Koozali.org: home of the SME Server

Another foreground fetchmail is running

Offline mcoops

  • 19
  • +0/-0
Another foreground fetchmail is running
« on: April 25, 2013, 10:36:50 AM »
Hi,

We have SME 7.5 server that has been running for a number of years without too many issues.

I now have an issue where we are not collecting mail consistantly.

We collect our email from 1 external mailbox and allow the server to distribute to our local users.

I keep getting and email error saying another "foreground fetchmail is running" and it gives an id.

I am able to see the external mailbox via webmail so there are no large emails in there.

Restarting the server allows some more emails to come in but the problem is still there.

I have checked all local mailboxes and all are within acceptable limits on size.

How do I diagnose and fix this?

TIA

Offline Stefano

  • *
  • 10,836
  • +2/-0
Re: Another foreground fetchmail is running
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2013, 08:15:02 PM »
first of all, you are using an old version of SME.. you should at least update it to 7.6 but, since SME7 will be in EOL from next may, 25th, you should really think about upgrading to SME8

that said, how often do you call fetchmail?

Offline CharlieBrady

  • *
  • 6,918
  • +3/-0
Re: Another foreground fetchmail is running
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2013, 11:48:07 PM »
How do I diagnose and fix this?

You need to study what fetchmail is doing, and determine why it is not doing it rapidly enough, if that turns out to be the case.

You can adjust the verbosity with which fetchmail logs what it is doing.

http://wiki.contribs.org/Fetchmail

Offline CharlieBrady

  • *
  • 6,918
  • +3/-0
Re: Another foreground fetchmail is running
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2013, 11:54:54 PM »
http://wiki.contribs.org/Fetchmail

Note that that wiki page is misleading. You do not need to install the smeserver-fetchmail contrib.

This forum post provides better advice on how to enable more verbose logging from fetchmail:

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,5147.msg18172.html#msg18172

Offline mcoops

  • 19
  • +0/-0
Re: Another foreground fetchmail is running
« Reply #4 on: April 28, 2013, 03:08:03 PM »
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the reply I learnt a little more and finally found the issue.

There was a large email that fetchmail was trying to download.  I deleted via webmail and it all went through OK.

Thanks for your help