Description of problem: I run fetchmail periodically from /etc/crontab: 02 7,13,19 * * * root /usr/bin/fetchmail -f /etc/fetchmailrc to collect mail from a number of disparate Internet maildrops for a number of users for local redistribution, virus and spam scanning. It has worked flawlessly and _quietly_ since about RH7.2. Every run now emits a nicely formatted message to root informing me "fetchmail: WARNING: Running as root is discouraged.". The documentation describes how to run fetchmail as root to do exactly what I need but offers no alternative configuration to avoid the "discouraged" use or disable the message. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): fetchmail-6.3.2.1-1.2.i386 How reproducible: Every time. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Set up a 'fetchmailrc', owned by root, mode 600, named /etc/fetchmailrc. 2. Run 'fetchmail -f /etc/fetchmailrc' as root. 3. Check the maildrop for root. Actual results: A nice warning message from fetchmail in both text and HTML. Expected results: NO MESSAGE! It did what I asked so there's no need to tell me. Maybe a warning note in the changelog? Additional info: line #168 of fetchmail.c from fetchmail-6.3.2.1-1.2.src.rpm Warning message is generated before syslog is set up and without checking any arguments or configuration file settings. i.e. there's no way to turn it off.
The alternative is to run fetchmail using an unprivileged user account, preferably an account designated purely for fetchmail. fetchmail in most configurations doesn't need to be run as root; therefore using an unprivileged account limits the possible damage, should a bug in fetchmail be exploited. In this case the message seems to have the intended effect of encouraging you to change the system setup :) Another reason to switch is http://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/fetchmail-devel/2005-July/000384.html
OK, fair enough. Not as much work as I suspected. Now tested and working under a non-root user id.