I can't get fetchmail to work and don't have a fetchmailrc file!
 

I'm using a low RAM laptop so I want to use the mail program in BASH to check my emails as GNOME runs very slowly. I am using the Fedora core 5 distrobution.

I tried:

fetchmail pop.ntlworld.com

this seams to be along the right lines but it uses my local username prompting:

enter password for chris@pop.ntlworld.com

whereas I want my ntl username:

<ntlusername>@pop.ntlworld.com

I get the impression that I need to change something in ~/fetchmailrc but the file doesn't exist!

How can I sort this or if I'm barking up the wrong tree what should I be doing? Any help would be appreciated.

Instead of looking for ~/fetchmailrc, you should be looking for a hidden file: ~/.fetchmailrc. Note the dot in the name, .fetchmailrc.

In Konqueror, click on View - Show hiddef files. From a console, ls -a ~ will show hidden files.

There's a .fetchmail.pid but no .fetchmailrc
 

Thanks I should have thought of that but there is still no .fetchmailrc file. I used ls -a and found a file called .fetchmail.pid but that only contains the number 2810. I also tried

locate .fetchmailrc

as the su and still got no results!

Can I create the file myself?

You can create the file yourself, I did. Look at the man page for fetchmail and it should tell you about what kinds of things go in it.

Yeah, all sorted now
 

Thanks guys everything is working fine now and I get my mail lightning fast... I'm a happy bunny.

If anyone else hap the same problem here's what I did:

create the file ~/.fetchmailrc in your preffered editor with the line

poll pop.whatever.com protocol pop3 username "whatever"

save it then change the permission as follows

cd ~
chmod 600 .fetchmailrc

#that is read & write for user only

you can also add

password "whatever"

to the end of ~/.fetchmailrc but I prefer to be prompted for my password.

Yeah, all sorted now
 

sorry posted the same message by mistake

Yeah, all sorted now
 

again don't know why but the same message posted - ignore!