inetd[1714] tcp/pop3: bind: Permission denied

I

illscience

This log message keeps showing up on my shell. I'm running Qpopper and everything is working correctly but I don't understand why this message keeps showing up. Any ideas?
 
Are you running qpopper as a daemon (standalone, listening on the pop3 port all the time) or is it started by inetd (launching qpopper for the duration of a session)? If the former, comment out the pop3 line in inetd.conf and restart inetd (or if it was the only service in use, disable inetd altogether).
 
Thank you for the reply. Qpopper is running under inetd. Like I said, it is working correctly but the log keeps showing that message.
 
The message means that another instance of qpopper wants to start. If you're running it from inetd that probably means that you forgot to add a flag in inetd.conf that tells qpopper it's starting from inetd (i.o.w.: it shouldn't try to become a daemon). I don't have qpopper installed, so read the man file for remarks to that effect. Also check /etc/rc.conf whether you're also trying to start it from there (as a daemon); something like qpopper_enable="YES", I presume. If that line is present, comment it out or delete it.

BTW, if you're running a busy pop3 site I suggest you use a daemon instead of forking every session from inetd. That's a lot of overhead.
 
I figured it out. inetd was running under my user name and not root. I don't know how that happened. Can't inetd only run under root?
 
Oh, that's a new one indeed. You'd think that inetd could only run under root since it wants to open ports < 1024. Then again: it doesn't succeed in doing that, hence the error message. So it can start under a regular user, but it doesn't work as advertised then. You should see some protest from inetd in dmesg -a though, unless you started it when the machine was already running (still, I'd expect some feedback even then).
 
Only root can open ports < 1024. Any user can open a port > 1024.

I'd run qpopper as a daemon, inetd is a relic from the past, I never liked it and I never will.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top