Wiki advice on running getmail on INBOX access - how does that work?
Hi,
I'm currently running getmail in a cron job every 2 minutes, so I was quite intrigued by this on the wiki:
http://wiki2.dovecot.org/HowTo/TriggerGetmailOnIMAPAccess
Thing is - I couldn't see how it would work and, when I tried it, it didn't work (at least not for me).
It details using incrontab to monitor /home/username/.maildir/cur in order to trigger getmail.
However, "cur" won't change unless populated with mail...as an initial result of actually running getmail? Seems like a chicken and egg situation.
I reckon I'm missing something fundamental :-), but what is it?
Ta.
On 10/18/2014 01:24 PM, c128 mail wrote:
Hi,
I'm currently running getmail in a cron job every 2 minutes, so I was quite intrigued by this on the wiki:
http://wiki2.dovecot.org/HowTo/TriggerGetmailOnIMAPAccess
Thing is - I couldn't see how it would work and, when I tried it, it didn't work (at least not for me). What exactly did happen?
It details using incrontab to monitor /home/username/.maildir/cur in order to trigger getmail.
However, "cur" won't change unless populated with mail...as an initial result of actually running getmail? Seems like a chicken and egg situation.
access != change
I reckon I'm missing something fundamental :-), but what is it?
Ta.
What exactly did happen?
Oh, yeah, didn't make that clear ;-)
Nothing happened...not without coaxing.
If I forced a change to the directory, then it worked - but there wouldn't be a change to the directory in normal operation, other than by mail population?
On 18/10/14 19:28, Gedalya wrote:
On 10/18/2014 01:24 PM, c128 mail wrote:
Hi,
I'm currently running getmail in a cron job every 2 minutes, so I was quite intrigued by this on the wiki:
http://wiki2.dovecot.org/HowTo/TriggerGetmailOnIMAPAccess
Thing is - I couldn't see how it would work and, when I tried it, it didn't work (at least not for me). What exactly did happen?
It details using incrontab to monitor /home/username/.maildir/cur in order to trigger getmail.
However, "cur" won't change unless populated with mail...as an initial result of actually running getmail? Seems like a chicken and egg situation.
access != change
I reckon I'm missing something fundamental :-), but what is it?
Ta.
On 10/18/2014 02:38 PM, c128 mail wrote:
What exactly did happen?
Oh, yeah, didn't make that clear ;-)
Nothing happened...not without coaxing.
If I forced a change to the directory, then it worked - but there wouldn't be a change to the directory in normal operation, other than by mail population? It's not supposed to require changes. Note the IN_ALL_EVENTS definition. This would include any attempt to open the directory and take a peek. If you configured it according to the wiki and it's not working then we have troubleshooting to do, but that's the theory. I'm not familiar with incron but I've worked with Linux's inotify.
On 18/10/14 19:28, Gedalya wrote:
On 10/18/2014 01:24 PM, c128 mail wrote:
Hi,
I'm currently running getmail in a cron job every 2 minutes, so I was quite intrigued by this on the wiki:
http://wiki2.dovecot.org/HowTo/TriggerGetmailOnIMAPAccess
Thing is - I couldn't see how it would work and, when I tried it, it didn't work (at least not for me). What exactly did happen?
It details using incrontab to monitor /home/username/.maildir/cur in order to trigger getmail.
However, "cur" won't change unless populated with mail...as an initial result of actually running getmail? Seems like a chicken and egg situation.
access != change
I reckon I'm missing something fundamental :-), but what is it?
Ta.
Yeah, I see what you mean - it should trigger by IN_ACCESS (from IN_ALL_EVENTS) shouldn't it. I hadn't previously scanned over the full set of events: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/intrepid/man5/incrontab.5.html
I'll set this up again and report back one way or another.
Thanks.
On 18/10/14 19:50, Gedalya wrote:
On 10/18/2014 02:38 PM, c128 mail wrote:
What exactly did happen?
Oh, yeah, didn't make that clear ;-)
Nothing happened...not without coaxing.
If I forced a change to the directory, then it worked - but there wouldn't be a change to the directory in normal operation, other than by mail population? It's not supposed to require changes. Note the IN_ALL_EVENTS definition. This would include any attempt to open the directory and take a peek. If you configured it according to the wiki and it's not working then we have troubleshooting to do, but that's the theory. I'm not familiar with incron but I've worked with Linux's inotify.
On 18/10/14 19:28, Gedalya wrote:
On 10/18/2014 01:24 PM, c128 mail wrote:
Hi,
I'm currently running getmail in a cron job every 2 minutes, so I was quite intrigued by this on the wiki:
http://wiki2.dovecot.org/HowTo/TriggerGetmailOnIMAPAccess
Thing is - I couldn't see how it would work and, when I tried it, it didn't work (at least not for me). What exactly did happen?
It details using incrontab to monitor /home/username/.maildir/cur in order to trigger getmail.
However, "cur" won't change unless populated with mail...as an initial result of actually running getmail? Seems like a chicken and egg situation.
access != change
I reckon I'm missing something fundamental :-), but what is it?
Ta.
participants (2)
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c128 mail
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Gedalya