I want to have fetchmail start when a certain user logs in (to X-Windows) and I want it to stop when that user logs out. Do such user configuration files exist? I have searched the web and the Red Hat 9 documentation but haven't been about to locate an answer to this seemingly simple question.

Thank you!

hi andrew,

i've got a few things starting and stopping when I log in with a certain account.

To start stuff when you log in edit the /home/user/.bash_profile

To stop stuff when you log out edit the /home/user/.bash_logout

Is that what you needed?

Good luck : )
Craig

Craig,

thanks for the info. I edited those two files and it seems to be working. I thought that the bash files were only executed if I opened up a Terminal window or logged in using text mode. I learned something new.

Andy

Cool glad it worked for you.

Have a good xmas.

>Craig

If you enter the command info bash and do a search for .bash_profile you can get more information.


To save you time here is a snippet from the info display.

Invoked as an interactive login shell, or with `--login'
........................................................

When Bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a
non-interactive shell with the `--login' option, it first reads and
executes commands from the file `/etc/profile', if that file exists.
After reading that file, it looks for `~/.bash_profile',
`~/.bash_login', and `~/.profile', in that order, and reads and
executes commands from the first one that exists and is readable. The
`--noprofile' option may be used when the shell is started to inhibit
this behavior.

When a login shell exits, Bash reads and executes commands from the
file `~/.bash_logout', if it exists.


I think that the ~/.bash_login script is intended for logging in to via a tty connection, whereas ~/.bash_profile is what is normally used.

.bash_profile is where you add to the default $PATH
whereas .bashrc, is where you would enter user aliases.

Note that we made the assumption that you are using an X windows session manager to log-in. These bash startup files execute when bash is started a log-in shell. If you start your session by typing startx. You might want to include a script in the ~/.kde/Autostart/ folder instead.

You will want to look around for a .bash_logout equivalent for a KDE session.

Yes, I am using an X windows session manager (KDE's) to log-in.

I put "fetchmail" in my ~/.bash_profile and logged out. When I logged back in, fetchmail was running.

Thank you both for the info.