From 07513709eed70fe7fcf7361eaf17640ed74683bf Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Eric S. Raymond" Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 19:03:31 +0000 Subject: Avoid the socket-exhaustion bug. svn path=/trunk/; revision=354 --- fetchmail.man | 10 ++++++++++ 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+) (limited to 'fetchmail.man') diff --git a/fetchmail.man b/fetchmail.man index 03a72a69..b2165186 100644 --- a/fetchmail.man +++ b/fetchmail.man @@ -642,6 +642,16 @@ to the mailserver. This creates a risk that name/password pairs might be snaffled with a packet sniffer or more sophisticated monitoring software. .PP +Under Linux, if fetchmail is run in daemon mode with the network +inaccessible, each poll leaves a socket allocated but in CLOSE state +(this is visible in netstat(1)'s output). For some reason, these +sockets aren't garbage-collected until \fIfetchmail\fR exits. When +whatever kernel table is involved fills up, fetchmail can no longer +run even if the network is up. This appears \fInot\fR to be a socket +leak in \fIfetchmail\fR, but rather some glitch or misfeature in the system +network code. To avoid this problem, fetchmail commits seppuku after +too many unsuccessful socket opens. +.PP Send comments, bug reports, gripes, and the like to Eric S. Raymond . .SH SEE ALSO -- cgit v1.2.3