Arch Linux

Alexo

Member

From: near a cup of coffee

Registered: 2005-06-27

Posts: 90

Getmail problem

I'm trying to set Mutt up and running, but when I run getmail I get:

/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/getmailcore/message.py:83: DeprecationWarning: 'strict' argument is deprecated (and ignored)
  parser = email.Parser.HeaderParser(strict=False)
Delivery error (maildir delivery 908 error (127, maildir delivery process failed (refuse to deliver mail as root)))

I don't know how to tackle this.
Some help would be appreciated...

scottro

Member

From: NYC

Registered: 2002-10-11

Posts: 466

Website

Re: Getmail problem

Hrm.

What are you using to deliver mail, that is, maildrop, procmail, etc.

I wonder if my mutt page might be helpful

http://home.nyc.rr.com/computertaijutsu/mutt.html

However--the error message is right there. 

Delivery error (maildir delivery 908 error (127, maildir delivery process failed (refuse to deliver mail as root)))

You're doing it as root.  You shouldn't. 

The python warning--that's covered on getmail's home page and I ~thought~ the later versions of getmail and python got rid of that, but possibly it was a patch in FreeBSD's ports. 

Anyway, your problem is simply that you're running getmail as root.  Run it as a normal user and you should be able to use it.

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Getmail problem

Yep - as a rule, never run anything as root if you don't have to.

Alexo

Member

From: near a cup of coffee

Registered: 2005-06-27

Posts: 90

Re: Getmail problem

Ok, I'm running getmail as user and I get this:

Exception getmailcore.exceptions.getmailDeliveryError: <getmailcore.exceptions.getmailDeliveryError instance at 0x4085772c> in <bound method SimplePOP3Retriever.__del__ of <getmailcore.retrievers.SimplePOP3Retriever object at 0x4084174c>> ignored

vacant

Member

From: downstairs

Registered: 2004-11-05

Posts: 816

Re: Getmail problem

Getmail is doing the "right thing", but there is a "gotcha".

Getmail happily writes directly to maildir mailboxes (no maildrop, procmail needed), so if as an ordinary user, you have write access to a maildir you can deliver mail. This means, if you run getmail and want to deliver email to another user on your pc, under your /home, their mailbox is not secure against you. This isn't much of a security issue really as you're fetching their email anyway and their email client will store emails somewhere else.

On the other hand, if you run getmail as root, it won't let you forward email off site.

My wife and I have email on my PC, kids at uni get theirs forwarded by getmail using "smtpsend". I run getmail as an "at" job under my user. I have to get (e.g.) all wanadoo email, because although the kids could get just theirs by  POP3 username, I have to get "*" so might pick up some of theirs, I can't get "the rest" and I use a lot of aliases. Therefore, I get everything and getmail delivers to all.

Stick with getmail - the regex filtering is brilliant.

EDIT:

For a time I did hack the source, but you have to remember to watch for upgrades. I think it should be:

/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/getmailcore/destinations.py and comment out lines 136 to 139

Alexo

Member

From: near a cup of coffee

Registered: 2005-06-27

Posts: 90

Re: Getmail problem

Thanks vacant!
getmail now works for root, but I still get an error as user, as mentioned in my previous post.