggested solution uses a tiny POSIX shell script fragment. + Fixes Debian Bug #530749, filed by Reuben Thomas. # TRANSLATION UPDATES AND ADDITIONS (ordered by language name): -* [cs] Czech (Petr Pisar) +* [cs] Czech (Petr Pisar) * [en_GB] English/British * [de] German * [id] Indonesian (Andhika Padmawan) diff --git a/fetchmail-FAQ.html b/fetchmail-FAQ.html index a14b2d09..5abc4656 100644 --- a/fetchmail-FAQ.html +++ b/fetchmail-FAQ.html @@ -115,8 +115,9 @@ often than others?</a><br/> <a href="#C6">C6. Fetchmail works OK started up manually, but not from an init script.</a><br/> <a href="#C7">C7. How can I forward mail to another -host?.</a><br/> - +host?</a><br/> +<a href="#C8">C8. Why is "NOMAIL" an error?/I frequently get messages +from cron!</a><br/> <h2 id="C_T">How to make fetchmail play nice with various MTAs</h2> @@ -1290,6 +1291,37 @@ host?</a></h2> fetchmail on, use the <code>smtphost</code> or <code>smtpname</code> option. See the manual page for details.</p> +<h2><a id="C8" name="C8">C8. Why is "NOMAIL" an error?/I frequently get messages +from cron!</a></h2> + +<p>Some users want to write scripts that take action only if mail +could/could not be retrieved, thus fetchmail reports if it has retrieved +messages or not.</p> + +<p>If you do not want "no mail" to be an error condition (for instance, +for cron jobs), use a POSIX-compliant shell and add this to the end of +the fetchmail command line, it will change an exit code of 1 to 0 and +others to 1:</p> +<pre> +|| [ $? -eq 1 ] +</pre> + +<p>If you want to map more than one code to 0, you cannot cascade multiple +<strong>|| [ $? -eq N ]</strong>, but you must instead use the +<strong>-o</strong> operator inside the brackets, (see the test(1) +manpage for details), such as:</p> + +<pre> +|| [ $? -eq 1 -o $? -eq 9 ] +</pre> + +<p>A full cron line might then look like this:</p> + +<pre> +*/15 * * * * fetchmail -s || [ $? -eq 1 ] +</pre> + + <hr/> <h1>How to make fetchmail play nice with various MTAs</h1> <h2><a id="T1" name="T1">T1. How can I use fetchmail with diff --git a/fetchmail.man b/fetchmail.man index 0e40521d..b96d2fd6 100644 --- a/fetchmail.man +++ b/fetchmail.man @@ -2561,7 +2561,17 @@ One or more messages were successfully retrieved (or, if the \-c option was selected, were found waiting but not retrieved). .IP 1 There was no mail awaiting retrieval. (There may have been old mail still -on the server but not selected for retrieval.) +on the server but not selected for retrieval.) If you do not want "no +mail" to be an error condition (for instance, for cron jobs), use a +POSIX-compliant shell and add + +.nf +|| [ $? -eq 1 ] +.fi + +to the end of the fetchmail command line, note that this leaves 0 +untouched, maps 1 to 0, and maps all other codes to 1. See also item #C8 +in the FAQ. .IP 2 An error was encountered when attempting to open a socket to retrieve mail. If you don't know what a socket is, don't worry about it -- @@ -2582,9 +2592,7 @@ There was a syntax error in the arguments to The run control file had bad permissions. .IP 7 There was an error condition reported by the server. Can also -fire if -\fBfetchmail\fP -timed out while waiting for the server. +fire if \fBfetchmail\fP timed out while waiting for the server. .IP 8 Client-side exclusion error. This means \fBfetchmail\fP |