Michel Eyckmans (MCE) <mce(_at_)pi(_dot_)be>:
Our sysadmins don't want people to poll the IMAP server more than once per
ten minutes, and have been known to complain if one does this anyway on
a regular basis. I, on the other hand, want better connectivity than that.
So I set up a system where I have two .fetchmailrc files: one that makes
the daemon polls every 5 minutes, and one that uses a 50 minute interval.
In addition, I have an automated script that detects/guesses whether or
not I'm around, such that the 5 minute one is only used when it could
actually be useful. Whenever this thing changes state, it makes my "main"
.fetchmailrc link point to the correct file, and then tells the daemon
to reread that.
A similar setup would be possible for the case in which an occasional poll
to a different machine is needed every now and then. Just wrap it all in a
single script, and let the same daemon handle both servers.
Doesn't handle Johan's case, I don't think -- if I understood him correctly,
he doesn't run the foreground fetchmails on a schedule.
I actually have a similar problem to his; there are times I want to run
fetchmail in foreground to do a regression test against my test sites,
while my regular mail fetch continues to run in background.
--
<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>
There's a truism that the road to Hell is often paved with good intentions.
The corollary is that evil is best known not by its motives but by its
*methods*.