# fetchmail daemon won't start [Solved?]

## magbenji

I just updated my computer (emerge -uDNav) and now my fetchmail daemon won't start (fetchmail-6.3.9-r1 updated from 6.3.8-r2). 

If I try (from the init script)

```

start-stop-daemon --start  --chuid fetchmail --exec /usr/bin/fetchmail -- -f /etc/fetchmailrc --pidfile /var/run/fetchmail/fetchmail.pid -i /var/lib/fetchmail/.fetchids

```

I get

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> File /etc/fetchmailrc must be owned by you.
> 
> * start-stop-daemon: failed to start `/usr/bin/fetchmail'
> ...

 

which made me think this is a permissions problem of some sort (that wasn't there before?). The permissions on the file, which was working before, are:

```
# ls -la /etc/fetchmailrc

-rw------- 1 root root 120 Jan  8 00:06 /etc/fetchmailrc
```

If I get rid of the '--chuid fetchmail' from the execution statement, then the daemon will start. Do I need to make the owner of /etc/fetchmailrc 'fetchmail'? Also in the init script there is a polling_interval argument that doesn't seem to be defined anywhere (unless start-stop-daemon is passing it from somewhere besides the init script and fetchmailrc?) (Nevermind, I see this is defined in /etc/conf.d/fetchmail!)

Finally, it seems fetchmail has lost my uid's in the process. So now it wants to re-fetch 1000s of email sitting on the server  :Sad: . Is there someway to fix this???

---- Update

Okay - I changed the ownership of /etc/fetchmailrc and it works (I had to change the ownership of /var/lib/fetchmail/.fetchids as well).

```
#chown fetchmail:fetchmail /etc/fetchmailrc

#ls -la /etc/fetchmail

-rw------- 1 fetchmail fetchmail 120 Jan  8 00:06 /etc/fetchmailrc

#chown fetchmail:fetchmail /var/lib/fetchmail/.fetchids

#ls -la /var/lib/fetchmail/.fetchids

-rw------- 1 fetchmail fetchmail 6825 Feb 24 07:48 /var/lib/fetchmail/.fetchids

```

I don't know if this is the correct way to fix this issue, but it worked for me.

It still doesn't fix the loss of the .fetchids file - so I'm downloading all of my mail again  :Sad: 

----------

## mimosinnet

I have come across the same issue and your post has been very helpful. I just issued the following command:

```
chown fetchmail:fetchmail /etc/fetchmailrc
```

I have looked around a bit more and found this thread and this bug.

Thanks for posting your solution!

----------

