diff -Nuprd fetchmail-6.2.4/fetchmail.c fetchmail-6.2.4-fix_config_reload/fetchmail.c
--- fetchmail-6.2.4/fetchmail.c	2003-10-28 23:38:06.000000000 -0500
+++ fetchmail-6.2.4-fix_config_reload/fetchmail.c	2003-10-28 23:43:41.000000000 -0500
@@ -255,8 +255,13 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     bkgd = (pid < 0);
     pid = bkgd ? -pid : pid;
 
-    /* avoid parsing the config file if all we're doing is killing a daemon */ 
-    if (!quitmode && !pid)
+    /*
+     * Avoid parsing the config file if all we're doing is killing a daemon,
+     * unless this appears to be a self-restarted instance because we detected an 
+     * "under-our-noses" configuration file change, in which case we definitely want
+     * to reload the config file.
+     */
+    if ( ( !quitmode && !pid ) || pid == getpid() )
 	implicitmode = load_params(argc, argv, optind);
     else if (pid)
       implicitmode = 1;