Everything is working OK, except the retrieval of email requests via pop3. 

To clarify, my problem is with the *automatic* retrieval of emails.   This isn't happening either at logon, nor via the cron job.   Which is why I think it's not finding the automail. php script. . .

James.

Hi.   Anybody out there got any clues to help?  So far the system looks really great, but I do need the email to ticket process to be up and running.

By the looks of the forums, noone else had had this problem, so any pointers gratefully received!

TiA

James.

Have you checked to make sure that your automail. php script is executable?

chmod +x automail. php

I hadn't. . .  and it wasn't (although I'm not sure I see why it needs to be, as it's /usr/bin/php which is executing).   In any case, it hasn't made any difference.

Also, execute the automail. php script from the command line, do you get any errors?

php automail. php

No errors, in fact no feedback at all.

So the only way I get this function to work at all is by running it from the URL!

Using your cron job, just have a cron job setup to visit the URL and send all of the output to /dev/null.   That's how my install does it.

Code: [Select]

# eTicket WGET entry to get emails.
*/1 * * * * wget -q -O /dev/null http://your.domain.com/automail.php


OK, maybe I've got something not right with my cron setup.   The syslog shows the attempts to run automail using */5 * * * * root /usr/bin/php /home/usr/public_html/helpdesk/automail.php, but none with your wget version.   Is there a way to check the success or failure of a cron job?

The syslog shows that my cron job is running as user "root".    Is this why it doesn't work?  Does it have to run as the apache user?

I'll answer my own question. . .   even as the apache www-data user, neither of the cron jobs creates the tickets.   Something must be wrong!!  How can the automail. php do everything OK from the URL but nothing works right any other way?!!

OK folks.   Here's my conclusion to this query. . .

I've got it working with a crontab job which fires up the automail. php via the helpdesk URL, i. e.

Code: [Select]

http://www.yourdomain.com/helpdesk/automail.php
but using the apache "www-data" user.

No change to permissions on automail. php is required - i. e.  read only is fine.

My understanding is that the pop3 download should occur automatically on logon to the helpdesk by an admin user.   Unfortunately, this behaviour doesn't appear to work (for me at least).

However, I'm delighted to have got this far and looking forward to implementing - and perhaps developing - this system further.

Thanks to tghe guys who've got it to this stage.

James.

As stated in my message prior, you need to visit that page, not run the PHP script of the file.  Therefore, when using or setting up the cron job, you have to visit the URL of the file.  Executing the code of the file doesn't work.

You need to use wget or curl as those two utilities load the page like a browser and by setting it in a cron job it will 'load the page' every time the cron is executed.

Using wget or curl will not report in the system log because they are not system commands.  In effect, by using wget or curl it's launching an application to load a URL.  The same applies to 'lynx'.  It's a text-based web browser and though it's text based, you don't see it showing in the system log, do you?

Now, let's say you do want it to show in the system log, for logging purposes of course.  Then you would change the command that I gave you, which turns off all output (the -q) and suppresses all output by sending it all to /dev/null (the -O -- oh, and /dev/null is like sending the output to the trash and emptying the trash all at once), to:

*/1 * * * * wget -O /var/log/eticket-automail.log http://your.domain.com/automail.php

That will run the cron job every minute and send any output to /var/log/eticket-automail.php.

Hopefully this clarifies some things and enables others to understand the wget command that I'm using.