I've written a unit so I can run fetchmail under systemd as a user service. I'd suggest that the file /usr/lib/systemd/user/fetchmail.service (see below) be included in the package.
It would also make sense to describe how to actually enable it, by putting something like the following into /usr/share/doc/fetchmail/README.systemd: ---------------------------- To run fetchmail as a systemd user service, for an individual user: (1) Configuration Set up your .fetchmailrc so that "fetchmail --nodetach" actually fetches your mail correctly. (2) Tell systemd to run it as a service Allow daemons to keep running after you log out (optional): $ sudo loginctl enable-linger $USERNAME Make the service available: $ systemctl --user enable fetchmail.service Actually turn it on: $ systemctl --user start fetchmail.service Monitor it, to check if it's okay: $ systemctl --user status fetchmail.service Monitor it harder: $ journalctl --user -xeu fetchmail.service --------------------- Caveat: In the below fetchmail.service file, I'm not sure if the "ExecStop=" command is a good idea. If you just leave that line out, systemd will kill the process using its own mechanisms, which are effective but perhaps a bit brutal. Might be more robust to just leave it out. It's currently set to wake up every 5min. Not sure how to make this default nicely but still be easy to change. Perhaps some systemd wizard can help? ------------------------ $ cat /usr/lib/systemd/user/fetchmail.service [Unit] Description=Fetchmail Daemon Documentation=man:fetchmail(1) [Service] ExecStart=fetchmail --nodetach --daemon 300 ExecStop=fetchmail --quit Restart=always [Install] WantedBy=default.target
